How To Master Love?

[el_duderino]

hey, since one of my top values is love I want to master love. the question is: how?  

what is love? how can I work on becoming more loving? how can I master love?

my top resource for questions on love is Matt Kahn, but I would like to get some other perspectives.

he basically says "whatever arises, love that", and recommends practicing self-love.

[snowleopard]

Setting aside the cultural baggage of the 'L' word, Being is in essence Divine Love, but it is greatly distorted, conditioned and preempted by the egoic overlay. To 'master' it, so to speak, is to simply divest it of those veils of limitation -- albeit, I'm not sure that is ultimately possible while there remains any concessions to 'self'-limitation within the maya masquerade. Love's limitation seems to be a trade-off, or a sacrifice, a price that must be paid, for the sake of experiencing life. Nonetheless, that ideal expression of Love, however distorted and elusive it may be, perhaps may be the ultimate point of it all -- like mastering an art, within the limiting context of the tools one has to work with.

[Nahm]

Love is.

[Faceless]

“You” can’t?

The moment “you” being your self image and compulsion to project images on to others  ceases then there is love. If these images are clinged to in an attempt of self preservation of the ego then this is not love at all but becomes a means to an end. 

Do you see, a question we need to ask ouselves is love within field of thought, or something totally different? 

 

[Slade]

5 hours ago, el_duderino said:

hey, since one of my top values is love I want to master love. the question is: how?  

what is love? how can I work on becoming more loving? how can I master love?

my top resource for questions on love is Matt Kahn, but I would like to get some other perspectives.

he basically says "whatever arises, love that", and recommends practicing self-love.

Look into metta meditation. That’s what I’m mastering it’s basically just altruistic love and compassion. Tibetan Buddhism talks a lot about it.

[Faceless]

When there is desire is there love? 

Great topic?

Edited January 23, 2018 by Faceless

[SOUL]

Master it? As opposed to be enslaved to it?

You may want to examine why you used that word, it could reveal much to you.

Besides.... love is free.

[el_duderino]

thank you for your answers.

to specify my question:

spiritual purification seems to be the way to truth/love.

but is metta-meditation for example important? self-love?

@SOUL  mastering referring to the mastery process. working on embodying more love, setting up specific practices for becoming more loving, ...

[SOUL]

4 minutes ago, el_duderino said:

 

mastering referring to the mastery process. working on embodying more love, setting up specific practices for becoming more loving, ...

Sound pretty mental mastury to me.

Edited January 23, 2018 by SOUL

[Faceless]

Can the self being a result of fragmentation from thought express the action of love? “The self” being a self sustaining mechanism and volition implies a means to an end and a mechanism of function. Can this entity that is a manifestation of thought “will, ambition, strife, desire, love at all? 

Again can love be cultivated by thought? Is there any relation between the two, or are they independent and seperate from one another all together. 

Interesting?

[SOUL]

@Faceless Through wilful intention we can transform our life in dramatic ways, even the inherent self interest nature quite significantly.

[Slade]

1 hour ago, el_duderino said:

but is metta-meditation for example important? self-love?

 mastering referring to the mastery process. working on embodying more love, setting up specific practices for becoming more loving, ...

 

Metta isn’t just about self love. It’s more so about altruistic love, sacrificing yourself for the love of others. When I say metta I mean loving kindness, compassion, altruistic love, etc... Mainstream society tends to turn metta into a self love practice but that’s not really how it’s supposed to be. 

Watch some YouTube videos with the Dalai Lama. His main focus is warm heartedness, compassion. As well at Matthieu Ricard. He’s written multiple books on cultivating loving kindness, compassion, alruism, etc... To put it simply, compassion meditation is all about the cultivation of love for all beings. You can easily setup a daily practice of compassion meditation to work on bringing more feelings of love into your life. 

[Faceless]

@SOUL

Oh I totally agree buddy, but love seems be outside the realm of willful intent. The question is is Love conditional in accordance  to subjectivity? 

[beaucoup]

@el_duderino I would highly recommend giving metta-meditation a try. Last year i had a period of a few months where i did metta daily, and man, tears of joy and love came quite regular, i also noticed it changing my behavior a lot, making me more understanding and forgiving, towards others but also towards myself. Now, this is how it went for me. Best is to find out for yourself, if this style of meditation resonates with yourself. 

Also, in my experience, music can be great to open one up for love - depends on the music of course. 

[Slade]

1 hour ago, Faceless said:

 Can this entity that is a manifestation of thought “will, ambition, strife, desire, love at all? 

Again can love be cultivated by thought? 

Tibetan Buddhism says yes to that. In fact they said that at our very essence, humans are altruistic. 

[Faceless]

@Slade

Only when that essence is not influenced by the corruption of thought “the self” though right? ??

                                          

Edited January 23, 2018 by Faceless

[Slade]

2 minutes ago, Faceless said:

@Slade

Only when that essence is not influenced by the corruption of thought “the self” though right? ??

                                          

Maybe but don’t get caught up in concepts. Haha It’s “the self” that has the idea to do metta meditation in the first place. “The self” naturally wants more love so that’s why we might choose to do metta. Haha 

[Faceless]

@Slade

yeah lol 

negation of concepts????

[LaucherJunge]

@el_duderino
Self-love, just keep loving yourself and giving yourself the attention you would give to anyone you would also love. That is the only way, with this you can then reflect love to the outside and attract it, altough never forget that the true source will always be you and not somebody else.

[SOUL]

25 minutes ago, Faceless said:

Oh I totally agree buddy, but love seems be outside the realm of willful intent. The question is is Love conditional in accordance  to subjectivity? 

Explain how "love seems (to) be outside the realm of willful intent".

Is love conditional? Well, there are characteristics that constitute what love is, they are not the same that are fear, so there are conditions that make love what love is. If you are asking is there unconditional love as far as extending and receiving it, or conditions that love can exist in then always loving is conditional since always is a condition of it being it. So unconditional love is on the condition of always loving otherwise it isn't unconditional love, ironically.

I'm not sure what you mean by "in accordance to subjectivity" although if you are asking can love be subjectively assessed or is it always an objective assessed state then if it can only be objectively assessed then that would be another condition of unconditional love... so we would have to consider if unconditional love  is even a thing if 'always' and 'objectively' are conditions of love. But please clarify, maybe I misunderstand you.

In my own experience love is a multifaceted thing not easily defined, some of it is cultural, some biological, some ideological and some abstract so I guess I would need to understand how someone is defining 'love' to address specific concerns but for my own path i have seen transformation in my life using love in different forms of it.