Questions About Love? - Ask Here

[Leo Gura]

I am planning several new videos on the topic of Love.

I will be addressing many common questions, objections, and misconceptions in those videos.

So if you have a genuine question or objection about what Love is, why it's important, or how it works, ask here.

I'm looking for genuine questions from your direct experience, not trolling or devil's advocate games.

Your question may not be answered in this thread. But there's a good chance it may be answered in the new videos.

[Schahin]

Why is Love so elusive in day to day Life and only reveals itself through Psychedelics?

[GabeN]

1- You said in one of your blog videos that every single atom cannot move in the universe unless it's out of Love,

You mentioned that every single pixel on this screen has to do something with Love, I can kinda see what you mean, but would be great it if you could elaborate a bit on this perhaps.

 

2- What do you think is the biggest reason why many enlightened people like Peter Ralston for example, don't talk a lot about it in their teachings?

[Mel B]

Is the way a human beeing experiences love unique or is the experience of love universal?

and how would you describe love?

[Leo Gura]

40 minutes ago, Schahin said:

Why is Love so elusive in day to day Life and only reveals itself through Psychedelics?

Survival dominates your life. Universal Love can be counter-productive to your survival.

But also it's not so elusive. You love certain stuff all day long. You go to lunch and you love it. You jerk off and you love it. You watch Netflix and you love. You see a sunset and you love it. Your dog licks your face and you love it. You take a big shit and you love it. You earn some money and you love it. You crash on the couch after a long day and you love it. You read some profound book and you love it. You take a hot shower and your body loves it.

If your life didn't have love in it, you would kill yourself pretty soon.

31 minutes ago, GabeN said:

1- You said in one of your blog videos that every single atom cannot move in the universe unless it's out of Love,

You mentioned that every single pixel on this screen has to do something with Love, I can kinda see what you mean, but would be great it if you could elaborate a bit on this perhaps.

What is the universe doing as a whole? Forget about individual people or atoms. What is the ENTIRE thing up to? Is it just a random mess of stuff? No! It's doing something intelligent. Consider the possibility that what it's doing is maximizing the expression of metaphysical love. If this were true, you can see how the movement of every atom would contribute to that ultimate goal in the same way that every atom in your computer's hard drive is contributing to the function of the hard drive storing data.

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2- What do you think is the biggest reason why many enlightened people like Peter Ralston for example, don't talk a lot about it in their teachings?

The materialist paradigm goes very deep. I think many people just assume that reality cannot be loving because it must be neutral or empty or mechanical and impersonal.

Love is a distinct awakening that one must have. Some people, especially masculine men who tend to skew towards autistic may have a limited ability to realize love. Many men have closed hearts or avoid emotional expressiveness.

For example, I'm not sure if a clinical psychopath can realize Love. My guess is he can, but he's just not very likely to.

Ralston's style is very reductionistic, clinical, masculine. It's that classic sort of Zen style. But this is only one style of spirituality. It's not Truth per se. It's a style. It's one expression of Truth.

But honestly I don't know why he doesn't get it. That's a good question that requires some scientific research.

[d0ornokey]

Ik it's not the topic but I've always wanted to know what true love meant in intimate relations and friendships 

[Leo Gura]

11 minutes ago, d0ornokey said:

Ik it's not the topic but I've always wanted to know what true love meant in intimate relations and friendships 

Appreciation of the person's innate beauty. Not physical beauty or function. But the beauty of their totality of being.

When you can look Hitler in the eye and see his beauty, there is your love.

P.S. You are still free to kill him. Love and killing are not opposite. Seeing the beauty of a thing says nothing about what you should do from a survival perspective. You can see the beauty of cancer, but then decide to destroy the cancer. Destruction is part of the total beauty of reality.

Try this: The next time you want to kill a house fly, first, stop for moment and admire it's beauty. Then kill it and admire the beauty inherent in the destruction. Notice that without destruction there could not be life. Admire the beauty of your internal conflict and moral deliberations about killing that fly. That too is love. You feel bad because you wish you could love that fly. Yet you also know you needed to kill that fly because you cannot allow a house full of dirty flies and maggots. Admire the beauty of survival. Yours and the fly's. Admire the inherent conflict between the two of you. Let the magnitude of it hit you. Imagine yourself as the fly being killed. Notice the sad beauty of that too.

