Love and desire

We hear the word "love" almost constantly, but what does it really mean? It seems that our society has two very different meanings for  the word, and these meanings have unfortunately been twisted together. True Love could be described as a feeling of transcendent Bliss, a feeling of Freedom and a total release of fear. This is what's known as God's Love, or Unconditional Love, and it's completely different than the other way people use the word love, which is nothing more than a strong desire.

What's wrong with desire? Well, Buddha had a lot to say about that. To put it quite simply, desire is the very thing that keeps people stuck within illusion. A person full of desires is living in the future and the past, they aren't living in the Now. Why is Now so important? Well that's where the whole Multi-Dimensional Reality is present, that "future" people are trying to get to only exists within the mind. If you want to get to Real Love, if you want to get to God, you start at the Present Moment.

Desire can be seen as the dualistic imitation of actual Love. Love gives and receives freely, without expectation or conditions, while desire is always filled with expectations and conditions. Desire makes life about trying to get "things" instead of actually Living. Desire is a bottomless pit, a void that's never really satisfied. Individual desires come and go, but the habit, the pattern is still there. It's not uncommon that for each specific desire that's been resolved, two more have come up to take its place.

Very few relationships on this Planet are really based upon True Love. Each person may tell the other, "I love you", but what they usually mean is "I want you" or "I like what you do for me". Each person "loves" the other so long as the conditions are fulfilled, but if the conditions of the relationship are violated, the "love" is withdrawn. True Love is not something that can be lost, or something that fades with time. That's what happens with desire, and to call that "love" is to deeply misunderstand what Love Really Is.

Conditional love is an oxymoron, a complete contradiction of terms. Love cannot be controlled, and you're not in charge of Love. Attempting to control Love always results in misery. People often claim to be hurt by love, but it's always unfulfilled desire that causes the actual pain. A truly Loving person respects the choices another makes, and  that Love sets everyone free, while desire seeks to control others.

Unconditional Love is given everything equally, which is how Real Love works. Unconditional Love is like the sun, it doesn't pick and choose, it shines on everyone freely. If you really Love another, you don't need for them to Love you back. Even if they don't you still treat them with Love. With conditional "love", the desire often fades or disappears completely when it is no longer mutual. I'm more like an agreement between two people "I'll tolerate your ego if you tolerate mine".

LOVE!

From the Galactic Free Press!

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