Is Love Ever a Kind of Enlightenment?

[crossfire]

Enlightenment is understanding how to love your enemy.

I would say that definitely qualifies as swimming against the tide.

 

[shmogie]

I have heard that "While some kinds of love are blind, there is more than one kind of love, and that one of the several kinds of love is more a matter of how you see someone, or of how you perceive them, than it is a matter of what you feel for them." Furthermore, loving someone in that way is both "unconditional" and "similar to being enlightened".

Does that mean anything to you? Does it make any sense? Do you think it might be true? Why or why not?

You define love is a single thing, meaning a single thing. The New testament in the original Koine Greek speaks of several types of love, Sexusal love, romantic love, love between family members, love of humanity in general, love between friends, love for God. These are all represented by a different word. Which are you speaking of, or is it all of them ?

 

[Sunstone]

You define love is a single thing, meaning a single thing. The New testament in the original Koine Greek speaks of several types of love, Sexusal love, romantic love, love between family members, love of humanity in general, love between friends, love for God. These are all represented by a different word. Which are you speaking of, or is it all of them ?

I think the person who was talking about love -- the person I quoted in the OP -- was talking about something closer to metta than to anything we in the West are normally familiar with.

 

[shmogie]

I think the person who was talking about love -- the person I quoted in the OP -- was talking about something closer to metta than to anything we in the West are normally familiar with.

Unfortunately, I don't what "metta" is.would you please explain ? Thanks !

 

[Sunstone]

Unfortunately, I don't what "metta" is.would you please explain ? Thanks !

I'd tentatively define "metta" as "unconditional love as seen through an Eastern optic, especially a Southeast Asian lens."

To me, unconditional love is a rare, but ubiquitous, human experience in the sense that it doesn't happen to everyone (perhaps not even to most people) but instances of it can be found in almost all times and places. However, it seems different peoples put different spins on it. As I think of it, metta is by and large the Theravada Buddhist spin on unconditional love.

The word "metta" is often translated as loving-kindness, benevolence. Sometimes, metta is described as "being like the unconditional love of a mother for her only child -- but expressed not just as unconditional love for one thing, but as unconditional love for all things."

This seems a pretty good intro to it: Buddhist Metta

 

[crossfire]

Unfortunately, I don't what "metta" is.would you please explain ? Thanks !

Metta is one of the four "Brahma Abodes" or "Immeasureable Divine/Sublime States" mentioned in this previous post:

I would say the The Four Immeasurables--loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity--would be present with enlightenment.
Brahmavihara - Wikipedia

The four sublime states work together--metta being one part.

 

[shmogie]

Metta is one of the four "Brahma Abodes" or "Immeasureable Divine/Sublime States" mentioned in this previous post:

The four sublime states work together--metta being one part.

Sorry, I intruded into a conversation that I have no knowledge of the overall context. Excuse me, and thanks for your response.

 

[ajay0]

Total love, along with awareness, is said to destroy karma and bring about enlightenment. So a loving state is considered similar to the state of enlightenment as is present moment awareness. One can be said to have tasted a glimpse of enlightenment.

For unconditional love and compassion to manifest, one must come to a state of higher consciousness or nondual perception corresponding to the state of total love where dualism easily melts into oblivion.

Some may have perhaps experienced this state spontaneously when glancing deeply at the eyes of their beloved when in a romantic mood, wherein one is in a state of high prana or chi. There may appear a suspension of time and space for a brief moment.

This can happen between perfect strangers as well in a place brimming with high prana or energy levels. The guru of such an ashram with high energy levels had to warn those who experienced such intimate moments of nondualism not to confuse it with romantic love and stuff, and that it is mainly due to the high energy levels and will not persist beyond the limits of the ashram.

 

[Ponder This]

I have heard that "While some kinds of love are blind, there is more than one kind of love, and that one of the several kinds of love is more a matter of how you see someone, or of how you perceive them, than it is a matter of what you feel for them." Furthermore, loving someone in that way is both "unconditional" and "similar to being enlightened".

Does that mean anything to you? Does it make any sense? Do you think it might be true? Why or why not?

"Is Love Ever a Kind of Enlightenment?" No.

"Unconditional Love" Often, but not always, part of the parent-child bond. More common than we think, not always found where we expect it.

"True Love" Also happens, but how would you know it's true? True love is shown by the test that it endures, but only the faithless deliberately test it. A conundrum.

A story:
Two arguing women came before King Solomon each claiming to be the mother of a particular baby.
Solomon, known for his wise judgments considered for a moment and then declared that the baby should be split between them: the two women would each grab half and pull until they had their half. One of the two women declared that she would give up her claim on the child and allow it to be raised by the other woman, rather than split it with her. Solomon then declared the woman who was willing to give up her claim for the sake of the child to be the rightful mother.

 

[Milton Platt]

I have heard that "While some kinds of love are blind, there is more than one kind of love, and that one of the several kinds of love is more a matter of how you see someone, or of how you perceive them, than it is a matter of what you feel for them." Furthermore, loving someone in that way is both "unconditional" and "similar to being enlightened".

Does that mean anything to you? Does it make any sense? Do you think it might be true? Why or why not?

Can you define the word "enlightenment"? Isn't virtually all knowledge enlightening to various degrees?

 

[Sunstone]

Sorry, I intruded into a conversation that I have no knowledge of the overall context. Excuse me, and thanks for your response.

Sincere thanks for asking some good questions.

 

[osgart]

I think unconditional love is loving someone whether they deserve it or not. I dont think its love without punishment and correction.

True love is higher love because it is deserved.

And i think both loves serve to make life worth living and bring us closer to enlightenment.

So theres a heaven of love and hell to love. But life is nothing without love. To live is to love. And wherever there is a quality to life there also resides love. Perhaps that is enlightenment.