what is love?

[MJ-12]

cvx

[Julia]

From "The Art of Loving" by Erich Fromm -

Love is the *active* concern for the life and the growth of that which we love.  Responding to their physical and psychic needs, expressed or unexpressed. Having respect (from respicere, to look at), the ability to see a person as he is, to be aware of his unique individuality, concern that he should grow and unfold for his own sake, and in his own ways, and not for the purpose of serving me. To respect a person is not possible without *knowing* him; care and responsiblity would be blind if they were not guided by knowledge.  Knowledge would be empty if it were not motivated by concern.  Care, responsibility, respect and knowlege are mutually interdependent.

[Fat_Turkey]

Love to me is all the good funky mojo that keeps most people alive in this stinky planet[].

But on a philosophical note, love is what you percieve it to be I guess. It can be the physical loving of somebody, to make love, or to love being with someone.

To me, true love is being able to accept that the relationship between you and your significant other is not about yourself, but in fact about being happy TOGETHER. True love is being willing to sacrifice one's own life for the other to be happy. I mean, if you were trying to break someone up just so you could be with them, that is selfish and it wouldn't work out anyways because that person would still be sad about the person they broke up with (because of you). If you really cared about that person, you would leave them to be happy.

Love is balance. Yin and Yang forces equal.

Love is many things.

Peace
-FT

[oreo_renegade]

its an ineffable feeling of extroardinary LOVE for everything in existance, completely filling your body, then seeping out into the rest of the world, until all that is remaining is a wonderful vibration of magnificent feelings.


happened to me on my 15th bday

of course im talking about spiritual devine type love, not the hollywood version of it

[eeb]

For me love is a feeling filling my whole body and mind. Love is to care.

What do you think about love Imora?

[bomohwkl]

The essential condition for love to exist when there are
MUTUAL admiration, understanding and acceptance of each other.

Love is when you see the greatest potential of your loved one.(Isnt every parents do?)
Love is when you love someone eternally.(Isnt parents and off-springs relation?)
Love is when you feel at bliss. (Isn't the happiness you feel when your partner diplays the true love to u?)
Love is when you care and forgive the loved one
Love is when you has the desire to understand and immerse the mind of your loved one.
Love is when you feel the world only consists of you and the loved one.
You love someone when you wait your loved one to consciously choose to love you back of what you are.
Love is when you heart melts thinking of your loved one.
Love is when you appreciate what your loved one done for you.
Love is when you want your loved one to feel happy all the time.
Love is you cannot define what exactly it is but you can feel that you want to feel it forever.

Love is not totally unconditional.

[bomohwkl]

Above 'poem' is copyright of bomohwkl.[]

[clandestino]

According to Bob Monroe in "far journeys", Love is a energy form. It is a crop that is harvested regularly by our creator, who refines the energy and uses it for some purpose.

[bomohwkl]

I am 100% sure that love is a feeling. Love is an energy? I will bet the entire universe that it is not the true essence of love.
At the very beginning...there is nothing...absolute nothing, then from nothingness spring forths a primitive consciouness/intellect.....as intellect can exist with the intent of thinking....Then, the intellect evolved and became very intelligent as it is the only satisfying thing to do for an intellect.The Great intellect FEELs lonely and imagine companies of others. IT imagines the highest feeling from the companies which is LOVE. The whole universe is created (including the 'energy') from the mind of the great intellect/god.

[clandestino]

I would agree with you, it is a feeling and not an energy.
My reasoning : I cannot measure love as an energy.

Well, who knows what happened at the "beginning" ... If there even was such a thing. It is human nature to think of things in terms of a beginning and an end; hence why the mathematical concept of infinity is hard to grasp and doesn't seem to make sense.

From a different perspective, love could be considered as an energy that influences actions.

[bomohwkl]

Ohhhh....whatever....
From a different perspective, love could be considered as a FEELING that influences actions.
[]

[clandestino]

!!! hee hee, fair enough !

[Frank]

IMO, Love is a notion people aspire towards. It is said that, ultimately, there are only 2 emotions... fear and love. I've come across a number of people who gravitated completely from the "fear school" and they all seem to be having a right good time of it.

I think the proper feeling is something a person feels for themselves. However, much of the activity on this planet is caused by people trying to feel it from another of the opposite gender.

