Love is just a four letter word

That's the qestion i figured out to be the most important one of all:

What is love?

You feel love when you deeply meditate, which people call universal love. It is said that nuns feel love for Jesus and for god. Mothers love their baby, it's said to be one of the most pure variety of love possible. Men love women, women love men, men love men and women love women. People love flowers, people even love chocolate.
So, is it just madness or is there something behind all these different forms of love? Something, that explains this bewildering "feeling". But, after all, is it a feeling?

I would say, it is more a mode of functioning. When you love you are totally positive, but in a way that is not foolish or blindfolded. You see everything from the positive side, sometimes even completely evil things turn out to be big and beautiful.

A very powerful, but confusing experience

When you have been touched by a strong form of love one day, i think you will never forget it. The strange thing is, that everyone experienced the big form of love in his very early childhood. But people tend to forget and annihilate these experiences. Grown-ups love to present themselves as intellectual. They don't want to be touched by love. They "appreciate" something, they "evaluate" things. Many people even evaluate their future husband or wife. Teenagers nearly always evaluate the girl or boy friends: "Mine has bigger tits, mine laughs more often, mine is hot in bed...". Why the hell are children like this? It's not natural

So, they flee from love. Are they just cowards? Or can the "notion of love" be seriously hurt? Doesn't our society hurt everyone's love? Isn't this a world of seriously hurt people? This is my impression. This is the reason, why one should seek a better world, a better society.

What is with all these different forms of love? Are there pure forms? What and why is something "pure"?

By the way, what is hatred? Is it just, that people are selfish or dumb when they hate? Do you think there are energies, which try to destroy love on earth?

And, above all, what can love achieve? Is love connected to psychic powers? I think so. But why? Are there people who have experiences with this?

Is peace a sign for love, and love a sign for peace? How can someone learn love? If peace does not come from the heart, from your own love, there is no way you can escape an oppressive government! Strict rules and punishment! But there is also the vision, that everyone learns how to love... How is this possible?

This is a big topic. I'd love to listen to some stories or theories or comments. Nothing should be complete or proven. 'Cause this kills the love and the creativity

Love and peace


(By the way: english is not my motherlanguage)

Universal love is self-sacrifice on all levels.

Christ was the greatest teacher because he already showed us what true universal love is.

The effects of universal love are deep and life-altering, if anyone ever needed proof just read the book "Geshundteit" about the life and work of Dr. Patch Adams.

The first step to learning to truly love others is learning to truly love yourself. All things are energy so love does create some very positive psychic energies. Emotions like hatred are far too heavy and create too many problems that can manifest in negative physical and spiritual health.

I do believe that their are beings/entities and people here on Earth fighting to destroy the principles of universal love, otherwise our world would be a much different place.

I do not believe that there are different forms of love, I believe that there is the one true form and that people simply become confused about what true love really is.

When you make the decision that you want to serve others and that decision comes from a place deep within yourself then you have learned universal love.

That is, of course, my opinion.

I don't really think it exists the way people think it does.
I feel it is a series of decisions based on someones wants or needs.
When needs or wants change then so does the feeling they think is love.
I think love is based on selfishness.

I have had a few relationships where the woman realized that what I have been saying is true...I don't want kids and don't want to do things like credit for a house and no I don't want to do what others are doing.
Even tho there were feelings of affection...all of a sudden they realize that their needs and wants were not going to be met so they get out of the relationship.
Hmmm...love??
We can justify anything sometimes.
Theres my 2 cents based on experience.

The best answers I found are in the following:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." - 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." - 1 John 4:8

to love is to evolve
...

[edit on 4-2-2009 by Unknownsoul]

reply to post by saint4God


Yeah, that's the thing i wanted to say. However, it does not solve the theodizee. If love gives all good things, why is the evil and dark side so successful?

Originally posted by Wachstum
The strange thing is, that everyone experienced the big form of love in his very early childhood.

I am afraid that is not true.

Very sad, yes,

But a sign of the world and its ways, in some peoples experience.

Many are born to parents where the mother disliked the child whilst it was still in the womb, their entire pre-natal nerve connections were wired based on feelings of anger, depression and fear, they were washed in that Chemical Soup whilst in-vitro.

