Fear is the heart of love. (blood)

[morning-star]

I strongly disagree with that statement. Fear can be overcome by love. Fears can control a person. Most/some religions use fear to keep people in to their ‘flock’. Fear of a vengeful God, fear of going to hell. Fear will never be the heart of love because they are complete opposites. If you let fear be the heart of love you are denying true love and are letting yourself fall into ignorance.

I'll agree with this = FEAR = False Evidence that Appears Real

[Guitar's Cry]

Fear is not always a negative emotion. While it is often taken in a negative context--because we typically don't enjoy it--it has positive virtues. It is fear that keeps us alive sometimes. It activates chemical reactions that sharpen our minds and opens our awareness. Fear for someone can lead to unselfish acts through or leading to love.

Love is also not always a positive emotion. Love can lead to life decisions that can negatively affect a person's health or emotional well-being. There can also be a love for things that are considered negative, like war, violence, or hate.

This is, of course, assuming a positive/negative dichotomy, which is an individual realization. But then, the associations people make with emotions is individual. Fear could be the heart of love for some--maybe for the reasons mentioned in my first post on this thread.

Fear and love are more like spectrums. They are alloys of emotions that create the associations we have with the words. Love can be fearful, and fear can be loving.

[lilithu]

Originally Posted by Guitar's Cry

Fear is not always a negative emotion. While it is often taken in a negative context--because we typically don't enjoy it--it has positive virtues. It is fear that keeps us alive sometimes. It activates chemical reactions that sharpen our minds and opens our awareness. Fear for someone can lead to unselfish acts through or leading to love.

I kinda buy that. I depends on how we respond to fear. If we transcend it, then fear was useful. If we are held captive by it, then it is not. But ultimately, fear comes from seeing something as alien to yourself.

Originally Posted by Guitar's Cry

Love is also not always a positive emotion. Love can lead to life decisions that can negatively affect a person's health or emotional well-being. There can also be a love for things that are considered negative, like war, violence, or hate.

In my view, it is impossible to "love war." What happens is that people are attached to things and they mistake that for love. One can be attached to a person. One can be attached to war. But real love, imo, has no attachment. Real love is giving freely of yourself to the Other, because you make no distinction between you and the Other. In that context, a "love of war" makes no sense.

----

It's a beautiful song btw. I got to hear them play live at the 9:30 Club here in DC when the album first came out. Ordered the cd immediately when I got home, and it was largely due to that song.

[Guitar's Cry]

Originally Posted by lilithu

In my view, it is impossible to "love war." What happens is that people are attached to things and they mistake that for love. One can be attached to a person. One can be attached to war. But real love, imo, has no attachment. Real love is giving freely of yourself to the Other, because you make no distinction between you and the Other. In that context, a "love of war" makes no sense.

Interesting!

For me, love is a collection of emotions and sensations that the individual associates with the "love" symbol. I admit that we can agree on some of these associations (it would make emotional sharing impossible otherwise and conversation even more difficult!), but the experience of it is personal and defintions vary.

Working within your definition, I think there can be and has been those who have given themselves freely to war. I personally can certainly imagine it, and the descriptions of certain people in history certainly lead me to believe it.

That is why I think it's possible that fear can be the heart of love to some people. Emotional associations can be take many forms; perhaps this is one of them!

[Guitar's Cry]

Originally Posted by doppelgänger

To me, fear is the barricade to love.

I heard the line in the context of a song by Death Cab for Cutie:

Catholic School
As vicious as Roman rule
I got my knuckles bruised
by a lady in black

I held my tongue
as she told me, "Son,
fear is the heart of love."
So I never went back

Though I may not have used that specific phrase before, long before I heard it in the song, I had personally decided that any religion whose message was about a vengeful or judging God (or any sort of "right belief") was not really about love, but about fear.

Does it seem to you as though in many religious orthodoxies the love of God manifests itself primarily in the form of fear? Why do you think that appeals to people? What does fear do for them, that it feels like love? Feel free to speculate.

I do agree that this sort of fear shouldn't lead to love. But the possibility exists. It is certainly a form of control that creates a barrier towards true spirituality.

Still, the phrase, "Fear is the heart of Love" is interesting indeed! I think that taken by itself or within the context of the song, it has some powerful insights.

[Azakel]

Originally Posted by morning-star

I strongly disagree with that statement. Fear can be overcome by love. Fears can control a person. Most/some religions use fear to keep people in to their ‘flock’. Fear of a vengeful God, fear of going to hell. Fear will never be the heart of love because they are complete opposites. If you let fear be the heart of love you are denying true love and are letting yourself fall into ignorance.

I'll agree with this = FEAR = False Evidence that Appears Real

For more of an explanation on what False Evidence that Appears Real mean here's a link:
http://www.wellnesstips.ca/fear.htm

Though the story is from 2005, that saying goes way back, even my mom know it, lol.

[UnityNow101]

The fear of God is the beginning of all knowledge...It is a saying found within all of the Holy Books and is a saying which should not just be tossed to the side because we do not like the word or the implications of its application to the everyday world. Of course, fear in and of itself is not a good thing. But it is to fear the punishment of God. With the fear of God, one is more likely to follow the ways set forth in the Holy Texts. Certainly without that fear of punishment, people would have no motive to keep away from sin.

[Mestemia]

A man who fears nothing is a man who loves nothing.