Trying to define love

[Kiran]

I've always wondered if there were really WORDS to describe, to define LOVE.



Until now, Richard Bach and Sri Aurobindo are the ones I read who came closest to what I think LOVE is:


This is what Richard Bach wrote in his book "Bridge across forever" (I re-translated from german, so the actual words may be a little different ):

"Such an intense love... the image we connect with the word "intense" is just a meaningless thought in comparison with the immensity of the love in whose abyss I now fell.

I AM!
YOU ARE!
AND LOVE - IS THE ONLY THING - THAT COUNTS!

An exploding feeling of bliss went through me, teared me apart atom by atom; I caught aflame like a match fallen into the sun. Joy, intensive til intolerability..."

And Sri Aurobindo wrote in "Savitri":

"I have found the deep unchanging soul of love.
My eternity clasped by his eternity,
and, tireless of the sweet abysms of time,
deep possibility always to love.
(...)
For I know now why my spirit came to earth
and who I am and who is he I love.
(...)
I have seen God smile at me in Satyavan;
I have seen the Eternal in a human face."




What do you think?
How would you define, describe love?
Can love be described or defined?
Or is it ever THE MYSTERY?

No. Love is not the mystery.

It just seems mystery because love means and feels different for each of us.

Each of us can describe and define what love is to oneself.

Even with each individual, there are many shades and depths of love based on different situations, things, person, relationships, life stages, and etc.

Out of all different shades and depths of love, the most important love is SELF LOVE.

When one does not achieve the SELF LOVE, one endlessly seeks love externally to fill the internal void of love.

Without SELF LOVE, love cannot be given or received properly.

SELF LOVE is NOT SELFISHNESS.

SELFISHNESS is enslaved to human ego and its shortcomings, including misguided desires, longings, greed, vanity, ignorance, hate, and all other human emotions.
SELFISHNESS promotes destruction and despair. SELFISHNESS blinds one to become a lesser person.

SELF LOVE embraces, accepts, and ascends above all human shortcomings and ego to balance mind, body, and spirit/soul to serve the internal God that is the eternal soul within each of us.
SELF LOVE spreads love. SELF LOVE provides clarity and leads one to become a better person.

All understandings of LOVE stem from SELF LOVE.

When someone's happiness is your happiness, that is love :)

[Miss Hepburn]

Love...apart from attraction, fulfilling a hole inside us,infatuation
Boils down to me to simply caring.

I care about my cat's welfare and all the cats on my block.
I care for the homeless guy with the cardboard...and on and on
And then do something to help or show them.
If I didn't care that would be indicative of a lack of love on my part.

Love seems simple to me ...its caring.

[Xan]

Love can't be defined but only felt to know what it is.

Love itself isn't necessarily intense or dramatic, nor is it always for someone or something although those expressions are most familiar to us.

Love itself is pure primal energy... the pure essence of everything in existence, although often hidden in the human mind.

Love itself is love for-no-reason... with so many different expressions no one could count them all.


Xan

Xan,
You just defined love..... that is of your version.

Defining love
is like pinning a butterfly to a display
It only lives in the moment.

Great question

I had to really think about it for a bit to come up with what I feel is what I would describe or define as "love":

Love is when you stop questioning and searching and doubting; because you know that everything you have ever wanted or needed, is right there in that moment - and you are at peace.

Love is when someone else's needs matter more to you than your own.

LOL
Anna
x