I suppose that was never destined to work... God would never have designed it so complex.

Yours,
Frank

[Adrian]

Greetings,

I would say that true, Unconditional Love, as opposed to earthly emotions and sentiments loosely called "love", is the highest, most Divine vibration in the universe. Unconditional love is what holds the entire Universe in all of its spheres together, and is what everyone who wants to make progress on the path should aspire to.

With best regards,

Adrian.

[bomohwkl]

Love yourself and you will be loved.
This saying say that if u REALLY know yourself and appreciate your existence in this universe, then, you understand who u are and u come to know GOD and love GOD and you LOVE everyone as the magnificient creation of GOD. This stems of loving yourself. (which effectively means love God and its creation). And this is completely different from unconditional love which shows the lack of knowledge of self.
"For those who know self, he has come to know the depth of the universe. For those who don't know self, he is utterly lacking in everything."

[imora]

Well, this is what I consider to be a challenging question, but I'm glad that people on this forum are willing to face this challenge.
I believe love is oneness.
Giving, accepting, helping, and sharing are examples of love.
We strive for unconditional love, but that's not an easy task.  So we do our best and give ourselves some conditions, such as limit the number of people we love, or love others only when we want to.
Spiritual development must be related to love.  What else could it relate to?

[bomohwkl]

I always wonder why people use the phrase..unconditional love. For example, parents love their off-springs unconditionally? For love to exist, the parents have to ACCEPT that XXX are their off-springs.Here you see there is a CONDOTION. Then again, we should LOVE everyone unconditionally. Again, you have to ACCEPT that the persons are the creation of god and there are divine sparks in everyone. See, another condition. The phase 'unconditional love' really contradicts itself. Just like the phrase 'holy war' where people are killed.
It is just my humble opnion.

[jilola]

Love is the effect of recognizing a familiar soul, not something you decide to do or feel.

When we speak of the elusive "unconditional love" we, imho, mean the unconditional acceptance and respect toward others.

2cents & L&L
jouni

[Adrian]

Greetings bomohwkl

quote:Originally posted by bomohwkl

I always wonder why people use the phrase..unconditional love. For example, parents love their off-springs unconditionally? For love to exist, the parents have to ACCEPT that XXX are their off-springs.Here you see there is a CONDOTION. Then again, we should LOVE everyone unconditionally. Again, you have to ACCEPT that the persons are the creation of god and there are divine sparks in everyone. See, another condition. The phase 'unconditional love' really contradicts itself. Just like the phrase 'holy war' where people are killed.
It is just my humble opnion.

Yes, one has to accept that we are all sons and daughters of God, but once we arrive at that truth, then we can only logically love everyone and everything in the universe unconditionally as sons, daughters and aspects of God. God is in all of us and everything, just as we are in God. Even the mosy evil person in the world has that divine spark somewhere deep inside, a spark that one day will become a flame and lead that person on the path back to our creator.

Hand in hand with unconditional love is the taming of the ego and elemental equilibrium. It is not possible to make much process until these things are acomplished as well living in Spirit.

When I use the word "God", I do not of course mean in the religious sense but rather the universal sense - God as "The All", "The Great Spirit", "The Divine Providence" and many other names.

With best regards,

Adrian.

[Frank]

quote:Originally posted by bomohwkl

I always wonder why people use the phrase..unconditional love. For example, parents love their off-springs unconditionally? For love to exist, the parents have to ACCEPT that XXX are their off-springs.Here you see there is a CONDOTION. Then again, we should LOVE everyone unconditionally. Again, you have to ACCEPT that the persons are the creation of god and there are divine sparks in everyone. See, another condition. The phase 'unconditional love' really contradicts itself. Just like the phrase 'holy war' where people are killed.
It is just my humble opnion.

I cannot help but agree.

Anyone who believes in the notion of unconditional love then stand in line and I'll pay someone to beat you with a stick until you get angry and stop loving me. Whoops, maybe that's not in the unconditional-love rule-book.

What, you will only love me if I love you too?

