What is love?

What is love? the ancient mystics say that love is the most powerful energy there is in the universe because it comes from the source God or the universal mind or energy. This love energy is within every living thing that exist in the universe. We human beings have this energy within us, but sometimes we don't know how to use it or get in harmony with it. When we love somebody we extract this powerful energy within us, and when we hate somebody we repel it. So you can see how silly and dumb it is to repel this most powerful force. Obviously the more we attract this energy the stronger, happier, healthier and most powerful we become. And the opposite happens when we repel it. When you see war between two beings or countries, you see love being repelled and the result is a powerful and destructive energy that causes enormous pain and suffering. Why because love is the most powerful creative energy there is and hate is it's opposite. So it's wise to stop and think next time we hate someone and ask ourselves: Do I want to destruct myself or empower myself? That's what a wise would always ask.

www.alittlemindcontrol.blogspot.com

"love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." -aristotle

"i have decided to stick with love. hate is too great a burden to bear." -martin luther king jr

"where there is love there is life." -mahatma gandhi

"gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love." -albert einstein

"love is what we are born with. fear is what we learn. the spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. to be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. meaning does not lie in things. meaning lies in us." -marianne williamson

Baby don't hurt me, Don't hurt me,
No more

reply to post by frankky


When you do something for another individual without expecting "Something" in return, you show love.

When that person or another does the same for you, you feel Love~

A wise man once said that to me.

Great thread!

My ex once told me that love is an equation; 1+1 = 1. Brain does not compute...

Originally posted by AnimositisominA
Baby don't hurt me, Don't hurt me,
No more

You beat me to it :p

OP: God isnt the source of my love, my family, our lass, my daugher, peanut butter, jack daniels, marijuana, raspberries with crushed almonds, swigged down with a chocolate protein shake with soy milk are the source of my love

Originally posted by AnimositisominA
Baby don't hurt me, Don't hurt me,
No more

First thing I thought of too

every time i have seen this thread title, this vid gets posted, I had to that guy this time.

Originally posted by frankky
What is love?

Simply put:

The feeling of love is your brain's reward center producing chemicals to reward a behavior that benefits you in some way or another.
Usually pertaining to spreading your genes or protecting your off-spring who have your genes...

That's about it.

Sorry.

There's no such thing as love. There's no substance nor tangible something called love. There's no force called love, and when someone does something in the name of love they do it in the name of nothing. Love is a verb, an action. Just like you cannot hold a sight, a jump, a run, a kiss, a hug or a flight in your hands, you cannot hold love.

Love is an action. You cannot love an action, you can only love the thing committing the act, for that's what exists.

I understand what you mean subversiveone.



To the OP. What you've mentioned is that what is going around about what love is, but is it the truth? As I pointed out in earlier posts, we are confused on certain matters and this also is about what love is. On all aspects of the Most High confusion is set, we are completely forgetting the root of humanity. Dark dark ages. See the light. I call what you say stereotype, and there are exceptions to them making them not absolute truths.

We are not in power to repell love. What you judge as love is in fact positivity. That you can control by will to give or to not give to people, with not giving it to people meaning you leave them in their suffering while they need this positivity to flower.

It's a spiral we need to get out of. It is the only function a lot of people are set in. It's destructive to humanity causing much suffering. The mental breakdown of the human race. Those who do not want to hear need to feel.

reply to post by defuntion


That's the stereotype 'love'. That spiral we are set in that is called love, it's the confusion because of the conspiracy set by, by, by what? It is not the truth that that is love but people believe it. Love is perfect and outstanding and a good motivator. Feel free, feel good.

Man, you have no idea just how much of a dichotomy Love is. Its impetus is simple, and yet the range of ways that it can manifest - and why it is that such a range of expressions exists - is a really complicated examination of the nature of physical existence, as illustrated by the complex human existential hybrid and its unique capacity for layers of concurrent fundamental expression. Like I said, the impetus is really simple. It's the survival of unique and inimitable Identity, as is the impetus for whatever it is that does anything at all. The complicated part kicks in when you begin peeling back the layers of a specific expression of "love" as presented by a human being within a given situation.

