Dharma Sunday: Karaniya Metta Sutta and Kataññu Sutta

Carlita

Mettañ ca sabba-lokasmim
Manasam bhavaye aparimanam
Uddham adho ca tiriyanca
Asambadham averam asapattam

Cultivate an all-embracing mind of love
For all throughout the universe,
In all its height, depth and breadth —
Love that is untroubled
And beyond hatred or enmity.
~Metta: The Philosophy and Practice of Universal Love

I searched for The Buddha's view on love in relation to the English definition of the term; and, I found a lot of words that relate to what American (Hybrid English) Culture defines it.

I found that love both unconditional, affectionate, and devotion somewhat balls into a connection between one person, think, or practice and another. Like a mother and father to their child, the devotion is inseparable from the person devoting his or her life to the given person or thing. I think we can say the same of our devotion (or however named) to The Dharma. In that respect, instead of typing a whole book on love, I thought it appropriate to share the parent and child relationship to their child and start from there.

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Love is a strong affection for another person such as kinship and maternal love between mother and child

"I tell you, monks, there are two people who are not easy to repay. Which two? Your mother & father. Even if you were to carry your mother on one shoulder & your father on the other shoulder for 100 years, and were to look after them by anointing, massaging, bathing, & rubbing their limbs, and they were to defecate & urinate right there [on your shoulders], you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. If you were to establish your mother & father in absolute sovereignty over this great earth, abounding in the seven treasures, you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. Why is that? Mother & father do much for their children. They care for them, they nourish them, they introduce them to this world.

"But anyone who rouses his unbelieving mother & father, settles & establishes them in conviction; rouses his unvirtuous mother & father, settles & establishes them in virtue; rouses his stingy mother & father, settles & establishes them in generosity; rouses his foolish mother & father, settles & establishes them in discernment: To this extent one pays & repays one's mother & father."

— Kataññu Suttas

Read More.

Itivuttaka: The Group of Fours

Benefits of Metta (Video)

Married Life (Essay on Love in family from a Buddhist perspective)

Philosophy and Practice of Universal Love