Yours,
Frank

[bomohwkl]

Have it wonder you why it is sooooo HARD to love someone if u have no idea of what someone is and don't understand someone at all! U see, u have to understand the divine sparks in human beings.
U see, to LOVE the Great Spirit, we have to understand IT and come to admire its immense ability.To more u undertstand and the more admiration u can project, the higher the bliss of love u can achieve (Pheeewww....am I right? It is the thing I come to discover, when I come to KNOW the ability of my truely powerful and intelligent higher-self...before that it is not easy to project my love to my higher-self)
To really love someone, u have to understand them and come to admire their inner beauty.

[Alix]

Clandestino wrote:
According to Bob Monroe in "far journeys", Love is a energy form. It is a crop that is harvested regularly by our creator, who refines the energy and uses it for some purpose

Yes, I read that.  But did you also continue to read about those advanced souls who were enthusiastically and wholeheartedly working towards the development of this energy?  Monroe may have received the information through his own psychological filter as a milking of the cow, but it may also have represented the active participation and consent of the "cow".  Who do you know ever complains about things that move them to feel love, either received or given?  Real love is most certainly an energy and always has positive effects.

Bomohwk1 wrote:
I am 100% sure that love is a feeling. Love is an energy? I will bet the entire universe that it is not the true essence of love.......The Great intellect FEELs lonely and imagine companies of others. IT imagines the highest feeling from the companies which is LOVE. The whole universe is created (including the 'energy') from the mind of the great intellect/god.

Feelings/emotions are energy.  In physics, a force that produces an action is an energy.  If your feeling results in some form of action, it must have been an energy form that produced it  The Great intellect you mentioned cannot feel lonely because everything is contained within it.  There is nothing existing outside of it.  It REALLY is all!.  That is hard for us to encompass because we are isolated entities.  We cannot give anything to the Great intillect, it already has it.  The only thing we have is free will.  We can choose to oppose our natural state of being, or we can strive to reunite with it.  The only thing we are capable of giving to the Great intellect is love.  Which, of course, we already had in the first place.  And, of course, is what we are all working towards regaining.  We just got disconnected with our unity.  Loving God is loving yourself.  It is loving all creation.  Creation is ourselves and God in all its wonderful, infinite diversity.  


Bomohwk1 wrote:
Love yourself and you will be loved.
This saying say that if u REALLY know yourself and appreciate your existence in this universe, then, you understand who u are and u come to know GOD and love GOD and you LOVE everyone as the magnificient creation of GOD. This stems of loving yourself. (which effectively means love God and its creation). And this is completely different from unconditional love which shows the lack of knowledge of self.

Yes, yes and yes.  Except the last part.  "Unconditional love shows the lack of knowledge of self"?  I think that one must first have a very deep knowledge of self, then unconditional love flows naturally afterwards.  If you know your own workings very well, you will have the understanding and compassion to realize how others behave.  How can you judge someone when you know perfectly well that you have made so many mistakes yourself?  Wouldn't you wish to have some "being" that knew you so well, they could follow your life path and understand how you got to where you are now?  Wouldn't you want them to understand and acknowledge that, deep down, you are a good person who is just struggling along and trying to do the best you can?  Is it possible for you to look at another person in the same way, even if you haven't been able to follow his life path?  Just give him the benefit of the doubt.  There but for the grace of God go I.  I love you and there is nothing that you can possibly do that will change my opinion about you (but please try to get your act together, for your own sake....)


Hello again Bomohwk1,
(I do love the way you inspire such introspective discussions on this board!)
I always wonder why people use the phrase..unconditional love. For example, parents love their off-springs unconditionally? For love to exist, the parents have to ACCEPT that XXX are their off-springs.Here you see there is a CONDOTION. Then again, we should LOVE everyone unconditionally. Again, you have to ACCEPT that the persons are the creation of god and there are divine sparks in everyone. See, another condition. The phase 'unconditional love' really contradicts itself. Just like the phrase 'holy war' where people are killed.
It is just my humble opnion.

I am a parent and my children often drive me up the wall. I have mentioned here and I have told my children before in their tearful apologies that there is nothing that they could possibly do that would stop me from loving them.  Yes, they are my offspring, but one child is easier to love than the other.  It would not make any difference even if they were adopted.  It took some working at, but I learned to love others in the same way.  I do ACCEPT all children as my children and all people I meet as my brothers.  This is not easy to do.  You really have to work hard, but it becomes a habit after a while.  You just have to look beyond their actions and look at their motivations and particular circumstances.  We really are all in this together.   Divine sparks apart, people really do respond when you take an interest in them and take the time to find out who they really are.  

