Love and lust

Love is a subject talked by all and yet undestood lest or better to say misunderstood the most. Love is the cornerstone of spirituality and intellectuality, doesn't matter the source . Buddhism, Christianity, Philosophy and others do not have much in common in terms of origin but none can stand without notion of love. So where lies the problem? Why it is lest understood? The reason is that emotions are blind and we think of love as formless and dimensionless feelings while it is not true. Were it true we wouldn't have the categories of liking, loving and falling in love. And we wouldn't have the division between lust and love. I want to make clarify here that lust is not just physical but also intellectual. Intellectual lust become integrated almost in all major industries through media and it has silently addicted people.

I was saying that emotions are blind. You can attach it to anything and it will stick well to it. I don't think that it needs an illustration but still one is good in case needed. Gambling for example is something irrational but if one invest emotions in it, it will stick very well. Animosity is another example. All know the consequences, doesn't matter how weak is the enemy, but investing emotions let you go to irreversible exteremes.

So just loving is not enough but knowing what to love is also very important. Now that it is somewhat clear let's categorize love so we distinguish it from others.

To me selfishness stand at one end and selflessness stands at other end. Selfishness is lust and selflessness is love. We are mostly confused because we are mostly lying somewhat in between. As much as one is close to selflessness that much one is clear that what he does and what he wants and as much as one is close to selfishness that much one think and act under urgencies, fear and immediate needs and benefits. Liking is not always lust but mostly it is. So going from liking to loving (in loving selflessness dominates but it is still fragile because selfishness is still there and fear is ready to take advantage of any developing circumstance) and to falling in love is a long process of character building in which one overcome fears and become a person who is daring enough to stand selflessly for what he understands clearly.