What is Love?
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Peace,
Movies, books and religous texts are a form of art, it is up to us how we interpret it, as for the quran I get the idea that in the end there is only God (First and Last), and that is pure and perfect with no impurity.
Your interpretation of this idea seems depressing and pessimistic, I like to be more positve.
Nural
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Salam everyone,
As a matter of fact I have been working on trying to find the true meaning of Love for some times now. I have discussed it on other forums too. I think people do not really what love means. It is not only love, other words too that I would be more than happy to discuss them here. And buy understanding the true meaning of each word, I promise you a big surprise. I highlighted some of those words here.
So, first let?s start by loveIs love conditioned or unconditioned?
Many parents love their children unconditionally, doesn?t that in fact because they feel they are part of them, that they know them well enough? What does this message tell us? When you feel that you are one with someone and when you know that for sure, then you love is unconditioned.
Conditioned love is here because we do not feel that we are one with anyone else. We see reality as parts but not whole. It is only you, your children, and maybe your family, but as people change, what you call love changes with them.
What is love? It is a universal bonding force, an absolute state of being, a quality that announces the oneness of everything in existence; it is knowledge, knowing, awareness, consciousness. Human mind, unable to perceive purity without duality, tends to turn love into a feeling that depends on pleasure and expectations. The mind gave birth to the conditioned love.Imagine a seed that has the potential to grow as a large tree. The seed has few qualities which are passed to the growing tree; one quality is say ?flexibility?. As the tree grows, you notice this quality in the roots as they penetrate the soil in search for water, bending around pebbles and whatever in the way, likewise, and branches grow finding there way towards the sun, and swing against the wind. I always wonder at the quality of flexibility as presented by nature.
Now for the argument?s sake, imagine that the seed and therefore the tree is representing God, the quality of flexibility, is like love, one of God?s qualities. God?s love is like flexibility of a tree is spreading throughout his creation, and it is absolute in a way that is not limiting. It is not as much a feeling as it is a state, a power of knowledge that exists in everything. God is love because He and He alone connects all to all as one. God?s awareness of this connection is what I call love. The all knowing.
In creating our life, duality (e.g. Good and evil, pain and pleasure) had to be created for the sake of experience, everything in our lives depends on this duality, and the mind is the tool by which we perceive this duality. Love had to be filtered through our mind just like everything else for duality to exist. The mind deals only with facts, searching through memories and information available and suggesting that which is good or brings us pleasure. The mind creates images in our minds to deal with the main two opposite forces in life, pleasure and pain. When love is related to pleasure it becomes conditioned to other people?s actions (it becomes an illusion that has nothing to do with the true love), because the mind, separated from the whole as it is, seeks individual satisfaction. This illusion became more dependent on our expectations, and if expectations are not met, pain becomes the result then our mind begins to reject the reasons behind the pain and gives rise to hatred. Hatred, however, is not the opposite of love. It is the opposite of the illusion of love, our false understanding of love as feeling. The opposite of love is the lack of knowledge that love is the knowing, extended from the all knowing, it is fear.
Your mind even forms an image for yourself, and you judge yourself on the worthiness of that image, you blame yourself, you feel you are not worthy, or not doing enough. Your love to yourself becomes conditioned to your expectations of highest standards. When you say you are in love, what you are actually saying is that an image you carry around inside has been satisfied. You attach yourself to the image, you claim you love a woman/man, but let her/he betray you and your love will turn to hatred. If you however, looked behind the image, behind the fantasy, you would find pure love hidden in the knowledge of the oneness.
God?s love, however, God is not affected by any outside or mental effects. God is all knowledge; God?s knowledge is absolute. This absolute knowledge is infinite but since we are not able to imagine infinity without a beginning an end, I tend to imagine infinity by linking the beginning to the end to form a circular shape instead of a straight line to explain infinity. God?s knowledge as we can see is spreading into all creation, so the absolute knowledge is in fact seeking confirmation of its existence without limit, confirmation is achieved by on going creation of all probabilities. So knowledge and therefore God is expanding in creation and confirmation.
So again, what is love? Love is a universal bonding force, an absolute state of being, a quality that announces the oneness of everything in existence; it is knowledge, knowing, awareness, consciousness.
If we would be able to look at everything in life without expectation or mental images, if we could see beyond our minds, we would see people and things as if for the first time, new knowledge would flow. We would not only feel love, we would be in a state of love, knowing. Other people?s actions and choices wouldn?t surprise us, wouldn?t make us less loving. If we could love people without attachment to what they are doing or how they look, we would find that we had in fact never met the pure love before. Knowing can alter perception, you look deeper, and you see more.
