LOVE PART 1
What is Love ?
By: ROCK ROKA
Love is our greatest need. Is it our highest most fulfilling
state.
Do we really love or are we simply attached to, identified
with or dependent upon the persons we "love"?
Is our love free and unconditional, or is it mixed with various
needs, conditions and demands?
What is unconditional love? Is it possible for us to cultivate
it?
What is the difference between love and attachment?
How can we determine whether what we feel is love or attachment?
How can we purify our love and move into a higher level of
consciousness?
These are some of the many questions that we need to answer
in order to create happiness.
Defining Love
Love is a very difficult word to define, perhaps because
its reality
approaches spiritual dimensions, which are beyond time
and space, and thus, our comprehension.
Love is perhaps more easily described by what it is not.
Love is not fear, hurt, pain, jealousy, bitterness, hate,
separateness, lust, attachment, aggressiveness, ego-centeredness,
indifference, possessiveness, suppression
- the list goes on.
Love, like God, peace and other spiritual realities, can
be perceived more easily through the effects that it creates.
We cannot see the wind, but we can see its effects, such as
the leaves moving, branches swaying, or the sound of air
rushing. We know wind exists by its various side effects.
We know there is a Creator because we perceive its effect
- creation itself.
What then are the effects of love? Love creates feelings
of unity. We feel toward others as we feel towards ourselves.
We are as interested in their welfare, happiness, success,
health and spiritual growth as much as we are about our own.
Loving others means wanting them to be happy in whatever
ways they are guided to their happiness. It breeds understanding,
compassion, forgiveness, happiness, excitement, peace,
joy, fulfillment and a desire to be helpful in any way we
can.
Love is expansion beyond our ego limitations. It is the
ability to identify with the other, to let go of our self-interest
and personal needs enough to really hear and understand
the others needs and interests. It means caring enough
to sacrifice, when necessary, our own pleasures and desires
when the others needs are obviously more important.
Love is the force that brings about unity and harmony. It
is the "glue" of the universe. It helps persons
with different egos, desires, programmings and needs
to overcome all those potentially repelling forces and
unite.
Love needs not so much to be learned or cultivated, but rather
released or brought from within us to the surface. We are
love. Our basic nature is love. However, our ignorance,
fear and attachment have buried it so deeply within us that
it is sometimes difficult to summon or maintain. Loving
others steadily, independently of their behavior, is
not an easy achievement.
Love versus Need
The power of attraction which we call love is expressed
on many levels and in countless ways. The most basic level
is that of need. We often use the word love when we really
mean, "need".
We say, "I love you." But, if we analyze ourselves
deeply, we will realize
we really mean, "I need you." This is the basic
message of most love songs. They lament with sadness, pain,
agony and cry out "you left me, I cannot live without
you. I need you."
This is not the highest form of love. It is love mixed with
need, attachment and addiction. If it were pure love and
the other was happier by leaving us or even happier with
someone else, we would be happy for him or her, not full of
sadness for ourselves. Loving others means wanting them
to be happy, healthy and successful in the ways that they
are guided to be.
Love does not create the pain we feel when someone leaves
us or rejects us. That pain is generated by our dependency
upon that person for our security, pleasure or affirmation.
Needs and attachments create fear, pain and suffering.
Love creates happiness, fulfillment and the experience
of our True Selves.
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