What is love?

[AshvinP]

To love is to voluntarily take on the responsibility of the world's sins without expectation of personal gain. Yet we cannot do so without first knowing what we are taking on. It is recognizing the debts owed for our existence and enacting deeds to pay off that debt. Love is the Cross.

[Lou Gold]

I define love as acceptance of reality as it is and dealing with it as such. I love cars and rattlesnakes unconditionally, which means I deal with them exactly as they are and expect them to be true to their nature. I don't run around damaging cars because they cause damage or kill rattlers. I do look both ways when crossing the street and pay attention in snake country. In terms of the archetypal story, I believe that Jesus understood well where the people were in consciousness and also the nature of his mission of launching a greater love into the universe when he asked for forgiveness for the people. Is this practical in mundane situations? Rarely in the grandest ideal sense and often in the practical sense of doing the best one can according to one's best understanding of things as they are. It is most helpful to be grounded and not lost in abstractions.

[Ed Konderla]

Another curiosity is the apparent correlation between this revelation of unconditional love/bliss with the all-pervasive 'Divine' light spoken of with respect to mystical awakenings, NDE events, some psychedelic trips ~ especially with 5-Me0-dmt ~ such that they seem inextricable, and presumably is that same light spoken of in the revelation, "I am the light of the world", in that it might also have been stated as "I am the love-light of the world" ~ not to mention that unconditioned 'luminous' mind spoken of in some Buddhist traditions, albeit I'm not sure that all these references are equatable.

I have been on numerous journeys using psychedelics my favorite being psilocybin mushrooms. There have been many times with that method and through meditation I have experienced that moment of perfect clarity and the all consuming joy that comes with it. Is it love? Don't know. However you return to the world of the living. In the world you have to breath, feed yourself, pay taxes and all of the other demands required of one while occupying this plane of existence. I'm not complaining in fact I really enjoy this reality. However the brief peeks beyond provide encouragement, peace and acceptance. May not be love but it's pretty sublime.

[Lou Gold]

Another curiosity is the apparent correlation between this revelation of unconditional love/bliss with the all-pervasive 'Divine' light spoken of with respect to mystical awakenings, NDE events, some psychedelic trips ~ especially with 5-Me0-dmt ~ such that they seem inextricable, and presumably is that same light spoken of in the revelation, "I am the light of the world", in that it might also have been stated as "I am the love-light of the world" ~ not to mention that unconditioned 'luminous' mind spoken of in some Buddhist traditions, albeit I'm not sure that all these references are equatable.

I have been on numerous journeys using psychedelics my favorite being psilocybin mushrooms. There have been many times with that method and through meditation I have experienced that moment of perfect clarity and the all consuming joy that comes with it. Is it love? Don't know. However you return to the world of the living. In the world you have to breath, feed yourself, pay taxes and all of the other demands required of one while occupying this plane of existence. I'm not complaining in fact I really enjoy this reality. However the brief peeks beyond provide encouragement, peace and acceptance. May not be love but it's pretty sublime.

I agree. To feel clear in the ordinary, the mundane and even the boring is also love. The challenge, in my view, is not just to feel great clarity when things are joyous but to also feel it when things are painful. Expressed in terms of a current trope, "Whatever blocks our spiritual work, is our spiritual work." I'm told that in India there's a saying that being a householder is the most challenging spiritual path. Or, as Gabor Maté says, "If you think I'm enlightened, ask my wife."

[Ed Konderla]

Ditto on the wife. I've always been a lover of the journey and not so much the destination which works out well if one follows a spiritual path.