Is "Love” simply the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own?

Answer 1

An excellent defintion.

Answer 2

Nope that's lust.

A long time ago I thought that love was something that you reserved for some special set of people that you had judged worthy of it.

After a while I got to thinking about what Jesus had said about turning the other cheek and loving our neighbor I put the two together and realized that he had made no exceptions in these statements. It became obvious to me that he intended that we exclude no one from the love that we are supposed to be giving. I started thinking about my idea of love and suddenly realized that I had not been loving anyone at all. I had simply been judging everyone and every thing.

Judging someone worthy of love is not love, it is only judgment. I actually started to cry when I realized this. I saw just how much of my life I had wasted being judgmental, thinking of myself as a Christian, when I was actually doing just the opposite of what Jesus had asked us to do.

I thought about the verse judge not lest ye be judged, and I understood it for the first time.

I realized that I have a lot of catching up to do. So many opportunities were wasted. I now try to apply the love that I have for the world in a universal way like Jesus asks us to do.

If I start to feel afraid and think that I see someone that I should not love because of something I have thought or heard I try to catch my mistake as soon as possible. I tell myself that I have forgot the truth and have fallen for the same old trick that had cost me so many opportunities to be loving in the past. The horror of this realization is often all that is necessary to bring me back to my senses and make me drop the judgmental nonsense I was thinking.

I still have a lot to learn about love, but at least I’m making progress.

Love and blessings

Your brother
don

Answer 3

Love as a constituent in human essence is essentially human, but the identification for the negative is Judgment and the Judgment its self is negative. The Will is positive and the Judgment is negative. The negation for the loved others self negating condition, a negater for a loved self, is Judged or identified as such and is targeted for negation. Happiness is a positive condition only negated if a negative condition exists. In the conscious negatives become as the self is growing.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erick_Erickson
"Stage One Oral-Sensory: from birth to one, trust vs. mistrust, feeding;

Stage Two Muscular-Anal: 1-3 years, autonomy vs.doubt, toilet training;

Stage Three Locomotor: 3-6 years, initiative vs.inadequacy, independence;

Stage Four Latency: 6-12 years, industry vs.inferiority, school;

Stage Five Adolescence: 12-18 years, identity vs.confusion, peer relationships;

Stage Six Young Adulthood: 18-40 years, intimacy vs.isolation, love relationships;

Stage Seven Middle Adulthood: 40-65 years, generativity vs.stagnation, parenting;

Stage Eight Maturity: 65 years until death, integrity vs.despair, acceptance of one's life.
"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erick_Erickson

Answer 4

Yes, happiness is one of the manifestations of love. There are others, depending on the love. The protection of the other person, whether it is a spouse or child, the health of a parent, all these affect your own conditions when you share love with the person.
I feel awful when my parent is ill, I feel vulnerable when my child is growing through a phase of adolescence. I've felt humbled when my husband navigated our financial situations, in comparison with the rest of the world.

Answer 5

Almost., without the "essential", because that is selfish in a way. unconditional love is love. the experience of giving in any witch way (and there are many), is love. you don't depend or expect any return what so ever to make you feel happy or loved. if you are a person that is happy for who you are, and you truly love yourself (healthy selfishness), nothing and no one should ever change that state of mind, therefore, when you give,there are no calculations and, - your loving.

Answer 6

Well, that's kinda simplistic. There's alot more to it than that.
Love is a process. We share experiences, our lives, heartache and joy, and many other things. A bond forms that can only grow with the years if it is nurtured by both people involved.
We can become as one, one unit working together for the good of all concerned.

Answer 7

I like to think love is the condition where the other person's happiness and well-being are more important than your own.

hopefully, I'm not being naive about it...

Answer 8

if you put Love on a continuum going from 'the immitators of Love' all the way to 'Real Unconditional Love', it progresses from passion (self-serving consumption of the psychic energy of others, psychologically speaking), to love as a currency (where the love one gives is an investment aimed at making big returns), to love as a seed which one plants (which grows indefinitely and bears much fruit provided that one nurtures it), to a way of being in the world (as opposed to being a way of ACTING in the world), to becoming the essence of one's life (unconditional, perpetual, not looking into the world to see itself reflected, since it IS the world, etc.), and finally, the Peace of infinite Bliss in the recognition of Divine essence as the Allness of being (God IS Love).

the further from Love's immitators one gets, the less it matters whether there is another 'individual' person included in the equation. Love-relationships are not out of the equation...though they are not life-consuming as those near the lower end of the spectrum...they are life-sustaining and enriching for all who encounter it.

-Rob

Answer 9

love has different meanings for each person. For me when I see something great or experiance something that makes me feel good I usally thnk of that person and wish they were there to share it with me. Love is hard and sacrifices usally are made for that person to ensure they keep their smile. Because if they smile it is the best place in the world to be.

Answer 10

When you love CREATIVITY, you want creativity to overcome every other feelings. You want to sacrifice yourself for CREATIVITY'S life.
That is very good love. Love does not exist when you say "I am losing time dealing with this"; it exist when you say "I feel so light when it's with me"
When you love, your sense of SELF alters, you don't feel the traditional SELF that your neighbours injected into the body (so that the body called itself "me"), you FEEL the joy of togetherness.
If you care about anything other than the present, then you don't love. Let the future be painful, but enjoy the present.

Answer 11

Well maybe. But it is more about you being happy to see/make someone else happy. Love is not about you. Its being able to forget about what you want and focus on what another person wants.