Why do we love? What is the purpose of it?

[Logic]

why do you feed yourself in the mourning, your just going to become hungry, for that matter, why flush the toilet, its just going to get filled up sooner or later.

[Huwie]

Robert Monroe had some very interesting things to say about love in his books.  I highly recommend them.

[zaicer]

We love becouse it feels good.
Love feels good and it gives you the power to do things that you would be unable to do. A mother that loves her child will gain extra strenght if her offspring is thretend.

Remember that we love not only eachother but also ourselvs. I love myself and I will do everything in my power to help myself get a better life. That means that I will not eat chips or other bad food that may couse my body to become ill. Love is not what many ppl think, its not pating urself on the head and saying "I am so great". No it it pating yourself on the head and saying "I am preaty good, but I could be better if I did this, that, and some of this" That means that you have to be hard on yourself when the time is right and love yourself all the time.

Love gives you the power to acomplish your goals, that is why we love, becouse it gives us strenght. Sometimes you get a broken heart but let me tell you something. Girlfriends come and go, and so do boyfriends. It may not lessen the pain now but it will next time if you remember.

So love yourself and eachother.
Marry christmas and a heppy 2004

[Nay]

Hmmmmmmm..I have felt "love" in many different ways, from the hummingbird I saw flittering in front of me as a little girl, to the love I have for my family now.  

I think it comes in all forms, and doesn't necessarly end in heartbreak everytime.  Yeah, that does stink when you open yourself up completely and give your love only to be left hurting, but I bet if you think about it, there is a lesson to be learned there. [^]

Sometimes eating a yummy chip is love!..HEHHEHE...sorry Zaicer, I had to say that []

Love is different levels of compassion, so I would have to say that I have felt love towards a stranger on the street.  I haven't really answered your question have I?..  I guess I have no idea why I love, it is just there.  It does feel good to have it in your heart I know that. Plus if we didn't have love..WOW!  that would really suck, we would all go around not feeling anything but hate and anger for one another...I have met people like that, it is very sad..they keep this dark cloud over their head and never allow themselves to smile or feel love, perhaps because once they did love and it turned to heartbreak, don't let that happen to you Hiebreed!  Strive foward and don't focus so much on the why, but the how can I love even more!

My two cents,

Nay []

[The AlphaOmega]

Because it is better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all.  If you are in love then most days are very happy.  And it must be a good thing if you are sad when it is gone.  Love makes people happy.  It makes people compassionate.  It makes people see the world in a better light.  There is nothing bad about love.  The bad comes from when there is no love.  Anything that makes people happier towards the world should never have to be questioned of it's purpose, only strived to attain.

[lateralus897]

love=purpose. it's everything else that get's confusing..

[JoWo]

Love is the force of attraction and harmony.  There are different levels of love as there are different levels of consciousness in cosmic reality, from the attraction and harmony of subatomic particles all the way up to the unconditional LOVE that creates the universe and holds it together.  The human experience of love tends to cover only a relatively narrow range, from the purely physical attraction to the more spiritual version of a mother's love or the ecstatic embrace of a couple in love.  Yet, some individuals experience even the highest form of love, the unconditional Love that drives universe.

How is this possible?  It is possible because this highest LOVE dwells deeply within everything there is, including yourself.  In fact, LOVE is the very base on which everything exists, even though our experience may be very unpleasant and just the opposite of what we expect from the force of attraction and harmony.  These "bad" experiences serve a good purpose.  They cause us to find answers to questions such as Hiebreed asked, "why do we love?  What is the purpose of it?"  This starts the quest for understanding life, for opening up to the Grand Design of the universe.  Without our "bad" experiences, we would be satisfied with our status quo and would not grow.  We would never experience our full inner potential that is ultimately identical with the all-embracing divine unconditional LOVE.  

Unconditional love does not create heartache.  So ask yourself, what conditions have I tied to my love?  Do I expect my loved one to act differently?  (This is a condition).  Or do I not want him/her to leave me? (This is also a condition, a restriction of the other's freedom.)  It is the conflict between what we expect from the other and what the other is willing to give that creates the heartache.  Unconditional love does not expect anything in return.

But is it fair to give all your love without getting something in return?  This is the beauty about unconditional love, it carries its own reward.  As you give your love freely, it fills you up with more love and creates your experiences of love.  As you identify with unconditional Love, you align with the highest power in the universe.  As you learn to eliminate your opinions and beliefs that contradict unconditional love, you experience more and more your being one with this highest power.  Isn't this what we have been told already 2000 years ago?

[TammyEJax]

JOWo:

I could not have said it better. Too often we are hurt, not by another, but by our own conditions and expectations (often, unspoken ones at that).  When we learn to love without conditions or expectations, we are giving love freely and we always have even more love to give.

Thank you for sharing your insight.  Love does make the world go round.

[Monsolith]

when you say that love could be considered useless or even harmful, because it can lead to heartbreak, then you consider that to be loved is more important than to love...

on the other hand I know some people - including me - who actually live without love, but that doesnt mean they live with a dark cloud above their head. it's just that they dont live with any kind of feeling for the others... I dont usually love the waiter that gives me my food at the restaurant, that doesnt mean I hate him. I just dont care, as long as he gives me my food.