Best regards,
Alix

[Alix]

I forgot to add - you don't have to do anything to make me love you.  I always did.  And I always will.

My best,
Alix

[bomohwkl]

I do understand why some people would think love as energy. Let's say, I have been through the path. I do know why people use the phrase unconditional love as I had use it often before.

But oneday, the very wise one spoke up and everything in the world make sense.
This is what I heard from the very wise one.

"Feelings and emotions are functions of Intellect. To experience ANY feeling or emotion - you need to be intelligent.
Who is capable to experience a wider range of Higher Feelings (such as True Love) - a person who is highly intelligent and is capable to understand or a person who is extremely primitive? Most likely a primitive person will follow instincts and will not be even capable to comprehend any need for "higher feelings".
Hence, we can say that Intellect is the ESSENTIAL condition for anyone conscious to experience feelings.
How much Intellect is needed? The higher is the capacity of the Individual Intellect to Understand - the wider the range of feelings it can experience. There is no limit...
In the other extreme - no Intellect - no feelings. You can take a brick as an example
The greatest challenge for our feelings always comes from the interaction with people to whom we are emotionally attached. It is not a coincidence. Let me explain.
When you examine yourSelf, you will find that you have a fundamental conscious need to be ACCEPTED and UNDERSTOOD. Everyone conscious, from plants and bacteria to human beings have this need. It is the essence of Conscious Existence.
Note, that when this basic need is NOT satisfied - it is almost impossible to experience Higher feelings such as Love. We may even say that acceptance and some degree of understanding are actually the NECESSARY CONDITIONS not only for Love to exist, but even to "feel good".
When we are alone, we CAN accept and understand ourSelves. We CAN accept and understand others. We also feel accepted and understood by Nature and the Universe. Therefore we CAN attain sincere feelings of Love in the absence of the feedback from others.
Now imagine that the "foundation" of acceptance and understanding is completely missing. Imagine that other people demonstrate that they NOT accept you, your thoughts and your ideas - they are not even interested. They "have eyes" but they DO NOT even WANT to SEE who you really are. All they are concerned with is "appearances". They want to SEE you smile, but they are not interested to become aware of what THOUGHTS make you happy.
It is difficult to "feel good" isn't it?
Of course, we expect acceptance and understanding from people to whom we are close emotionally. Isn't it natural? When THEY do not accept us, when they do not understand us, when they do not even want to see who we really are - we feel deeply dissappointed and even upset. Our "foundation" for "feeling good" is absent. It is very easy to lose control and leave the annoying company. I used to do it all the time.
Now I try to see them as babies. Can you blame a baby that it hasn't yet learned to walk? All we can do is to SHOW babies how we walk ourselves and offer our assistance when and if they CHOOSE to learn to walk. Of course, it IS still disappointing if a baby CHOOSES not to try...

The only solution I see at the moment is to keep walking...


"Unconditional love" is a meaningless and dangerously misleading sloganology.

It is extremely dangerous, because it clutters our mind with the belief that no one needs to do anything because love happens without any conditions.

People who use this slogan give evidence that they haven't even BEGUN imagining, experiencing and expressing Love.

Before Love can be experienced we need to UNCLUTTER our minds. If our mind is cluttered with fear, making business, taking revenge, taking advantage of others, fight for survival etc.. - what we feel is NOT Love. We can only feel the LACK of it.

We need to explore our Selves in great detail in order to find out how to "create" and sustain the blisfull feeling called Love. Anyone who has sincerely tried to achieve and sustain the bliss will tell you how difficult it is to do. Before we can even begin feel the bliss, we need to create quite special state in our own mind. We need to maintan the purity of the mind, the purity of intentions and we need to achieve the state of acceptance of Reality (including accepting the Self). These conditions are the most fundamental.

Without a pure mind, pure intentions, acceptance of Reality (acceptance of the Self and others) - we cannot even begin to feel anything resembling Love. Try it out. The proof can ONLY arise in your own mind"

I do understand it is not easy to understand as I don't understand fully when I first read.However, my higher-self has given a glimpse of love to experience so that I could understand and appreciate it better as I have specifically as for.

[bomohwkl]

ooopss..the above explanation is from www.thefreedomofchoice.com
check up and find out.