How do you feel love?

[seeking_brilliance]

     I've come to the conclusion that love is at least two things : an idea and a feeling (or at least the body interpreting love as a feeling.)

     For now I want to focus on the feeling of love. So what is love? It makes me feel something, right? Like a piece of my own heart is divided amongst the things and people I love, and even the thought of them makes the pieces feel more whole. There's a swelling of warm, tingling  pleasure in the area that is known as the heart chakra. But is there? Or do I only believe that? If I believed it also made my right big toe ache in agony, would I hobble around every time I hug my mom? It sure would make hiking (which I love) quite difficult.

     But suppose I had been taught since an infant that the feeling of Love brought great pain in my big toe. I would either feel it every time I feel love, or I'd be depressed, thinking that I can't feel love because I feel the pleasure in my chest but no agony in the toe. And if I did feel it, it makes it true because in my direct experience, those would be the two main factors of the feeling of love. Even if the person who taught me this was just an evil asshole who thought it would be funny.

     Also, I wonder if  agony were a major contributor to feeling love, if I'd even want to ever feel it.

     But love isn't all sunshine and rainbows. There is a pain in love. Just ask a love sick 16 year old who's been freshly dumped. Or a father who just bailed his son out of jail. This love has several emotions factoring into the overall feeling, but the unique concoction is still love, and a painful kind of that.

     So it's actually kind of hard to pin down an exact feeling of love, but it does seem to be heart centered and can be a swelling or contracting feeling, depending on circumstances. This I have direct experience of. Although I can't know if I was misled into believing these to be the feelings. Perhaps a feeling of love could be in the stomach, or the left arm. Or the head. Perhaps it pervades the entire body. Perhaps its completely outside the body in some kind of auric field.  Perhaps there's no feeling at all.

     Or perhaps it feels like everything and we mistake it to feel as nothing. Or as something. And something can't be everything, after all. Everything is everything (and something, of course). 

     So what creates this feeling of love? If the feeling even exists? A concoction of chemicals in the brain? Something in between the atoms? Purely imagination? Gosh it would help if I knew what the hell feelings are! But suffice it to say, I do feel love, and my body can also get very tingly like a cool electricity is firing through my skin. Like today when talking to a client about the new season of Doctor Who, and how exciting it was for a new doctor, (who's female!) , and the future of the series. My skin started pulsating like a million tiny fireflies were buzzing around even in my head. It felt good... weird, but good. And maybe it's a combination of excitement and love, because I don't often feel this tingling, but I consider it the feeling of love. Expressing my love for this television series changed something in my body. I couldn't help but smile. I wonder if she felt it too.

     But I still don't really know what love is. It's got to be more than a feeling right? (not considering the option that it's an idea, which I haven't fully explored yet) But what else could it be? I could easily say it's a learned response, or even gene-inherited response, fueled by lifetime of risk and reward opportunities, releasing an elixir of chemicals into the bloodstream like a special cocktail. How could I possibly know if it is more than that? For all I know it's the shining pinnacle of evolution. A gift from our ancestors to learn to cope with reality. And nothing more. What if? 

 So my question is how do you feel love? Where do you feel it? I'm interested in how much is cultural influence, and how much is a common feeling. 

 

Edited October 19, 2018 by seeking_brilliance

[Jack River]

How do you feel love?..“you” don’t. 

If there is a moment where ALL ATTENTION on say a glorious sunset and there is no sense of self for that slight moment, that is much closer to this enormous energy of love. In that moment there is no thought/you. That is love dudes. 

Edited October 19, 2018 by Jack River

[seeking_brilliance]

@Jack River is it though? That's sounds nice and all but I want to know how you feel love.  And I'm sure you'll reiterate that there's no "you" to feel anything but I want to know how Jack River feels love. In the body? What are the sensations, if any?  Or do you stand with your statement that you (don't) feel love with no self. 

[TheAvatarState]

I'm not sure whether to share the insight I've had on it. You may not have the proper context, and this may not make sense. But I'll say it anyway. 

All love is is infinite mind connecting with itself. Love is a connection, that's all it is. Everything else is just an interpretation. Love seems really complicated sometimes, with many different facets, but that's all fabrication. Love is fundamental metaphysically.

[Jack River]

5 minutes ago, seeking_brilliance said:

Or do you stand with your statement that you (don't) feel love with no self. 

