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Love & Emptiness
taiyaki
Veteran
in Philosophy
At the beginning of the spiritual life, love is directed towards beings. With those who are further advanced on the path, love is based on dharmas. And for those who have seen the unconditioned/emptiness, love is not based on anything at all.
-some mahayana sutra
I don't know where this quote exactly came from, so if anyone knows the specific sutra that speaks about this please pm me or reply in this post.
I'd like to discuss how insight communicates with love and vice versa.
In my practice of metta and general reconditioning of the positive in my life has set the soil for deeper and stable insights into suffering and the nature of reality. But with those insights into suffering and the nature of reality the aperture of love/compassion has widened as well.
The above quote describes and interesting process of our relationship to love on the Buddhist path. At first metta is directed outwards to beings, then with some more practice and study we realize that beings are dharmas. Being is an imputation onto phenomena. Then we also see that phenomena too is a construction, thus empty of inherent existence. With no objects left, love is boundless and unconditional.
On the same topic of love. How do we use love in our practice? For instance a good portion of my life and practice have had a lack of the heart. What was missing was the question of what my heart longed for. And I feel many people do not examine this. We should really examine why the hell we are practicing, why we are studying Buddhism. And we should really connect to the heart because that is where the energy and juice for sincere practice is. Having the positive in ones life leads to more letting go and more letting go cultivates even more positive qualities in our life.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on love, compassion and wisdom. Do you find yourself focusing on prajna and less on compassion. Do we have certain bias in practice? Is there a communication between the heart and head? And does one even know that the heart exists?
Well there is my rant.
-some mahayana sutra
I don't know where this quote exactly came from, so if anyone knows the specific sutra that speaks about this please pm me or reply in this post.
I'd like to discuss how insight communicates with love and vice versa.
In my practice of metta and general reconditioning of the positive in my life has set the soil for deeper and stable insights into suffering and the nature of reality. But with those insights into suffering and the nature of reality the aperture of love/compassion has widened as well.
The above quote describes and interesting process of our relationship to love on the Buddhist path. At first metta is directed outwards to beings, then with some more practice and study we realize that beings are dharmas. Being is an imputation onto phenomena. Then we also see that phenomena too is a construction, thus empty of inherent existence. With no objects left, love is boundless and unconditional.
On the same topic of love. How do we use love in our practice? For instance a good portion of my life and practice have had a lack of the heart. What was missing was the question of what my heart longed for. And I feel many people do not examine this. We should really examine why the hell we are practicing, why we are studying Buddhism. And we should really connect to the heart because that is where the energy and juice for sincere practice is. Having the positive in ones life leads to more letting go and more letting go cultivates even more positive qualities in our life.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on love, compassion and wisdom. Do you find yourself focusing on prajna and less on compassion. Do we have certain bias in practice? Is there a communication between the heart and head? And does one even know that the heart exists?
Well there is my rant.
3
Comments
It says something like this, I guess:
When wisdom grows, we “know” less. When love grows we interfere with life less.
And then at some point there’s complete surrender to not-knowing and complete surrender to the way things go in life. This complete surrender; is a deepening, not a capitulation.
“Knowing” is really just suppressing the deeper layer which isn’t so rational.
And acting out of “love” is really just suppressing a deeper layer of accepting what is unacceptable by all standards; life the way it is in all its brutality, all its banality and all its ugliness.
At some point we stop pretending maybe.
I need to read my book more and then report back
He described a lightening up and metta. Grateful. And then as the path goes on the love transforms into compassion or karuna. Again grateful of the love of your mother. That is the traditional teaching in Tibetan Buddhism to contemplate all the sacrifice your mother went through.
At first love could only be fondness for a brand of potato chips. But that's actually the same softspot that is later manifest in the paramitas: generosity, ethics, patience, forbearance, joyful effort, and wisdom of emptiness.