Probably the best way to examine this is to list out a few basic expressions of love, and then imagine them reassembled into one common expression suite, as is generally the case with people and what it is that they care about. These expressions exist to serve an existential Identity survival requirement within the confines of a specific instant of Homo Sapiens material existence, and the experience of these requirements will shift in direct response to how readily available each is, or is perceived to be. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a fair overview of how that shift operates.

Romantic Love

This one is easy. The survival imperative is obviously being addressed via the Biological Imperative, and it's well established that the DNA is in full control of this expression. Yes, there are predilections that come into play (physical characteristics of the potential mate, intelligence indicators like sense-of-humor, and ethnicity preferences) but these have been proven to be unconsciously determinant. It's based on connecting with a mate that you can procreate with and ensure the survival of your material DNA Identity beyond the span of your own life.

What is also well known is that cultural biases, attractions, and requirements play heavily into our romantic love expression, with biases toward recklessness in some subcultures (suggesting physical hardiness potential in prospective offspring) and responsible stability (suggesting a safe, secure environment for raising offspring) in other subcultures.

Familial Love

This is another easy one. Your family members share your general DNA material Identity with you, and it's a no-brainer to understand the visceral connection. Especially between parents and children. Your offspring are your Identity survival, and it's easy to understand why they are supposed to bury you, and why you are driven to love them and ensure that it works out that way.

Bromance Love

Dude, he's got your back. He "gets you", and reinforces/protects the archetypal Personality mold that you've chosen for your ultimate inimitable Identity. Your wife and kids ensure your body's material Identity survival, but your bro supports and defends your carefully (or carelessly) crafted "self" as it continues to be crafted from instant to instant and day to day. He says "yes" to the YOU that you perceive yourself to be.

"On-The-Side Love"

More of your DNA out there in the gene pool can't be a bad thing...right? Definitely increases the percentages that your DNA won't die off once your heroic run is through. Not that you're consciously trying to knock that waitress up, but....

Big Food Love

Your ancestors bequeathed unto you the survival urge for super-sized helpings, due to the fact that they didn't have supermarkets or Taco Bells on every corner.

Ambition-Success Love

Your Identity survival involves more than the brood running around the house when you get home after Happy Hour. Your work, your projects, your car, your house, your place within the pecking order - your inimitable Identity.

Loving The Home Team

When the Sox win, you win. When they lose, you may not lose, but you sure as hell don't win. Relative contextual association. a full 1/2 of your inimitable Identity. As a fan, you're part of "______ Nation".

Your Love of Country

USA! USA! USA! Yeah, this one's easy too. You're an American, goddammit. And proud of it. It's a large part of some people's Identity, and as long as the USA survives, your Identity survives within it as "Internal Context" since you will always be part of the whole that is America.

"Loving Your God/Church"

Again, being integral to the identified whole of a large community ensures the survival of your existential identity even long after you've died. You're "counted among the saints" in their "Book of Life", regardless of whether such a book actually exists or not. If you believe it exists, you'll need your name "written in it". You're driven to ensure your identity survival.

Love is the drive to ensure the survival of your inimitable Identity. Your passions, your art, your opinion, your family, your home, your friends, your lovers, your community, your achievements, your beliefs, your heritages, your country, and everything that defines you is what you love to one degree or another. You can "hate" it, but indifference is the opposite of love, and you can't be indifferent about any of it. Hate is just love anger. You still love it.

reply to post by NorEaster


So many words for the simple impetus don't you think?

All of these have love in common do they not? Why make it so complicated?

Love is simply this - whatever is the focus of your desire, that is what you love.

So then the real question you should be asking is, "What is desire?"

Well, why do you want? Why do you care about anything at all? What's the point of it all?

I see a lot of definitions, denials, and perception of how it interacts with your soul.

Love is when our aura or energy of the body is attracted to other energies in order to be fullfilled so that are body can learn to equalize it's energy over a broader spectrum. Most of us need to experience love to learn to train our souls while others need constant reinforcement to maintain this. Others are born with a complete energy and yet others are born with a lop sided low levels of the aura itself.

It is not a sign of weakness to need love, it is not a sign of strength to not need love. Love can bind the energy of two people and make a powerful complete energy that works harmoniously. Pheromones are completely different, they stimulate a sexual desire which is different than real love. People can use them to steal others aura energy though as that balancing occurs during sexual activity and touching. I can give people strength or take it away from them with a touch of my hand.

