OK Marti, you asked for it...
I like Buddha and all but I prefer the teachings of Jesus who tried to point out that unconditional love is awesome. He did this by demonstrating that man is flawed and needs practice and offering the contrast of a higher power that has achieved it and is inviting us to work at it. Religion has hijacked spirituality and so Christianity is not always considered a model of unconditional love as it is supposed to be.
As a Father who wants a continuing relationship with his children and has to overlook the occasional faux pas as I step back and let them make their own choices, this resonates for me.
In another conversation you characterized loveMAKING as "banging each others brains out" to argue that it is not an art. I'll introduce it again here as another level of 2 becoming 1 when done properly. I've banged and I've loved and I prefer the latter.
I'll say it's the joy of being one with another.
I had to laugh when I saw that question because someone I work with is very upset because his mother told him he doesn't know what love is.
I have no idea what it means. I don't know if you can define it without using all the gooey words and phrases that make some gag.
I'll be anxious to see what others say because I think everyone experiences it differently. What's good for one doesn't work for another. Get back to you if a definition comes to me because WEBSTER couldn't even define it.
Good Day
posted by kleff
11 months ago
Oh Marti, you do ask the though questions don't you! In the 70s I ran accross a book called The lazy Mans Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas.
Being lazy myself I quickly purchased it. The 78 pages explained quite a bit to me about activities connections and enlightenment in general. It's a bit "Zenish" as well. Love as a concept is central to the theme of the book. I hope it's not the sappy, oozie, fake fur attempts you speak of having explored. Been there myself.
My apologies if you have already read it. In case you have not here is a snippit or two or three.,
"Love is the action of being in the same space with other beings, which means that love is real.............
"Perhaps many of us do not like it where we are in the universe now, but we can all be certain that we got where we are by our own decisions to expand in love or withdraw from it".
"The laws of our relations are as honest and exact as the laws of Physics"....."I can't say I know at this moment what all these laws are. But on some level everybody knows we are all getting exactly what we deserve".............
The Buddhist concept of obliteration of self , when achieved,creates a sense of universal " love" . One is no longer focused exclusively on one's insignificant self , but instead feels a part of , and a positive acceptance of , the entire universe .While "LOVE", in the Western sense , seems initially similar , with the " I " becoming an us , it is actually born of a Narcissistic need and is in reality a re-iteration and intensification of the " I, ME" concept . Most of why we feel so badly when our loves fail is that a big chunk of that enhanced " I " has been destroyed . <<<<<<<< IMHO
posted by Dirck
11 months ago
Yeah, yeah, yeah, CLS, our lives are the result of the sum total of our choices. OK. None of that explains what love is.
and to expand in love or withdraw from it" Doesn't this just beg the question? I am asking 'what is love', and you offer the answer: 'expand in love'. That's no answer.
MisterScience, so for you, love is sex and forgiving your children all their horsemanure? That's the meaning/definition of love?
Love is the overwhelming urge to give.
Yes crest!
NO Marti! sex is better & horse manure stinks less but that doesn't touch on my conclusion, those were merely examples of my paths to it.
"the joy of being one with another" is reflected in Rodney's words .." feels a part of and a positive acceptance of the entire universe". So while pizza tastes better when it's associated with love -love isn't pizza.
Rodney's assertion that the western sense of love is narcissistic invalidates the selfless joy and admiration that I believe are components of love. If it hurt when you broke up then you two weren't "one" to begin with and that didn't meet my original definition. When the idealism of love takes the place of love and doesn't last we think love has failed. It wasn't love,
I agree with Rodney that there is a selfless aspect to love but to give up all and love all is overkill that misses the mark. I hope that my Buddhist friends never achieve such a lofty goal, I love them in their pursuit of it just fine.
And as for being labeled a narcissist... I resemble that remark" - Curly
Ok, this is not my beat but maybe that's the point, the word and idea is something that represents a struggle, not an unpleasant one most of the time, but at times unbearable.
So, how to pull it together, hmmm, maybe love is knowledge, and maybe its even bigger than that, it's the mystery of knowledge and all that it means, and always somewhat always out of reach, but something given the chance, you will grab for.
posted by exedir
11 months ago
Love makes things much better.............
that added to attraction........is the best it can ever be!
....wherever you've looked for it...and haven't found it....well...don't look there....
