What Is Love?

Whenever you read an article or a blog post and it's defining Love, you are getting that writer's interpretation of what Love means to them personally based on their perspective and personal experiences. There are endless perceived characteristics and attributes of Love, some of which we agree upon and others not so much.

Everyone experiences Love in different ways, whether it be giving or receiving of Love. Some of us never receive Love from others but continuously and endlessly give our Love out. Often times leaving us feeling drained and lonely. Others of us receive endless Love from others but never give that Love back, leaving us feeling empty and hollow. Some of us never receive Love or give Love out, leaving us to feel as if we are a ghost passing through this realm. Still others of us receive Love and give it back in return, leaving us feeling filled with joy and serenity. 

Each individual expresses Love in their own way. I'm sure your familiar with the theory of the five Love languages, that has since been debunked, the point is that we all express and receive Love in different ways based on our interpretation of Love. There are endless ways in which we all express and receive Love. We do so because we all think we know what Love is, and yet very few of us actually sit and ponder what Love actually is. We just willingly accept any and every theory and opinion thrown at us about Love, and we keep the attributes we like while throwing away the attributes we don't like.

Most of us are completely inept when it comes to Love based on our experiences, opinions, and beliefs. There are very true and very real qualities of Love that are universal, there is a true definition of Love. All that need be done to discover the true meaning of Love is to learn about Love and practice Love. You don't need to become a scholar on the subject. If we were just to sit for a little while and question what Love means to us, and question why we have these beliefs that we have about Love or where they came from. Did our beliefs about Love come from ourselves or from what we've been taught by others.

My entire life, I have always been in Love with Love, it's my favorite thing in this world. I see so clearly just how much this world suppresses Love; we humans suppress a lot. Humans fear Love. We are afraid of being hurt by Love, we are afraid of not Loving enough, of Loving too much, of Loving the wrong people or things. We are afraid of losing Love, so we cling to it and run from it. Can Love hurt? Yes, the world's conception of "love" can and will hurt. Real Love never causes pain. 

So what is the true definition of Love? Selflessness. True Love is selfless, True Love simply exists, True Love asks for nothing in return, True Love doesn't hold grudges, True Love forgives, not out of necessity but out of Loving kindness. True Love forgets the past and ignores the future, True Love perceives nothing but perfection. True Love is ceaseless and unchanging. Christianity shows that Jesus Christ is the perfect representation of Love, he is the embodiment of Love. The bible states that "God is Love" in 1 John 4:16. Jesus is the "son of God", he is the human form of God, who is Love. Jesus shows us who God is. God is selfless Love. Jesus gave of us perfect shining example of how to experience God. Most of us would rather trust our own beliefs about Love then to question the true definition of Love and possibly be "wrong" (another concept we humans are terrified of). 

How to tell if you are Loving someone selflessly? Pick a person in your life and ask yourself why you Love that person. If your answer is anything other than they "we are all worthy of Love", it's more than likely a selfish Love. If you Love someone because they cause you joy, or do nice things for you, or make you laugh, or provide for you, or take care of you, etc. that is a selfish Love, you are Loving in a reciprocal way. If that person fails to provide a reason for you to Love them, you simply stop Loving them and look for someone else to fill that need to be Loved within, simply put someone else who will provide that specific desire for you. For most all of us Love is selfish and reciprocal. The very few of us that Love selflessly are considered messiahs, prophets, or gurus. 

If you really sit down and think about how many people you truly Love selflessly, the answer is probably zero. So what do you do, now that you know just how selfish you truly are? Start by Loving yourself, and acknowledging the fact that a majority of humans are selfish in at least in one way or another. We all Love selfishly, it's programed into us by this world. The truth is how would we ever be able to discover True Selfless Love if it weren't for selfish love. You can't have one without the other, you can't truly know selfless Love until you've gone as far as you can into selfish Love. Just because most of us love selfishly most of the time doesn't equal to being incapable of Loving selflessly. We are all pure Love and are all are capable of Loving selflessly, we all do it all the time, the tricky part is, we're usually Loving selflessly when we aren't aware of it. By becoming aware of Love, your able to start seeing True Love versus your conceptions and beliefs about Love. 

