Who said this about love?
Love means wanting others to be happy.
In the language of the Buddha’s teachings, love - which is maitri (Sanskrit) or metta (Pali) - is the intention and capacity to offer joy and happiness.
Understanding is another name of love.
Thầy Nhất Hạnh taught us that to offer someone happiness, we need to understand them through looking and listening deeply. When we don't know what to do and what not to do to support our beloved's true happiness, we offer them something that they do not need. That is not love for it causes pain.
True love, Thầy continued to explain the teachings of Buddha, is the combination of loving kindness (matri), compassion, joy, and equanimity.
"These are the very nature of an enlightened person," Thầy wrote. "The four aspects of true love within ourselves and within everyone and everything."
Love is the recognition of oneness.
The recognition of the essence in yourself and in the other – not the form – is true love.
Eckhart Tolle told Oprah,
"when I meet people and interact with people, I see them on two levels or feel them on two levels. On one level, they are the form, which is the body and their psychological makeup. On another level, they are the consciousness that I also am, that pure essence."
Love is living in the recognition of that pure essence - an unwavering, unconditional, interconnected being-ness.
Love is patient, love is kind.
The Bible wrote that
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Corinthians 13: 4-7)
Love is a will to nurture spiritual growth.
M. Scott Peck wrote in The Road Less Traveled that
"Love is the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth.
Love is as love does. Love is an act of will - namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love."
Love is a practice.
Erich Fromm then wrote,
“Love isn’t something natural. Rather it requires discipline, concentration, patience, faith, and the overcoming of narcissism. It isn’t a feeling, it’s a practice.”
We usually quote love from male thinkers. The problem is they think, while women historically have been the practitioners.
bell hooks pointed out in All About Love.
Love is the capacity to offer joy. Love is the recognition of oneness. Love is the will to grow spiritually. Love is the understanding, the kindness, the patience that perseveres. It is hard to sum love up in a few sentences. In fact, love is not supposed to be pinned down.
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