Fear doesn’t share the same room with love. Love isn’t a reaction, it’s the absence of reaction. Fear makes us escape and escape=resistance. Resistance=conflict and conflict causes more fear/anger. As long as there is conflict/resistance/anger/fear that prevents or kills the energy of love. 

conflict/resistance/anger/fear=self. 

[Jack River]

As long as there is self there is only self interest. As long as we seek psychological security, there is never this energy of love. And the self and psychological becoming are the same of desire. Desire=suffering, and where there is suffering there can never be love. 

When I saw the fact of this it was an extreme shock. 

Edited October 19, 2018 by Jack River

[Jack River]

It doesn’t get more straight forward than that 

[SgtPepper]

Love is connection. So if "you" want to feel it. You want have to become aware of intimately connected EVERYTHING is. edit: It is also absolute acceptance of what is. 

 

Edited October 19, 2018 by SgtPepper

[Jack River]

As long as there is self that = isolation. Isolation = fear ..love is not isolated, yet it is alone. It’s totally excellent ?

Alone as in: wholly oneself," from all "all, wholly" or "one"

Edited October 19, 2018 by Jack River

[seeking_brilliance]

@Jack River  I kind of get what you are saying but your entire point is based on the belief that fear and love can't be in the same room. How sure are you about that? Does that mean that fear can't be loved? 

Do selfs deserve to be loved?  Your description of them makes them seem completely antagonistic, but then again, they didn't ask to exist. And before you tell me they don't exist... Come on. They do. You know it. They exist, if only to themselves. But that's really all that matters to them- all these selfs running around, some of them posting on this very forum searching (perhaps in vain) for meaning. You say love cannot occupy self, but who needs love the most? Self or no-self? 

 

[Jack River]

44 minutes ago, seeking_brilliance said:

kind of get what you are saying but your entire point is based on the belief that fear and love can't be in the same room

Can goodness and evil be in the same room together? Does goodness have an opposite? 

 And isnt it a belief that love and fear can be in the same room? I mean common sounds like fear rationalizing the reason it cannot love to me. Sounds like illusion to me. Facing what is is scary to the self. 

44 minutes ago, seeking_brilliance said:

Do selfs deserve to be loved?

From the standpoint of love/freedom there is total unconditional compassion. But if we ourselves live in fear and escape that fear continually that prevents this Love/compassion from coming into being. 

 

44 minutes ago, seeking_brilliance said:

Your description of them makes them seem completely antagonistic

self=fear=anger=antagonism=violence. It’s not “my” description, it is what it is. It’s funny how people react to this. It’s always the same reaction. Wonder why 

 

44 minutes ago, seeking_brilliance said:

You say love cannot occupy self, but who needs love the most? Self or no-self? 

That’s right. compassion and integrity important dude. After all selfs are the conditioned consciousness. All selfs are the same. Compassion comes from understanding and ending this cause of suffering, as in conflict..But being trapped in this psychological seeking/fear resisting itself, we are never coming from that place of love where energy is big enough to drop all self centered movement of the “me”. 

This isn’t my opinion..no self can love. When the self is comprehend in its entirety we see that the self in its very structure denies the wholeness of love. From the divided self there can never be love dudes and dudets. 

Edited October 19, 2018 by Jack River

[DrewNows]

As Eckhart Tolle would say, “love is a state of being” “to love is to see yourself in another”. To see through the self, beyond the persona and human conditioning 

[pluto]

Love is who you are beyond all layers. Its Oneness, Its Home. How do you feel love? You must love first.

The universe is a mirror, a projection of your consciousness. If you want to experience love, you must be loving first.

This is why many people get caught up in romantic relationships and think that other person is a reason for their love, happiness and freedom but this is an illusion. It starts with you loving them, thus in universal reflection, love becomes more present because you are being more loving, more giving, more compassionate and by universal law it has no option but to reflect that frequency in which you are giving out.

Now imagine if you can love everyone and everything like you do your partner, these are usually the Enlightened ones. They are in love with all life as they see all life as one and the same.

Edited October 19, 2018 by pluto

[seeking_brilliance]

9 hours ago, TheAvatarState said:

I'm not sure whether to share the insight I've had on it. You may not have the proper context, and this may not make sense. But I'll say it anyway. 

All love is is infinite mind connecting with itself. Love is a connection, that's all it is. Everything else is just an interpretation. Love seems really complicated sometimes, with many different facets, but that's all fabrication. Love is fundamental metaphysically.