Then the child is born and has not developed the normal amount if any of the chemical, and peptide receptors for feeling love anyway, and then they are abused and shown more anger, hatred and violence and abandonment in their formative years, thereby creating more of "fix" within themselves to recreate the "norm" of their brain chemistry., so they act or search for situations that will give them that feeling of hatred, fear etc themselves.

Any love shown may be also conditional, or as often happens is shown only when they are in a Crisis or when they display they are in pain or upset etc...so they learn to associate any love with tragedy, or themselves suffering.

Kind Regards,

Elf

Originally posted by Wachstum
If love gives all good things, why is the evil and dark side so successful?

Great question! The answer is us. We humans have been given the ability to choose. Sometimes we choose things out of pride, control, greed, consequential selfish desires, and power. Evil wins here, if not right away it will eventually. Other times we do things because we want the best for others, in compassion, hope, their joy, and gratitude. In these loves, good wins. The war of good versus evil is as old as mankind itself whereas each of us are given a part in the daily battles.

[edit on 4-2-2009 by saint4God]

I think love is essential to our survival and without it we would disappear from this beautiful planet. True love to me is the ultimate love. It has no I.O.U's or boundaries. It's an experience that all life needs to be what it is. Without " love " a wouldn't want to live. I wouldn't have made it through my childhood or maybe not even been born at all. Love needs sacrifice and patients. Did you know that love is in the same area where mental illness occures? Is love mental or physical? Is it a temporary madness? I think it's mental but I could be wrong. Love is a learning tool that can hurt just as much as it feels good. To overcome hurting love and to love another is a big step in your life and you become wiser about your feelings and others. When I hear my children say they love me I know I'm worth something.

I think love can be both forceful and an accident. Forceful meaning you convince yourself that your in love when it's most likely lust. Accidental is falling when you least expect it and it just consumes you and leaves you helpless. I sometimes wonder if love is the six sense. You can't touch love or smell it, see it, hear it, taste it or feel it on your skin? Me and my wife have said that we are one and that our love has brought our souls together. I always tell her that I love her for who I am when I'm with her and I'm forever hers. I love " love " because it makes me the happiest and I can live happy. I'm only here for the journey and love makes my journey worth while.

reply to post by MischeviousElf



So the child feels less love. And he is used to link his positive feelings to negative situations. A very common reaction to experiences of brutality, like the "Stockholm syndrome".

Which means, that the normal mode of a child is love. A child that feels no love is pathological. So our world is sick, cause many children can't express their love. And many adults never express love.

Just a shame

reply to post by Solarskye





beautiful. For me its the same: Love's the sixth sense. You can hear and see and feel everything with love. Sometimes i listen to a song, or see the world, and suddenly it makes BOOM, and everything's ten times as strong as before.

One should only do anything to feel more and more love. The only true day, the only hour worth living is to feel and radiate love.

So sad, that saying and living this, espacially for a male, is like crying out loud underwater. Nevermind...

In my opinion, love is nothing subconscience decision. You can decide whether or not you love someone after you have been around them for a while, whether you talk to them or not. And in honesty, you can fall in love with anyone given that they are at least up to a certain minumum standard you have set in your mind. If you are around someone long enough, your perception of them changed. Your personality adapts to theirs, your brain starts to filter out the less attractive things, and your ego can die down enough to make you think that they are the only one for you.
I mean if love was not easy to come by, you wouldnt see the amount of relationships and marriages in the world today. We play the hand we are dealt, and love is no different. But like all things, love usually fades with time. Sexual tension will die, as your dopamine production will decrease daily for that particular person, you will be able to read them almost too well, and all those imperfections you forgot about will start to come back to your attention.
Love is love anyway you look at it, but like everything in humanity, it wont last forever.

reply to post by Nostradumbass



There is some truth in what you say

However, the reason for the declining of love, seems to me not that love itself declines. It is the perception of love through the aging man or woman. (Put aside that what you say counts only for the majority of people, not to all). So, maybe it is not the love that is unstable, but the person ages, becomes tired. The brain and body will refuse to love, the person becomes dumb and insensitive. Just as many people don't get anything out of classical music, and their only argument is: I don't understand it. Or: too complicated.

