What is Love?

It is both a philosophical question, and yet at the same time our understanding of the nature of Love determines to a large extent the degree to which we know ourselves.

The word "love" is not well defined. The ancient Greeks had many different words for love: philo (the love between friends), agape (the love of God, the kindness and compassion we show to all people) and Eros (sensuality and passion).

The Love we know and experience when we “fall in love” is Eros, I’d define it as a strong emotion. It is a product of emotional like or dislike.

It is conditioned: “as long as you make me feel good and you meet my expectations I’ll Love you, but if my expectations are not met and I am not satisfied…. I can’t love you…I might even hate you!”

Should you examine the beliefs... that seem so natural to you, that you do not question them, you may find surprises.

The belief in everlasting love, soul mate, marriage has existed for a long time and it is an illusion, albeit persistent one.

Before we even meet that someone special, the one we fall in love with, we constantly imagine how it is supposed to be, what kind of person should be our true love.

Since the early childhood, we are exposed to the different sources that tell us what love is: movies, books, mouth-to-mouth stories, songs, operas, ballet, etc. The world around us is totally engaged with the standard explanation of love.

We are hypnotized, and belief in love is created. If you ask anyone what love is, the answer would be pretty much generic, something we all learn while growing up.

The moment we meet someone we are attracted to, our mind gets busy with idolizing the person of our affection, creating an image of that person, and assigning all the best qualities that we think he should posses, mind creates “love” according to our belief.

Our mind creates different scenarios: how we would talk, kiss, hug, spend time together, have sex, caress, tell each other cute words, get married, and even have children.

Wow…all those scenarios are vividly, and emotionally imagined, and lived out many, many times, as a matter of fact, all the time, while we are being in love; and all of that happens in our mind. Meanwhile, we fail to see the real person in front of us, we are very busy being in Love.

“But as time passes, you reveal who you really are, and you see who the other person really is. The fantasies fade, and you’re left with reality. * The end of unrealistic fantasies. “Initially people have fantasy-based pictures of each other,” explains Advisory Board member Marty Klein, Ph.D.

It is an addicted state of brain, and dopamine is the main reason.

“Another possible explanation for the intense focus and idealizing view that occurs in the attraction stage comes from researchers at University College London. They discovered that people in love have lower levels of serotonin and also that neural circuits associated with the way we assess others are suppressed. These lower serotonin levels are the same as those found in people with obsessive-compulsive disorders, possibly explaining why those in love "obsess" about their partner.”

How love works

Philosophical viewpoint requires looking deeper than the loving relationship between two people in order to understand the nature of Love: Evolution of human, is a path from fear (control/survival) to unconditional love (freedom).

Unconditional Love is very different to basic emotion. It is not something that we do; it is a state of being. Unconditional love understands, accepts and allows, regardless of the circumstances.

In this state there is no need to look for someone special, everyone is special, everyone is understood and accepted - this is LOVE. Few people are capable of loving unconditionally. Don't romantisize this state, it is simply understanding, realizing the reality - Enlightenment.

Great, now we have defined LOVE - it is the ability to understand, accept and allow people to be!

Love-Emotion – is a passion, an attraction to a person and it is fleeting!

We progress from Love-Emotion to Unconditional LOVE!

To learn, we need to look at ourselves, at what motivates us or holds us back, and at where we must place more of our attention so we can be balanced and whole. The person we are learning to love is always ourselves!

The illusion of ever-lasting love and soul mate is a creation of our mind.

What we need is self-knowledge; become more aware of our motives; expand our consciousness; love ourselves unconditionally, that is understand and accept our own self.