[mustard]

LOVE scientific point of view

Love makes us human, along with other emotions.
If there is no love why feel hate or fear?
We need emotions to communicate better in order to be happier and achieve our goals.
A robot(machine,whatever) has no emotions so it can't understand why we cry or why we
smile therfore it can't communicate the way a human can with another human.
           plain and simple folks if there wasn't love we'd be no
different than animals
          sorry if I offend anyone by this

[lateralus897]

Read Robert Monroe's Far Journeys. He makes everything make so much sense.

[The AlphaOmega]

Read Christs teachings (which are nothing BUT love)... He makes even more sense.  Don't look at it from a religious fanatical point of view.  Simply let your curiosity drive you and read Christs teachings as you would read Socrates' or Einsteins.  Be open minded to it as a concept or idea, not as a form of religion.  The man knew what He was talking about.

[Tombo]

Whats the purpose of a purpose? I mean do things need/have a purpose? that might very well just be a human concept. does a tree need a purpose to bloom? I don't think so ; )

[Zan]

Ok I am going to have a slightly different view than most here. I do not see that love is all around us. I don't see the feelings of acceptance and being content and happy with what is around us as being love. Love is all about relationships for me. It includes friendship, family ties and of course the more intimate kind which you were probably talking about.
I don't think we need it. I don't see why we wouldn't be able to hate or fear without love. If one has problems seeing one particular color does that mean they are completely colorblind? I don't see what other emotions have to do with love since they are merely another thing on the whole emotional range we humans possess. I don't even see love as an emotion but a group of several including happiness and the like. But also including fear or hate. If you love someone you fear losing them and you could easily hate those that might make you lose them. Love isn't just about the positive it is about the whole.
So why do we love? To complete ourselves. We are all social creatures, even the loners among us. That is where love comes in. Love moves us to create ties, bond with eachother in many different forms. We find others to grow with and to complete ourselves. I think one person can never grow as high as a group of connected individuals. If we look back at the earliest human life we see that we worked together in groups, that we needed those groups to survive. Humans can't survive on their own .. Even Robinson Crusoë had his Friday. []

This works on the physical levels but I also believe it works on the higher levels of the soul. We need contact and bonds with others to grow. And that is why we love or look for love without much result at times. It is a devastating thing coming from one side alone but when you find it returned everything becomes very worth it.

[Thing]

"why do you feed yourself in the mourning, your just going to become hungry, for that matter, why flush the toilet, its just going to get filled up sooner or later."

maybe because if we don't eat we have no energy?
maybe because if we don't flush it will start to smell bad?

love is what mother nature made to make us get together and reproduce.

[zaicer]

quote:Originally posted by Thing
[brlove is what mother nature made to make us get together and reproduce.

I dont think so. Love is not limited to people who we are attracted to. We love our partners, that is true. But we also love our parents, pets, friends sometimes we even love things. Love is more then something that nature made to make us get together, i think nature made sex feel good to make us do it but love is complitly diferent.

[Nay]

Monsolith-I dont usually love the waiter that gives me my food at the restaurant, that doesnt mean I hate him. I just dont care, as long as he gives me my food.

That made me chuckle..[] I certaintly show kindness towards the waiter/waitress, else they might spit on my food...eww, now that ISN'T love..[]

Nay

[Thing]

"i am vegetarian not because i love animals but because i hate plants"

maybe you love your family or your friends because you need them, maybe nature made love to make us all get along and be nice to each other, thats why we have problems with people we don't know, thats why we do bad things to people we don't love. love makes things go nice and good, it prevents people from doing bad things.

[Irreal]

I'm completely with JoWo on this.

However, you all seem to talk about different forms of the word 'love'.

"I don't even see love as an emotion but a group of several including happiness and the like. But also including fear or hate. If you love someone you fear losing them and you could easily hate those that might make you lose them." - Zan

I'd say that kind of love is the 'love' expected from animals or robots when they evolve enough. I, by no means see you as a robot, sorry, it's semantics. It's the struggle for words, expressing the unexpressable. But that love is based on conditions and needs, perfectly suitable for beings in need. Social bonds create security and all kinds of pro's.

Unconditional love is a whole different thing altogether and still it's not.. (everything is based on that)


Disclaimer: Just my opinion

[need]

Why do we love?, what is the purpose of love? I don't know for sure but some languages have many terms for the word love, all with different meanings for different forms of love. And why do we love, what else is their to do, it does seems better than the alternatives.

About heartbreak, I have a feeling just setting foot on the planet is the beginning step , I think our hearts are broken which is why we're always looking to be filled up and whole. But one unsettling insight did you know in cases of domestic abuse, that increase in domestic abuse from the male to the female increases, and often starts from the moment the female becomes pregnant. What kind of dynamic is that?

[Hiebreed]

I am deeply confused now. What is the purpose of love? Why do we fall in lolve when it often leads to heartbreak?