Originally posted by rickymouse
I see a lot of definitions, denials, and perception of how it interacts with your soul.

Love is when our aura or energy of the body is attracted to other energies in order to be fullfilled so that are body can learn to equalize it's energy over a broader spectrum. Most of us need to experience love to learn to train our souls while others need constant reinforcement to maintain this. Others are born with a complete energy and yet others are born with a lop sided low levels of the aura itself.

It is not a sign of weakness to need love, it is not a sign of strength to not need love. Love can bind the energy of two people and make a powerful complete energy that works harmoniously. Pheromones are completely different, they stimulate a sexual desire which is different than real love. People can use them to steal others aura energy though as that balancing occurs during sexual activity and touching. I can give people strength or take it away from them with a touch of my hand.

No.

Concepts and ideals do not possess auras. People fall in love with concepts and ideals.

You're making love more physical than it actually is; not less.

reply to post by TarzanBeta


I am replying to you as much as NorEaster. He did make it very complicated, and more of a scientific analysis of something that in some ways, at least, defies that dissection. Once you invoke Maslow's Hierarchy, I think you are just reducing love to a quotient attached to need; although at the top level of that hierarchy, when all needs are met, is self actualization of an individual--where no needs are necessary any longer, and an individual, theoretically, then is the full and total actualization of who they really are, inside and out, no longer driven by need.

Need is not love, although I think the two are confused and masked and put together frequently. But I find the same, in a way, in your reply: desire. Love in long term romantic relationships waxes and wanes, as desire doesn't stick around physically, as most of us know, in long term situations, once familiarity sets in. So some stay for need, for the desire to not be hurt or alone or lonely, etc.
Not to mention our social conditioning, that having a partner makes it appear to the social network that we are
accepted by someone else, so therefore, more validated, then say, the lone 40 something woman or man, who often appear suspect, somehow, to people. It will occur to them, why haven't you married, or why don't you date, etc.

Love is more than desire, too, is my point. It transcends both desire and need, though desire is a necessary component, at least in the beginning of embarking upon a romantic alliance.

While thinking about all that, and reading everyone's responses, the poster who wrote: Baby, don't hurt me, please don't hurt me, almost brought tears to my eyes, for it so elucidates how powerful a force love can be and is, when it's real, because it has the power to make us vulnerable and cut us to the core, can break you, just as it can also heal you. And if we have been broken in trust, sometimes, I think, we may never really be able to love again.

I also think everyone's capacity for it is quite different. If one has never experienced unconditional love, I'm not sure they can conceive of giving it, either. To me, it is a profound force, energy, unrelated to need, and as it progresses unrelated to desire to some degree, as well, because that is still part of biological need and attraction, pheromones, etc, and social standing. Does it come from the heart? The heart is only a biological orggan with the function of keeping our life's blood moving throughout to power our body and brain. Does it come from our brain? It's just an organ, muscle, too, but I think more than that, being the center perhaps of the coalescence of our body and mind, producing consciousness, which transcends our physicality, while still depending upon certain components of that, sensorily speaking and perceptually, all part of consciousness,too.
Perhaps love comes from the coalescence of all that above, and then resides and thrives within our consciousness.

Though I am not necessarily religious, the most profound thing in the words of the Bible to me has always been Jesus's directive to love thy enemy..... this transcends need, attachment, physicality, desire, and the rest.
It acknowledges that love is a force within us, and that if we love the worst parts of ourselves and accept them for what they are, then we fill ourselves with compassion, understanding and the ability to embrace with that very powerful force called love every other living thing, despite how those other living things treat us of view us.......
If we can do that then we are truly filled with that mysterious force that lifts us, enlightens us, and changes our complete association with every living thing around us. And this is the most profound thing we, as humanity, have at our disposal that makes us worthy of us and able to make changes of the most profound nature to prevent our instincts for survival to descend into the primeval ways that keep us competing and consuming and at war.

Chemical reactions in you brain.

