What is love?

For all things philosophical.

Moderators: AMod, iMod

Nick_A
Posts: 6208
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 1:23 am

Re: What is love?

Post by Nick_A »

Harbal
I honestly don't know if it is any wonder that Hitler's goal is considered perfectly logical and beneficial, Nick, I thought we were just talking about you shagging your pets.
Rent a Penthouse Pet for the night. she may cost a few bucks but the experience may be worth it. Shag it as best you can. Her curves may help you to distinguish sex from love. Just don't abuse your pet.
Walker
Posts: 14280
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2015 12:00 am

Re: What is love?

Post by Walker »

Nick_A wrote: Sun Jun 24, 2018 4:55 pm Walker
Question: Do you think that secularism denies the absolute, and that awareness of the absolute is necessary in order to know thyself?
Yes. For most, the practice of know thyself is just psychology and analysis. But the conscious experience of the self necessary to know thyself in the esoteric sense requires the conscious part of our collective being which is open to the vertical line of being leading to the Absolute. This conscious part is not active

Secularism is only concerned with behavior in the world and uses analysis to further its aims. The esoteric practice of "know thyself" is concerned with what we ARE and the human condition denying the ability "to be." The practice of "know thyself" reveals what we ARE as opposed to the secular aim of behavioral indoctrination

The revelation of what we ARE is repulsive to secularism since to be open to it results in the death of secularism. It will fight for its dominance in the world and the fight is not all that pleasant.
I’m not getting a clear reception as to how for a secularist, knowing one’s own existence conflicts with concern for behavior.

What I’m hearing in the reception is that this concern for the behavior of others that you identify as the only concern of secularists, is being used as the sole ethical justification by secularists to indoctrinate youngsters with what to think, rather than how to think. Correct?
User avatar
Dontaskme
Posts: 16940
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2016 2:07 pm
Location: Nowhere

Re: What is love?

Post by Dontaskme »

Love is the total collapse of separation.


In God there is no duality. In that Presence, 'I' and 'we' and 'you' do not exist. 'I' and 'you' and 'we' and 'He' become one.

The philosopher is the seeker of unity. Since in the Unity there is no distinction, the Quest and the Way and the Seeker become One.
That’s the purpose of life. To find real love.

.
Nick_A
Posts: 6208
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 1:23 am

Re: What is love?

Post by Nick_A »

Walker
I’m not getting a clear reception as to how for a secularist, knowing one’s own existence conflicts with concern for behavior.

What I’m hearing in the reception is that this concern for the behavior of others that you identify as the only concern of secularists, is being used as the sole ethical justification by secularists to indoctrinate youngsters with what to think, rather than how to think. Correct?
No. First I agree with Socrates’ distinction between the inner and outer man. He said:
'Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one.'
The same idea is expressed in Christianity as recorded in Matthew 6:
28 And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
The essence of the lily is expressed in the world. However the human condition has made it so that Man’s personality in the world doesn’t reflect Man’s evolved essence or inner unity.

Our problem as it relates to philosophy and the essence of religion isn’t as much how to think but rather how to realistically experience life. Secularism built on imagination and the indoctrination of the personality must oppose the realistic experience of external life which enables the growth of the inner man.

What is truly frightening is if a person is asked what the most important quality is in order to experience the reality of the external world most will not know. If it isn’t known how can a person begin to experience the difference between the inner and outer man as they are? Critical thinking is an important skill for acquiring partial truths concerning facts but a person faced with the question: “to be or not to be” requires more than critical thinking in order “to be.”
artisticsolution
Posts: 1942
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:38 am

Re: What is love?

Post by artisticsolution »

That's a hard one. I used to think love was a positive feeling toward another and the way they make you feel about yourself. But now that ive been married 30ish years, I realize that it's mostly about coexisting in peace.

It's like the freedom of being alone without the loneliness.
Walker
Posts: 14280
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2015 12:00 am

Re: What is love?

Post by Walker »

When your first thought is the final lesson from the movie Groundhog Day, which is, "what can I do for you today," then you’ve discovered love no matter how it was hidden. That can be a perpetual state of consciousness flavored with the normal human variances of personality, such as a twinkle in the eye. Service from the heart makes pure.
User avatar
QuantumT
Posts: 655
Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2018 7:45 pm
Contact:

Re: What is love?

Post by QuantumT »

Love is just a yes. It's not always spoken out loud, but it's clear inside.

A love never expressed, can be stronger and more pure, than any love shown!
Walker
Posts: 14280
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2015 12:00 am

Re: What is love?

