is it possible to fully practice or even comprehend unconditional love?

Question

how many types of love are there ? and what are they called ? I stand agaped

Answer 1

I'm working on it.

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 2

“You cannot understand how much your father loves you, for there is no parallel in your experience of the world to help you understand it”

Going off the above quote I would say no. Yet if we take scripture and say Jesus had unconditional love, Jesus also said that we the generation of today could do even greater things, so I'm going to make a u-turn here. Given time, approaching the practice of it from a 'higher perspective' that we are all one, yes I suppose it is, but maybe you do not need to comprehend something in order to practice it?

I see it everyday with people with dogs, even when they have done something wrong they are forgiven (as if it never happened), but in the case of children, it is very possible later on in life they could do something that throws the theory of unconditional love for your kids right off track.

To be loved, as to love

Answer 3

Interesting question. I am not sure.

I think it is an idea we all want to be true as we all want someone / something to feel that way about us.

Firstly we would need to define love. I think unconditional romantic love is unlikely & possibly even unhealthy - it is not good to love someone romantically unconditionally if they are abusing you for example.

Love in a more general sense though might be possible - i.e. love for children, and even romantic partners though with a different bias (i.e. you can continue to love someone even if they abuse you if you understand that they are doing that because they are hurting in some way too. That does not mean however you should stay with that person or even be part of their life but you can treat them with love still).

In that sense love becomes more of an action (rather than the feeling of romantic love). It involves work & action. It is treating someone with respect, kindness and compassion amongst other things.

More than anything it takes understanding and patience. It takes putting your own ego aside & really seeing things the way the other person does.

In that sense, it is possible but rare & hard work.

Answer 4

Yes i believe so. Agape love as you have mentioned, a love regardless of circumstance.

A quote from a CS Lewis book 'The Four Loves' where he speaks of God's love - "He is so full, in fact, that it overflows, and He can't help but love us".

Oh yes it's possible - but there's always a deeper level to comprehend. Also 'Eros' love is romantic love -

I like Steve the seekers answer.

Answer 5

It is indeed fully possible - a real potential for all as we were created out of unconditional love and therefore this love is part of our true natures.

Nevertheless, although the potential is there for us to love unconditionally, in practice it is very difficult as most people people are still - to greater or lesser degrees - controlled by their ego's which ALWAYS loves or forgives on a conditional basis.

To the extent that people can raise their consciousness beyond the carnal mind or human ego, to that extent will they be able to experience God's unconditional love and therefore be able to extend that same love to others.

Answer 6

Love must accompany a strong sense of duty, without which it is a passing phase, a fad, or a sensation; just as love of coffee or a detergent, a dessert. Belief systems vary, and hopefully generate healthy discourse; 'god' belongs there respectfully, hopefully as a source of strength, and a place of refuge.
Yes it is not only possible, even probable to practise unconditional love. Love of children is one. Strong sense of duty is the foundation of unconditional love.

Answer 7

I think it's more of a goal which we can seek to achieve, but which can never actually be achieved in (physical) existence. If we see a possibility, we have, at least partially, comprehended it.

There's a whole class of "things" like this, which I understand are called idea forms. Mathematics/religion is full of them, ranging from "points having no area", "circles encompassing the spiritual", and concepts such as infinitely large/small.

These any help ?
http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Agape
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_forms

Answer 8

loads of types but unconditional love i call wise compassionate altruism, most of the time love is used to describe something we really like, or a feeling of bliss but i don't like that use as it undermines the meaning of love although their are allot of meaning beside that like love for family/children/parents/siblings/partners/pets although i think unconditional love is a wise compassionate altruism towards everyone equally but that doesn't mean you have to like someone say a stranger or enemy, you just need to recognise the similarities between you and others (wisdom), have a nonjudgmental sympathy for their situation(compassion) the urge to help others in any way you can(altruism).

Answer 9

Yes, unconditional love is all around us, I am not writing about religion and so on........ the love for life, love of self, and some even go into materialistic love.

Answer 10

For weak minded/hearted ppl, love is there for the Mother & Family, thats it, the other Love is made up by ppl to give an excuse for pshycal attraction, lust, attachment, thats all, not the love where one says can i control, i cant love other bla bla bla, thats all in the head, true love is Motherly Love & the Love of God who put us here & gave us life in the first place, peace.