Knowledge is the key towards understanding the true meaning of love. When you know you find reasons, and you understand why things are happening the way they happen, and when you do you are at peace, you do not fear or hate you only love.
God bless
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as for the quran I get the idea that in the end there is only God (First and Last), and that is pure and perfect with no impurity.
I like this idea. So God the all knowing, the most loving gave life to intelligent humans who are ignorant (have no knowledge) and are less loving to go through experiences, learn from god's knowledge and become more loving. Lose touch with God, go though imperfection and impurity to eventually find God's perfection and purity. The process of losing oneself to find it again. Or creating yourself anew. Whatever it is the end result is assured by God Himself because at the end the is nothing but Him.
God= Love, Knowledge, intelligence in an absolute state. (Total perfection)
Life and humans= Love and fear (Duality), lack of knowledge, developed intelligence in a state of duality and uncertainty (Not absolute) (Unrecognized perfection)
After life= Back to the absolute state without duality.Those are the questions that need detailed answers
What is God's absolute state?
What is perfection?
What is life?
What are humans made up of?
What is knowledge?
What is love?
What is fear?
What is duality?
What is intelligence?
Do we really know the true answers to each of the above questions? The answer is a bold NO. The irony beyond those questions, there are no other questions we should have or ask. The true journey begins when you ask the right questions.God bless..
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Did it help you to understand Love any better?
Regards,
has, and here is an example of what I have learnt
Sure itEven honest atheist can't discount love!
Love seems to go beyond mere survival value.
You can even bleed and die joyfully for love...Thanx bro,
God bless.
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Love is great as a part of life, but not if it is the heart of life.
Hi,
Just out of curiousity, do you in that case think that life could exist without love?
Bless
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Peace openurmind,
I think life does exist without love (sorry to butt in Natu), we can see the results in the news. Life without love is not a happy or fruitful life and you learn less. People who feel better (people in love) tend to do better!
Nural
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Peace openurmind,
I think life does exist without love (sorry to butt in Natu), we can see the results in the news. Life without love is not a happy or fruitful life and you learn less. People who feel better (people in love) tend to do better!
Nural
Salam Nural,
The negativity you see in the news is part of life, yet in other news you also see the loving part of life. One can not exist without the other. This is the point I am trying to make. Love is at the heart of life as well as fear, they are both the opposite forces in this dual-natured life and one can not do without the other as long as we lack the absolute knowledge. The lack of the absolute knowledge is the reason why fear exists. And do not under-estimate the force of fear. All choices and actions we make/do is either based on love or fear, any other reason is driven of these two great forces. And there is balance, one force can not overtake the other as long as we live.
When I asked if life could exist without love, I did not mean the life of an individual only, I meant life in general and I think Natu meant the same thing when he said that love is great when it is part of life but it is not great if it is at the heart of life. But I believe that love is at the heart of not only life, but at the heart existance.This is the main problem why most people having trouble understanding life. Namely using labels and words while not knowing what they truly mean. Love, which is a universal force became an individual feeling that we can describe according to our own experience then we fail to realise its true impact on life in general or the reason why is exists in the first place.
Why do we have this conversation?
Because we are intelligent human beings.
Why do we have to know the true meanings of everything like love, fear, intelligence, expectations, etc.?
Because we do not know there meaning. Because we were born without knowledge, yet we were given the ability to acquire it.
Why do we have this ability?
It is like asking why do we have to eat?
Is it because we have the ability to eat or because our bodies need the energy which is extracted from the food we eat?
Acquiring knowledge is similar to eating and drinking. We have the ability to acquire knowledge because only with this knowledge (besides our intelligence) could we be whole.Books are full of knowledge, the Holly Quran is full of knowledge. The whole universe is full of knowledge. Every seed, every cell every cure, every theory is full of knowledge. Knowledge is out there, just like the food we eat. And just like our bodies extract the energy from the food, it is our intelligence that has the ability to extract the energy of knowledge. Whether if this knowledge is in a holly book or in a grain, without our intelligence it is forever wasted. If we do not eat we not only waste the food, we also waste our life, we die. If we do not acquire knowledge, we do not only waste knowlegde, we waste the meaning of our existance. We were given intelligence for a reason, we were given realisations for a reason, and we were born without knowledge for a reason. The process of life is not limited to the realisation of the meaning of a book or how we behave. It is the process by which our intelligence reunion with the universal knowledge and intelligence. It is the process that is taking us from ignorance to knowing, from separation to unity.
