Is it our task to seek Love, or seek the barriers we build against it?

Question

Can we really find Love outside ourselves?

This clear understanding of metta is what is there when the barriers are broken down. Thank you Gazzi, thank you!

Innerpeacemom, so clearly you get what I am driving at, and Gaz helped further my understanding with explanation of metta. Sandra B, I luv you knucklehead!

I'm in love with all these answers!

Answer 1

‘Love, what a sweet insanity’ - a dead poet

One may wake up one day, having grown tired of the obsessions of youth, and so set out for the search of love. One may stumble upon what they seek, quickly like the coming of the wind. One may search long and hard, and maybe ask those questions ‘what is wrong with them’….’what is wrong with me’, but such questions are not the answer for the question is how we seek. I learned long ago, that in order to seek Love, one must Love, a quality of which I lacked. In all those years, from then ‘til now, in learning how to Love, the hardest task is right before me, by showing Love by allowing others to Love me - a Warrior-Poet

So yes to all your questions. We must seek Love, for it is what unites us and tears apart the barriers we build against it. and yes, we may find Love outside ourselves, but unless we have it ‘within’ ourselves, we will recognize it?

Answer 2

Hi! As the song goes, "Love is a many splendored thing".It is a very broad topic wherein I won't have to delve into the textbook definition.Love, in any way it is defined is so hard to find, as many have claimed. But, is it also that hard to give? As the Lord Jesus said, Love your enemies as you love yourself;Love one another...etc. If we can spare this kind of love (Agape),before you know it, it will come pouring down on you.
If you are talking about the romantic kind of love, open up....share a part of yourself...have an open mind and for sure love is just round the corner. You can't expect to be loved if you dont' know how to love.Afraid of getting hurt??? Well, you can't expect to walk straight and steady with a few falls!!!IAs they say, it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Try it...it's worth everything ...

Answer 3

Love..that is true Love is a well spring of benevolence which originates within us..all we need do is release it for it to pour forth boundless and all embracing..the Buddhist term for the practise of such release is called Loving Kindness..the Pali word is Metta..and it has far greater meaning than just Loving Kindness..

This is a multi-significant term meaning loving-kindness, friendliness, goodwill, benevolence, fellowship, amity, concord, inoffensiveness and non-violence. The Pali commentators define metta as the strong wish for the welfare and happiness of others (parahita-parasukha-kamana). Essentially metta is an altruistic attitude of love and friendliness as distinguished from mere amiability based on self-interest. Through metta one refuses to be offensive and renounces bitterness, resentment and animosity of every kind, developing instead a mind of friendliness, accommodativeness and benevolence which seeks the well-being and happiness of others. True metta is devoid of self-interest. It evokes within a warm-hearted feeling of fellowship, sympathy and love, which grows boundless with practice and overcomes all social, religious, racial, political and economic barriers. Metta is indeed a universal, unselfish and all-embracing love.

Metta makes one a pure font of well-being and safety for others. Just as a mother gives her own life to protect her child, so metta only gives and never wants anything in return. To promote one's own interest is a primordial motivation of human nature. When this urge is transformed into the desire to promote the interest and happiness of others, not only is the basic urge of self-seeking overcome, but the mind becomes universal by identifying its own interest with the interest of all. By making this change one also promotes one's own well-being in the best possible manner.

Metta is the protective and immensely patient attitude of a mother who forbears all difficulties for the sake of her child and ever protects it despite its misbehavior. Metta is also the attitude of a friend who wants to give one the best to further one's well-being. If these qualities of metta are sufficiently cultivated through metta-bhavana — the meditation on universal love — the result is the acquisition of a tremendous inner power which preserves, protects and heals both oneself and others.

We do not practise Metta to find true Love, rather we pactise Metta to provide it, it is in such provision that it is thus realised rather than sought..to unleash Metta by release of the Self makes this provision Universal..and such release paramount..

A Buddhist..

Answer 4

I think when we love ourselves, it is like cleaning the lenses of our eternal glasses, we are able to see love everywhere. Without that clear view, without loving ourselves first, we just don't see all the love that already exists.
Our outside world reflects our inside world.

Answer 5

To Seek Love,
And you will see the barriers come down, my friend.

Answer 6

when 2 or more people work together towards competing goals and strive for the optimum barriers will be touched.

for love outside oneself i dont know about that.

Answer 7

We are living on purpose, when we are aware that our outward experience is relevant to our inward experience.

Love reflects.

Answer 8

Tell me and we'll both know! Ramma lamma ding dang!

Answer 9

you need only to see that you are not seperate from anything. e=mc2