Love doesn't attack; fear of Love causes attacks. If someone is harming you in any way or doesn't make you feel good about yourself, you are allowed to walk away from that person. Love forgives but it doesn't mean you need to stick around to keep being abused. If someone punches me in the face, I forgive them since I know they aren't actually angry at me, I'm just an object of displaced rage. That being said I'm not just going to keep standing there as they continue to punch me in the face. Naturally I would calmly leave the situation if and when possible, as to not get punched again. Abusive individuals tend to make you believe that "love is taking their abuse, and not being allowed to leave". Some individuals use love as a weapon to control others with, not everyone who uses love, uses it for good. Anything can be manipulated and formed into something else. 

How do you tell if someone truly Loves you? Are they demanding anything in return from you? If the answer is yes, they don't truly Love you, they are using you to fulfill whatever it is that they need. As soon as you stop providing that need to them, they will replace you with someone who will. If you think you are in an abusive situation and you can't tell whether it's actually abusive or if they just "love you in their own way". True Love won't make you stay if you don't want to, True Love won't demand you do anything, and True Love doesn't hold all of your mistakes over you as a reminder of "how shitty you are and are lucky to have them to love you, cause no one else would". True Love creates more Love, Love grows and expands. True Love wants you to have all the Love you can get; True Love doesn't suppress or condemn.

I would also like to state that just because someone Loves you selfishly that doesn't necessarily equate to abuse or harm. Maybe your partner Loves you because you make them happy and you Love them because they make you happy, your both happy and everyone wins. No harm no foul, some of us live our entire lives in transactional Love relationships and it works. True Love doesn't hurt, is safe, and doesn't ask anything of you. I Love You and Peace Be With You.

God - Part Three

This is a continuation of earlier posts in which you can find here: Part One: https://thehangout.space/discussions-1/god                                          Part Two: https://thehangout.space/discussions-1/god-2

God is within everything. Therefore, you and God are one. Where does God end? Where do you begin? If you don't believe in "God" just replace "God" with "the universe", the truth remains the same.

Everything is God and you are one part of the whole of God, just as your pinky toe is one part of your whole. You are no greater than any other part and are no less than any other part. All parts are equal.

Jesus told us that we are gods in John 10:34 "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?". He was referring to Psalms 82:6 "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High". Jesus got crucified for quoting the bible to the "believers" of the bible for claiming that he was God. Yes, he did claim that he was god but he never said he was the only god, he literally told us that we are all gods. 

Nothing is separate, everything is one, everything is God. What you do to others, you do to yourself, since there are no others. We are all one. We are life, generated by Love. I Love you and Peace Be With You!

Empathy

The need for empathy is due to duality. The belief that "others" are sperate from you and therefore are in need of empathy. Empathy is a tool that can be used to find oneness and escape the illusion of duality. If you enjoy living in duality, more power to you, enjoy your life as you see fit, it's your life, you deserve to live it the way you choose.

Empathy can be practiced within, meaning Loving, forgiving, nurturing, and caring for yourself. When you make a mistake, tell yourself it will be ok and move forward. You can forgive your past mistakes and shame. You can motivate yourself and encourage yourself and push yourself to do things that you want to do. Always keep reminding yourself that everything is ok, even if it doesn't feel like it at the time. 

Empathy can be practiced with anyone you consider to be "other" than you. Which includes ALL living beings, whether you believe something to be alive or not doesn't change the fact that it has a life force within. Humanitarians practice empathy towards humans. Vegetarians and vegans practice empathy towards animals, tree huggers practice empathy towards plants and wildlife, and people who work on saving the whales practice empathy towards the whales. We all have the capacity for empathy, most of us choose who and when we share that empathy with, deciding who is worthy of our empathy and who is not.