Did you know the initial "Love" for someone only lasts few months. After that its a relationship and benefits from that, but that initial love that attracted you to them and came without any benefits is gone.

reply to post by TarzanBeta


Are you sure you are reading my post right? Love can be transmitted through the air or by touch. Sex is different than love. It is all about balancing energy and frequency of our bodies. Science will deny this. Medicine will deny that some people can give or take energy from others. I understand how it works. If you give someone energy, it is only temporary. If you balance their energy it is only temporary and reinforcement is needed. Fixing the problem is more complex, I'm working on that.

Auras exist, this is the bleeding of energy from the body. Is a bright aura good or bad? If you have excess energy it is good to get rid of it if you can not adequately and safely store it.

reply to post by tetra50


It's still not that complicated.

When Jesus said to love your enemy, He didn't say that it would be easy, or that you would feel like doing it at first. But to desire to do whatever you can for your enemy, as if they were your family, is what you need to develop. Desire is something that you can choose. Whatever you change your heart, mind, and soul to focus upon, that is where the attention will be.

Love is a matter of attention, simply put.

Wherever your attention is, that is where your heart, mind, and soul are. That is where the love is.

If God is love, and we are made in God's image, then we are the embodiment of love.

Therefore, wherever our attention is, that is where our love is.

So therefore, if we are to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul, then where should our attention be?

If we cannot serve God and mammon, then we have further proof that love cannot be divided; for wherever love is, that is where it rests.

If we are told we are to love God, and also to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love our enemies; therefore, to love God means to love our neighbors and our enemies.

If we are to love our neighbors and our enemies as we love ourselves, then simply put, our attention must be focused upon people.

If we are focused upon anything other people, then we are wrong. *edit to add that this does not trump focusing on God. But rather, that God's works are focused on people. We focus on God, and He directs us to focus on the people of His choosing. But our work is people.

Now the love that we have for people is based upon concepts, ideals, powers, forces, whatever you will call them. The love we have for people is not a feeling. Happiness can arise from love, and so, as you said, can hurt.

Since love encompasses a variety of emotions, love itself is not an emotion. Therefore, love is our focus. And however our focus treats us will define how we emotionally respond.

For wherever your focus is, that is where your desire is.

If your desires are not meet with your hopes, then you will be disappointed.

If your desires are meet with your hopes, then you will enjoy them.

It does not go beyond desire, except that it is a choice. If anyone tells you that they cannot help but love somebody, this is false. They cannot help the emotion they feel because of the way in which the desires manifest. But they can change the desire.

If you say to yourself, "I cannot help but love that girl." Then what you are actually saying is, "I choose not to alter my desire from that girl. Because my focus is on her, I feel these range of emotions. I cannot help but feel these range of emotions for that girl."

But how many times have you heard someone say that they are in love with someone or something, and then change their mind the next day?

Because something that better matched their desires happened upon them.

So there is where their love lies.

So once again, the true question is, "What is desire?"

You say that when one has all that they need, they no longer have desire.

Have you not witnessed the bottomless pit of the heart? It cannot be satisfied with anything in this world. If it could, there would be no war! The hypothetical is pointless to argue because it doesn't exist.

Unless you account for God.

If your desire is to a eternal being, then how could you possibly ever be unsatisfied? Regardless of the outcome. You will have a wide variety of emotions, surely. You will have doubts.

Do we not have doubts about everything we desire? We are weak.

But to focus our attention upon all things that are tomorrow cast into the oven is utterly pointless. Things that die and go away, why do they deserve our attention? They don't.

Necessity has nothing to do with desire, except that necessity is something which can be desired.

But I do not desire money, but it is a necessity for some of us.

I do not desire a house, but I desire that my family is happy. And yet their happiness cannot pervade me. It is given to them to feel individually, and to me to feel mine individually. It is shared through communication.

I do not desire anything at all except for God.

Now if God says to love our neighbors and love our enemies, then that is my desire. How many can say that they desire to love their enemies? But they feign it, to save face, because their desire is to be guarded, not vulnerable. Their desire is to be above, not below.

So then what is it to love our neighbors and feed our enemies? Jesus showed us. The world believes a lie. They, and the present churches, say that to love is to give all that you have to the poor constantly, or to pray for them, and to always be gentle, and kind, and generous, and to judge nobody.

But that is because the world takes whatever suits itself for its own benefit. Satan well uses the words of God for his benefit as well.

But Jesus showed us what love is. That man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. And Jesus scolded, and rebuked, and admonished, as much as He healed all.