Isn't love the ultimate Yahoo! answer?

Question

Now I am not speaking from either a religious or New Age perspective.

I am speaking from a practical perspective. By showing love and respect to my special ed./emotionally disturbed students, I get it back.

If we all even showed more love and respect in dealing with one another in society, at work, or on the highways, how much better off we would be, making an effort to get along with one another.

I don't propose that we actually love one another, just that we pretend to so that everyone benefits from receiving love, real or pretend, from the next person.

America just shrugs love off as a slogan from the 60's rather than a really valid tactic to better get along in the world.

Why is love off the table? We need to remember that this is the most important 'family value' of all. It's free, and it could save us billions of dollars in court fees, repairs, and international relations.

America has become as self-centered and greedy as it has ever been. Here is a free cure for greed!

guru, the reason to love strangers is that it makes you good, especially if you're helping someone less fortunate, and eventually, what goes around comes around.

Greed and capitalism in America is so pervasive that it effects everyone; why not have love be so pervasive that it effects everyone?

guru, the reason to love strangers is that it makes you feel good, especially if you're helping someone less fortunate, and eventually, what goes around comes around.

Greed and capitalism in America is so pervasive that it effects everyone; why not have love be so pervasive that it effects everyone?

LARRY J7, there is no doubt that we are a hardened and cynical society; I am advocating that love be used as a real tactic.

The premise of racism is to hate strangers just because of the color of their skin and/or their cultural differences, to prejudge them.

Why not love a stranger because when you release that into society, it can also spread around? I'm not saying to love a mugger as he's/she's mugging you, but rather offer to buy a homeless person a sandwich rather than give him/her a quarter that will just buy booze or drugs?

If we soften the blow of capitalism with caring, it will have an effect. Just look at FDR and the New Deal, or the Emancipation Proclamation; helping strangers can have a huge effect on the entire society.

Answer 1

A Buddhist Perspective on Unconditional Love
verses Selfish Attachments

"What in the world is the difference between loving a person and being selfishly attached to them?

Love is the sincere wish for others to be happy, and to be free from suffering.

Having realistically recognized others' kindness as well as their faults, love is always focused on the other person’s welfare. We have No ulterior motives to fulfill our self-interest, or to fulfill our desires; to love others simply because they exist.
Selfish attachments, on the other hand, exaggerates others' good qualities and makes us crave to be with them. When we're with them, we're happy, but when we're separated from them, we are often miserable. These selfish attachments are linked with expectations of what others should be or do.

Is love as it is usually understood in most societies really love? or selfish attachments ?

Let us examine this a bit more. Generally we are attracted to people either because they have qualities we value or because they help us in some way. If we observe our own thought processes mindfully, and carefully - we'll notice that we look for specific qualities in others.
Some of these qualities we find attractive, others are those our parents, or society value.
We examine someone's looks, education,
financial situation, social status. This is how most of us decide on whether or not the person holds any true value to us.

In addition, we judge people as worthwhile according to how they relate to us! If they help us, praise us, make us feel secure, listen to what we have to say, care for us when we are sick or depressed, we consider them good people, and it is this type of people we are most likely to be more attracted to.

But this is very biased, for we judge them only in terms of how they relate to "us", as if we are the most important person in the world.

After we've judged certain people to be good for us, whenever we see them it appears to us as if goodness is coming from them, but if we are more aware, we recognize that we have projected this goodness onto them.

Desiring to be with the people a lot who make us feel good, we become emotional yo-yo's - when we're with these people, we're up, when we're not with these people, we're down.

Furthermore, we form fixed concepts of what our relationships with those people will be and thus have expectations of them. When they do not live up to our expectations of them, we're very disappointed, or may become angry.
We want them to change so that they will they will match what we think they are. But our projections and expectations come from our own minds, not from the other people.

Our problems arise not because others aren't who we thought they we're, but because we mistakenly thought they were something they aren't.
Checklist: "I Love You if __________ "
What we call love is most often selfish attachments.
It is actually a disturbing attitude that overestimates the qualities of another person. We then cling to tightly to that person, thinking our happiness depends on that person.

" Unconditional Love, on the other hand, is an open and very calm, relaxed attitude."