The softspot is relative bodhicitta. And we have to experiment with it. Even Hitler might have loved a piece of music.
sorry that I don't know which one it is from, but that is beautiful.
I like this thread and would like to see more activity in it, so ... bumpity bump bump ^.^
Here is another quote that relates to this topic:
"There is no Love greater than Love with no object. For then you, yourself, have become love itself. " -Rumi
Here is another thought I had on this very topic:
"Here we are talking about love. But really love can be replaced with anything.
Anything really is the fullest expression of the infinite universe coming together and this is known when the groundlessness of life is recognized. So this love, this act, this experience contains the whole and this is the holy dharma being taught by everything. Has no edge, no center, baseless unless imputed.
To stand in this hallway full of mirrors. This uncessing silence. Well spring of creativity and expression.
Orient the mind towards love and it grows infinitely to just express itself as the fullest conclusion of everything, utterly traceless.
Do the same with joy, peace, etc. Each quality desiring to be known to itself and to marinate in its own beauty.
And do not forget lovely samsara! All the ignorance, small mindedness, arrogance, agression, fear, etc. these are all apparent and very alive in us. These too the dharma in action.
But since we are on this topic. Such heart is a heart that knows deep sadness for the world, yet out of this sadness arises a deep love and compassion. For all of this is illusion, thus workable. And really this hearts release, what more can the holy dharma offer? Its offering an uncessing activity that cannot be found.
Fuck the police!"
Passion is a force. It can be directed, redirected, sublimated and gain momentum in the Middle Way.
Love the 3 jewels? No? What then? Been stood up?
I notice you are still passionate about Local dharma protectors
I am not offering a my own thoughts and whatever I am writing, is how I have chosen to interpret certain issues and words. I must say that this is a very spiritual quote. It is a combination of Buddhism teachings and also the bible.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
--
Tiyaki, I guess your real question here is how do you make use of Wisdom from what you are learning, to develop a true compassion so that you improve your love. Is that it?
It is not really about balancing the three but gaining all three of it. Well, if that is slightly the case, then I will comment further.
I remember when life had only a few dimensions – it was warm (mostly) and I reacted to it without much order – I didn’t think of love but there were situations that pleased me and some that were less than pleasing – I hadn’t worked out there was a ‘me' as yet.
So then there was a ‘me’… I had my own ideas and my own plans - these differed here and there from my parents' outlook - I started to consider issues and remember trends - 'me' was the foundation - love began to take form as I realised that 'me' could own/possess stuff (even people), 'me' had things to lose... I began to appreciate what I had - I realised what I loved and consequently what I did not love - this love attached to things, situations and people – it had some opposites to fuel it.
This definition held well for many years – well into adulthood – I took it along with me on dates and into relationships… love became a muddled affair, a mixture of emotions, memory and aspirations - we all grow up eventually.
I suspect that love has stayed much the same as it always has – I however have changed over the years and so has my relationship to love – on one level, I see love as the agency of unity in the human form - without overly analysing, I also observe an interconnected unity in the nature of reality - thus love transforms into a universal agency – a concept of unity – it requires no more foundation or justification than reality – it seems to be most readily realised through the metaphor of the human condition (as this would seem to be the earliest memory of its manifestation), however it may also be considered a concept standing a little safe distance from the human condition – it does not require reason, it is one of the facets of reason – it does not require compassion, it is one of the facets of compassion.
In my practice/life, love is central as much as it is peripheral, the goal as much as the source, the ends and the means, everything and nothing.
just some babble:
like how film movies are a sequence of frames,
like how the fire that burns on a candle has no lasting identity moment-to-moment,
other than the one we impute..
love and love relentlessly,
for this life is so brief
like a leaf sailing the breeze
may all beings realize peace
and enjoy this magical display
of love
--
Also pertinent here,
as well as everywhere,
are words by ma dawg Shantideva
"All the suffering in the world comes from wanting happiness for oneself. All the happiness in the world comes from wanting happiness for others."