Post by Walker »

QuantumT wrote: Tue Jun 26, 2018 10:53 pm Love is just a yes. It's not always spoken out loud, but it's clear inside.

A love never expressed, can be stronger and more pure, than any love shown!
Love can’t be hidden.
That’s how they got Winston Smith.
Gary Childress
Posts: 8121
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:08 pm
Location: Retirement Home for foolosophers

Re: What is love?

Post by Gary Childress »

Walker wrote: Sun Jun 24, 2018 11:34 am
Walker wrote:Love is the effect of no conflict, not the cause of no conflict.
Nick wrote:I respectfully have to disagree but I may not understand what you mean. I( don’t see them as necessarily related. For example even though a turtle and an elephant do not live in conflict doesn’t mean they are an expression of love.
It’s like the old story of the Indian Brave and the maiden.

They were from different tribes. They met only once, at a festival, and they fell in love. Their fathers were both chiefs, and this love didn’t follow political plans for the future, so the chiefs forbade it. This wasn’t so difficult to enforce because the tribes lived at opposite ends of a huge lake.

Because he was in love, The Indian Brave had no internal conflicts.

He had realized his purpose in life. He knew why he was put on the earth. It was to love the maiden.

Many circumstances were in conflict with this realization: his father’s forbidding command, the limitations of his people’s lifestyle, the big lake. But none of this was a problem for the lad because he had no more conflicts. All doubts had been swept aside, conflict was swept aside. Every thought, every action, was aligned to his purpose. He was in love.

Since his father had put all the canoe paddles under guard, the Brave also swept aside that conflict.

He simply waded into the lake and began to swim to his beloved.

His love carried him far into the lake, but even though he was strong, the water was too wide, and he drowned.

It was tragic and there was great mourning by all, for the Brave was the best of the tribe, and within him was the potentiality, the hope for a brighter future.

In honor of his memory, the tribe changed the name of the lake. The Indian name is lost in the mists of time, but the translation persists. It’s called, Lake Stupid.

Moral of the story?
Under the proper conditions, ignoring reality is stupid because everything that exists has a purpose, even conflict.


The trick is to subsume all purpose into … God’s purpose, or your purpose?
Answer: Is any purpose other than the best to which you can aspire (given limited knowledge inherent to incarnation and also limited knowledge caused by corruption of that inherent capacity), capable of even approaching such subsumption?
I'm not sure how to derive the moral you give above out of the information you've provided in the story. It sounds to me like you're imposing your notion of God and "everything has a purpose" into what would otherwise just be an example of how tragic the world can sometimes be.
User avatar
Agent Smith
Posts: 1442
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:23 pm

Re: What is love?

Post by Agent Smith »

Love is (the) unnecessary.
Gary Childress
Posts: 8121
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:08 pm
Location: Retirement Home for foolosophers

Re: What is love?

Post by Gary Childress »

Agent Smith wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 3:39 am Love is (the) unnecessary.
Can you elaborate on your post? What does that mean or imply that love is "unnecessary"?
User avatar
Agent Smith
Posts: 1442
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:23 pm

Re: What is love?

Post by Agent Smith »

Gary Childress wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 4:01 am
Agent Smith wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 3:39 am Love is (the) unnecessary.
Can you elaborate on your post? What does that mean or imply that love is "unnecessary"?
Is a dictionary complete minus the word "love"?
Iwannaplato
Posts: 6666
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:55 pm

Re: What is love?

Post by Iwannaplato »

Agent Smith wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 6:42 am Is a dictionary complete minus the word "love"?
No. Anyone studying the language - speakers of other languages, children - would at some point be irritated that it was left out.
Iwannaplato
Posts: 6666
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:55 pm

Re: What is love?

Post by Iwannaplato »

Walker wrote: Tue Jun 26, 2018 9:06 pm When your first thought is the final lesson from the movie Groundhog Day, which is, "what can I do for you today," then you’ve discovered love no matter how it was hidden. That can be a perpetual state of consciousness flavored with the normal human variances of personality, such as a twinkle in the eye. Service from the heart makes pure.
For a pleasant change, I think this is not bad. I'm not a fan of the class-based religious metaphor of 'service', but the what can I do for you today idea is not bad and Ground Hog day is a very good film showing how sometimes we can only learn through the process of elimination.
User avatar
Agent Smith
Posts: 1442
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:23 pm

Re: What is love?

Post by Agent Smith »

Iwannaplato wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 6:52 am
Agent Smith wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 6:42 am Is a dictionary complete minus the word "love"?
No. Anyone studying the language - speakers of other languages, children - would at some point be irritated that it was left out.
I see. The question was worth it.
Post Reply