"We want someone to be happy, and free from suffering simply because they exist. While selfish attachments are uncontrolling and too sentimental, Unconditional Love is direct and powerful. Selfish attachments obscures our judgment and we become impatient, angry, and impartial, helping only our dear ones and harming those who we don't like. Unconditional Love builds up others, and clarifies our minds, and we
access a situation by thinking of the greatest good for everyone. Attachments are based on selfishness, while Love is founded upon cherishing others, even those who do not look very appealing to the eyes. Unconditional Love looks beyond all the superficial appearances, and dwells on the fact that they are just like us: they want inner peace, happiness, and want to avoid suffering. If we see unattractive, dirty, ignorant people, we feel repulsed because our selfish minds want to know attractive, intellectual, clean, and talented people. Unconditional Love, on the other hand, never evaluates others by these superficial standards and looks much deeper into the person. Unconditional Love recognizes that regardless of the others' appearances, their experience is the same as ours: they seek inner peace, to be happy, to be free from sufferings, and to do their best to avoid problems.
When we're selfishly attached, we're not mentally and emotionally free. We overly depend on and cling to another person to fulfill our mental and especially our emotional needs. We fear losing the person, feeling we'd be incomplete without him."

However, this does not mean that we should suppress our emotional needs or become aloof, alone and totally independent, for that too does not solve the problem. We must simply realize our unrealistic needs, and slowly seek to eliminate them. Some emotional needs may be so strong that they can't be dissolved immediately.
If we try to suppress them or pretend they do not exist, we become anxious, insecure, falling into a depression. In this case, we can do our best to fulfill our needs while simultaneously working gradually to subdue them.

"The core problem is that most of us seek to be loved, rather than to love. We yearn to be understood by others rather than to understand them. In all honesty, our sense of emotional insecurities comes from the selfishness obscuring our own minds. 'We can develop self-confidence by recognizing our inner potential to become a selfless human being with many, magnificent qualities, then we'll develop a true and accurate feeling of self-confidence. And
then we'll seek to increase true unconditional love, without selfish attachments, to increase compassion, to cultivate loving-kindness, patience and understanding, as well as generosity, concentration and wisdom.'

"Under the influence of selfish attachments we're bound by our emotional reactions to others. When they are nice to us, we're happy. When they ignore us, or speak sharply to us, we take it personally and are unhappy. But pacifying these selfish attachment doesn't mean we become hard-hearted. Rather, without selfish attachment there will be space in our hearts and minds for genuine Affection and Impartial Love for them."
We'll be actively involved with them.

As we learn to subdue our selfish attachments, we can have successful friendships and personal relationships with others. These relationships will be richer because of the freedom and respect which the relationships will be based on. We'll care about the happiness and the misery of all human beings equally, simply because everyone is the same in wanting and needing inner peace, happiness. However, our lifestyles and interests may be more compatible with those of some people more so than with others and that is alright. In any case, our relationships will be based on mutual Love, mutual interests, and the wish to help each other in life."*


With Metta (loving-friendship, loving-kindness).

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Answer 2

Yes I agree with you 100% people put conditions on love...and that is never the answer that is why there are so many people out there that can not give and receive love and their lives are in the dark from their childhoods etc...but if they were able to break away and self teach themselves and counseling as well they can break that mode and learn to love even just for themselves in their own lives healthy loving the world would be a better place for the high being that we should strive for :))Love is a beautiful thing but it has to be given wisely in the world we live in with no conditions and just free will for man kind :)))

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Talk softly and carry a big stick !!

Love is absolutely marvelous -- and I can agree with a great deal of what you're trying to get across here --- BUT -- the actions and attitudes that each of us carry around with us is only as good as the circumstances with which we are dealing !!
Two hours in a patrol car in one of the world's toughest neighborhoods would clue you in on how far love would go in dealing with some of the Real World things going on !! So, love when and where you can --- but, keep your hand on that piece in your pocket -- you may need it at almost ANY time !!!

Answer 5

You're actually advocating to PRETEND to love one another? This hints at deceit. In that sense, love is merely a valuable tool to get others on one's side while masking their otherwise selfish and possibly sinister underlying motives. I am also stating this from a practical perspective.

Greed and selfishness are not limited to one country or ideological movement nor it is even exclusive to today's contemporary society. In fact, if one were to put things in perspective, one would realize that in earlier times, society was far more greedy, economic parity was far wider, and hate was more over than it is in the current era.

Answer 6

Love is important!

Answer 7

To quote the immortal Tina Turner: "What's love got to do with it."

Answer 8

I don't love you and I have no reason to do so. And I am not looking for your love, real or imagined.

Answer 9

god bless you!

have a nice day..