Thank you. Maybe I don't have all the context needed. I have felt this as you've described, usually in dreams, where love is such a strong connection - like a super magnet- and requires no words to describe it. 

In this thread I'm exploring where we feel love in our body. What sensations do we get, if any, when we notice we are feeling love? I'm curious to know if people around the world feel it in a similar way, or how much it varies. 

8 hours ago, Jack River said:

Can goodness and evil be in the same room together? Does goodness have an opposite?

What is good and evil? I can't be sure such things even exist, so why would I put limitations on them? In your own words, could you explain to me good vs evil? 

8 hours ago, Jack River said:

And isnt it a belief that love and fear can be in the same room? I mean common sounds like fear rationalizing the reason it cannot love to me.

Sure, I knew that when I typed it, but it's also a belief that they can't.  You claim that it is just how it is, but how do you know that? 

 

8 hours ago, Jack River said:

This isn’t my opinion..no self can love. When the self is comprehend in its entirety we see that the self in its very structure denies the wholeness of love. From the divided self there can never be love dudes and dudets. 

I don't deny that self denies the wholeness of love, but that doesn't explain why a self can't love at all. Even if it's only a mediocre interpretation of it. Does that make it less real? 

@pluto so in your explanation, I can love and be loving while being myself, right? Sure I could probably explode in love if I shed the self, but if love is in everything, then it's in the illusion too, right? 

[TheAvatarState]

@seeking_brilliance What I meant was that whatever emotions we feel are just experiences based on the metaphysical connection we realize with something else. That's what's going on behind the scenes. When you look at examples of true love, unconditional love... that phenomenon usually happens when you recognize deep sameness between yourself and something or someone else. Why does a parent (mother especially) feel unconditional love with their child? Because they realize that child IS them, in a certain sense. So in a way all love is self-love. Love breaks down the barriers that the ego created, and recognizes the deep sameness. The more I brought up examples and contemplated this, the more I realized that love in essence is the reconnection between mind (this is all mind-stuff after all). What you perceive as the feeling of love (and of course from a human's perspective, this is a complicated emotion that arises in so many ways), is really YOU (infinite being) breaking down barriers and reconnecting with yourself. Think of it like open communication with all parts of your being. That's an immensely pleasurable feeling.

"The self cannot love" is a true statement and not contradictory. Making the distinction of "The self" fundamentally separates "you" from "other." That is what's usually called ego. I hope that makes more sense with my definition of love in the above paragraph.

"All love is self-love" is a true statement, because there is nothing other than you. But we're seeing that language (symbols) breaks down when talking about nonduality. It's kind of a whacky strange loop. The first statement is from the perspective of separateness, the second statement is from the perspective of the universe.

So in summary, love is MUCH more than just a feeling. The feelings are secondary, the primary process is metaphysical connection. And what is connection taken to its furthest point? The convergence of multiple parts into one... With this definition, you'll quickly see that a lot of what you once thought of as "love" is just hormones, and that true love becomes easier to spot. I think it's simple yet profound.

[Hellspeed]

Love? 

Do not confuse Love with the connection with other people, that is not Love.

Love is the warmth in all the chakras together synchronized, not only the heart space. The truth is that dormant people don't really know what love is, only the concepts of society.  

[seeking_brilliance]

49 minutes ago, Hellspeed said:

Love? 

Do not confuse Love with the connection with other people, that is not Love.

Love is the warmth in all the chakras together synchronized, not only the heart space. The truth is that dormant people don't really know what love is, only the concepts of society.  

Ok, so you feel love as a warmth in all your chakras. The first to actually answer my question lol. Thank you

[seeking_brilliance]

@TheAvatarState thank you so much for actually explaining this in your own words and it didn't sound like a tape recorder. What you say does make sense. I will contemplate it today while at work. 

[Jack River]

3 hours ago, seeking_brilliance said:

What is good and evil?

Goodness- order/wholeness or healthy

Evil-  wickedness; anything that causes injury, morally or physically. Unhealthy.

Basically things that become the reality when being fragmented. Or when thought enters into relationship. When the self lolksnto thought for security. 

if this evil, as in fragmentation is the reality then how can there be goodness or wholeness or order. Right?

 

Edited October 19, 2018 by Jack River

[Jack River]

3 hours ago, seeking_brilliance said:

I can't be sure such things even exist, so why would I put limitations on them?

That’s the point dude. Thought/self/divided action is its own limit. The limit is the structure itself.