Psychology shows us that we mirror ourselves onto "others" and we project our own insecurities onto "others". We rarely see anyone for who they really are, which includes ourselves. What we see in "others" is simply what we like or don't like about ourselves. Think about this for a moment, think of a person that you can't stand, an enemy or nemesis. You probably have very little in common with this person, you could probably even say you have nothing in common. They remind you of the qualities that you don't like about yourself, so instead of facing those qualities and healing them, it's much easier to blame your "enemy" and not have to face yourself. The practice of forgiveness isn't about forgiving "others" it's simply about forgiving those parts within yourself that you see in "others".

Now think of someone who you really look up to, a hero or role model. You see qualities within that person that you would like to have. You don't see that person; you only see your potential within that person. Celebrities are a shining example of this. Most people don't want to get to know the actual persona of celebrities, they only want to worship them. When you worship "other", it stems from you believing you are lacking something within. The more you realize that you have the same capacity for greatness as anyone else, the less you worship "others", since you realize that they aren't any more special than anyone else, they just have a talent or skill that you believe you lack. 

Have you ever been in Love with someone? I'm not referring to a crush or an obsession, but mutual Love, which comes from both sides. If you have been in Love, you have probably noticed that you have a lot in common, you tend to share a lot of the same beliefs and interests. You could probably say that you're almost the same person since you have so much in common. That's because that person reminds you of all the qualities that you like about yourself.

We avoid people that remind us of the things we don't like within ourselves, and we cling to people who remind us of the things we do like within ourselves. So, what can we do about this? Simply practice empathy. Keep practicing empathy and remind yourself that anytime you practice empathy, you are giving it to yourself, and anytime you withhold empathy, you are withholding it from yourself. I Love You and Peace Be With You!

God - Part Two

This is a continuation of an earlier post in which you can find here: https://thehangout.space/discussions-1/god

“For those who realize that everything is from God, everything is the same.” - Sufi Mystic Rumi

"one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." - Holy Bible, Ephesians 4:6

"To Allah belong the east and the west: so whichever way you turn, there is the face of Allah! Allah is indeed all-bounteous, all-knowing." - Quran, 2:115 Khalidi

"The Tao is both named and nameless. As nameless, it is the origin of all things; as named, it is the Mother of 10,000 things." - Tao Te Ching, 1:2

"Everywhere are His hands and feet, eyes, heads, and faces. His ears too are in all places, for He pervades everything in the universe." - Bhagavad Gita, 13:14

"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." - Chief Seattle, Duwamish

No matter your religious affiliation or beliefs, they all point to the same truths. One of those truths is that there is only one God and that God is within everything, including you. Nothing can exist apart from God. Since God is within you, it is impossible to be separated from God. The idea that it is possible to be separate from God is simply an illusion, which stems from the duality within human's mind. Want to find God? Look within yourself. I Love you and Peace Be With you!

Control

Human's need to control everything is insanity. We like to believe we can control our lives, what happens to us, how people treat us, and when we die. I hate to tell you this, but you have absolutely no control over anything outside of yourself, by clinging to the idea that you can control anything outside of yourself causes intense suffering. 

We get so upset when something goes "wrong" and so happy when something goes "right". We have no control over what happens to us and yet we use the "good" things that happen to us as proof that we can control the outer world. When something "bad" happens, it's just bad luck.

The less control we feel we have, the more we try to control. By trying to control the outer world you are guaranteed to find nothing but frustration and misery. If it exists outside of your own human body, you have absolutely zero control over it, the outer world is simply of reflection of your inner world.

Even within our own body there isn't much that we can or do control. We aren't in control of being alive, our body does that for us. We don't control when we get hungry, tired, horny, or thirsty. We don't control our thoughts or emotions. We don't control who or what we Love. 

What can we control then? Our actions / reactions.

I Love You and Peace Be With You!