The force of fear is the force of ignorance, while the force of love is the force of knowing. We fear what we do not know, we hate because we fear. Our lack of knowledge created fear and separation from the rest of the world and from each others. The more we know, the more we realise that we are one with all, universe and each other and the more we love. The force of love is more fundamental to us; it is deeply rooted inside us, in our souls. It helps us wonder and ask questions; and our intelligence allows us to regain the reunion with the source of all knowledge.God bless
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Love is great as a part of life, but not if it is the heart of life.
Hi,
Just out of curiousity, do you in that case think that life could exist without love?
Bless
Individal perception is the real reason why this thread even exists. Can anyone explain how they feel when they are hungry or thirsty?
As well as the difficulty in expression of such feelings, the greater difficulty lies in coming to common grounds exactly what the sensation is.
For example, some people might feel a KFC because they havde't had any chicken, for a decade, some may feel a KFC becuase they haven't eaten anything at all for a three days, and some people may feel a KFC like our brother Jaxal does.
The aim of this thread (IMHO) is not far from trying to draw a picture of the God
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No medium or combination of mediums can ever give a full image.
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Any partial representation in any medium will always be based on individual interpretation.
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Clinical analysis is simply not possible forsuch an abstract sensation/emotion/state of mind.
------------------------------> But all that doesn't mean we can't ever understand it - we understand all that we need - in the same way we understand all that we need to understand about the God from al-quran. For further understanding we must do our own homework and maintain the connection we have been given.
So, putting it short love is...
a word that each and every individual applies his/her own context, understanding, and implication.
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Peace,
Thank you openurmind, for the clarifying post. Our disagreement came from me understanding life as an individual life, I agree that when we take the global society there is a continous battle between these two forces, good and evil, love and hate etc. Whether the majority is on the hate side or love side is a different discussion.
Certainty is helpful in this journey of life, and certainty is acheived by obtaining valuable and useful knowledge and when applied in the right situations we see the success and the beauty of the game (Very big game, not amusements)!.
But the confusion for people tends to come in understanding why the negative forces even exist if there is a God and why the balance must be acheived to get order and positive results in life. This isn't a free ride, we must give something in return, and it is the duty of the individuals with the knowledge and certainty to maintain a balance, to keep a control of such things. Even the people without elite knowledge have duties in societies, everyone who is capable should work hard in whatever fields they specialise to see a better quality of life. These can be things like governments running the economy properly (whether they should intervene as much or not), or it could be decision making for individuals in their daily lives. Knowledge is very handy for the individual and groups because when they know with certainty what results they can achieve with knowledge of certain techniques or ways then they will be motivated by the reward in the long run.
The assumption has been made that there are simply two paths, a positive and a negative. Although love and hate were used, I think these are not as suitable in explaining the concept as the words positive and negative are.
Nural
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What is Love?
Is it as some say conditioned or is it unconditioned?
Is love a feeling or state of being?
Is love absolute like a quality that can only be?
Does love have an opposite?
What is the opposite of Love?
What does religion say about Love?I ask this question everyday.....hopefully on here it may be answered.....or maybe we just have to find out for ourselves.... ?
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Salaam Ming-Lo,
Why is it so hard to deal with love?
Shouldn't it be more difficult to deal with hate?
Peace Sis Maria
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What is Love?
A Stepford wife...ahhh...the bliss. sun
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Salaam Ming-Lo,
Why is it so hard to deal with love?
Shouldn't it be more difficult to deal with hate?
Peace Sis Maria
Salaam,
Yes that is true, but for some reason (for me anyway), It's easier for me to understand hate (or should I say strong dislike, since i can't say I've ever went as far as to hate someone) then to understand love.......I don't know why......It's pretty baffling... ?
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Salaam Sis Ming-Lo,
Well it depends what kind of Love u are talking about!?
I mean the romantic love isn't so hard to understand because that is your feelings of attractions to the opposite gender.
But the more wide understandings of Love is more tricky to explain and understand.
We have a member here named Lote-Tree he is dealing with this issue very much, hope he cn explain better.
Peace sis Maria
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What is Love?
Is it as some say conditioned or is it unconditioned?
Is love a feeling or state of being?
Is love absolute like a quality that can only be?
Does love have an opposite?
What is the opposite of Love?
What does religion say about Love?I ask this question everyday.....hopefully on here it may be answered.....or maybe we just have to find out for ourselves.... ?
http//www.free-minds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4036&start=100
Perhaps above thread may be of use too...?
Regards,