So it's the same with love

Love is not something you put in the context of a religion such as christianity. That's way too narrow-minded. Same goes for spirituality.

Spirituality does not equal religion.
Love does not equal religion.

Love is the emotion that is chained to what an event does. Today, I told my friend that I was in love with a girl at school. I have never spoken to this girl however. He told me that all I was really looking for was to have sex with her, and not love her.

However, the feeling *was* love, and not sexual attraction. I found out that you can love a person (for example) without knowing anything about him/her.

How? Well, best answer to this I can come up with is, you picture yourself being with that person. By being with that person, you imagine how perfect everything may seem. The idea is, love is connected to other sections of the brain that controls what you want... Like what types of food you like.

Same goes for love of another person. You only love God, Jesus, Satan, Buddha, etc. because you are told that he is perfect. And no matter who you are, you will always seek to be perfect yourself. A way to do this, is to be together with one who can guide you.

That's what I wanted to say anyway. Please don't throw religion around blindly. Or we'd still be thinking the Earth was flat.

reply to post by dalan.


What a beautiful post Dalan, and a good opinion it is. I think your pretty close to the universal truths with this one. You seem to have a good understanding and grasp of the these things. My best wishes and a star for you.

LOVE... a big word for many people, but the most of the people don't found there true love. The true love is for me to found the soulmate. I know that many people think that the soulmates not exist, but I know that it is exist. If you found your true love and look into the eyes of the person, than you feel love. you feel warmth, and you feel that you finally be at home.

I think that the true love and all what the true love bring to our life is more than a feeling. Many don't found there true love and looking for a type replacement.
Real love is a different level and I think that only a few of us really found the true love and can also realize and live with the "soulmate". I have found my soulmate, but I am not one of the few who can live with her soulmate.

I hope you understand what I want to say, because my english is not so good

reply to post by vereny




Confusing... neither am i allowed to live with mine... actually, i am not that sure about the soulmate-stuff, 'cause i have a wonderful live without "her" - the "soulmate". And when i once, after a long time (not that long, actually), met her, it was the same good feeling, feeling home, like you say. But at the same time, not very convincing. Like a great dream, but a dream faded, worn out, bleached out like a sad song on an old disc. Stuttering, creaking, inside.

These are really personal thoughts.
I'd like to tell you, don't be fixed on this soul-stuff, you know, don't long that much only to find out one time, that there were other soulmates, many others maybe. The one you are recognizing, is just the one you met first ...

Sprichst du deutsch ???

reply to post by Wachstum


yes i speak german

I don't think that you have so many soulmates
It give a different between "soulmates" You have soulmates , with whom you are "together" like as a brother or a sister... and it give ONE soulmate who is your heart near and your soul.
That is what I believe.
I don't sit here and wait to live with my soulmate
I have two childrens and a great job, and I have a life. But when he comes one fine day into my life,than it is good, if not : it give many men on earth and I think one for me

reply to post by vereny


Dann können wir ja deutsch sprechen das kannich nämlich besser

Und du kümmerst dich noch um dein "soulmate"??

Entspann dich und genieß deine Familie und wenn dir was an deinem Mann nich gefällt, änder ihn einfach

Das klappt bei meiner Freundin auch !!

Außerdem, natürlich gibts mehr als nur einen soulmate. Wir kennen uns praktisch alle gegnseitig, vielleicht nich so eng wie deine vergangene Liebe.

Spätestens nach deinem Tod siehst du ihn wieder (das glaub ich wirklich)

reply to post by Wachstum


first: this is a english board, so I think we should wrote in the language the other members can understand
second: I have never say that I was together with the man I have only say that I know him.
To change someone, is for me to manipulated someone and that is not love for me.

and to talk about death... I work as a medium, I know many things about death and the life after this life, so I believe that I meet him, maybe on the other side.
I really enjoy the time with my kids and my job and I am relaxed was something in my text that you might think i am not relaxed?