[Forestluv]

11 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Consider the possibility that what it's doing is maximizing the expression of metaphysical love. 

Can Love be maximized - if Everything is Love?

Is metaphysical love distinct from Absolute Love and common conditional love?

[Leo Gura]

14 minutes ago, Serotoninluv said:

Can Love be maximized - if Everything is Love?

Is metaphysical love distinct from Absolute Love and common conditional love?

This is where things necessarily get paradoxical.

Yes, everything IS Love. But also, what is includes everything that is occurring at all levels and orders or reality. So just like at the order of atoms, that is Love, at the order of human social activities, that is love. So when the US bombs targets in the Middle East, the bombs are literally made out of love and with love, and they are dropped out of love -- despite the fact that they kill innocent civilians.

This is so because there is a bigger picture to the universe which transcends the death of any one living being, no matter how innocent. The ego of course hates this idea and vehemently denies it. Because it's too dangerous.

Love is maximized precisely BECAUSE everything is love!

Metaphysical is just another word I use for Absolute.

Common conditional love is just a very narrow version of Absolute Love. It is like Absolute Love diluted to 0.00000001%. What makes it conditional is the desire for survival. Humans don't love unconditionally because it's far too dangerous. If you loved a grizzly bear unconditionally it might eat you.

Attachment to survival requires modulation of unconditional love because survival is by definition conditional! You need certain conditions to be alive. So you are in an existential bind. You must either choose survival or unconditional love. For most people this isn't even a choice. Survival dictates the choosing of survival. Otherwise you couldn't be here to make the choice. It's the ultimate catch-22.

[Yoshy]

Does not love makes full sense in the dualistic world where there is hate and suffering in contrast ? Is there even love in non duality ? 

How to be loved ? Does love have to be actualized into pleasure ? Why religion teaches god's love but also hell ? 

[Leo Gura]

10 minutes ago, Yoshy said:

Does not love makes full sense in the dualistic world where there is hate and suffering in contrast ? Is there even love in non duality ? 

Nonduality IS pure Love.

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How to be loved ?

The only way is to realize that you ARE Love. This results in total absolute self-acceptance and self-love. Since you are God, your love for yourself is Absolute and unlimited. Since you are God, no one can love you but yourself. If you cannot love & accept yourself, no one else can and you are forever doomed by your own self-denial and self-hatred until you realize that self-love is the only true love.

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Why religion teaches god's love but also hell ? 

Religion is highly corrupt. The devil has co-opted all religion to use as a control mechanism. Fear (of Hell) is a powerful control mechanism. Many humans do no know how to follow basic rules of decency unless they are threatened with eternal Hell.

When a child misbehaves, the easiest way to make it behave is to threaten it with a beating. Then the child quickly falls in line and obeys. Like a dog. This is the level that many people function at.

[Omni]

Why is love the substance of everything and has no counterpart? 

in a sense, i'd imagine i understand the infinite scope of unconditional love where it is the nonrestrictive allowance for any and all things to occur - of course embodiment is a completely different subject to understanding - but does embodiment of absolute love inherit the dissolving of self-bias?

[Average Investor]

What is the best practice to love everything? Is it to just love yourself?  I was killing some flies the other day and had a similar realization to what you said above. I have tried to see a trait I like about a person before any further judgement. Just hard to keep it on my mind all the time. 

 

I should mention I usually don't have a heavy judgement. Usually just feel sorry for someone if I see someone mentally ill etc. People more directly in my experience I do have a bit of judgement. When someone does not hold up their end of a deal, or are careless. To be fair I had someone who typically goes out of their way to wrong me, but I feel sorry for them. 

Edited August 22, 2019 by Average Investor

[Igor82]

How is love synonymous with actuality?

How is love synonymous with the colors I see? I can't seem to collapse this boundary 

• For me, my imagination proves to be a powerful tool in expanding love, just like the demonstration in the "what is love?" video. How far can I use my imagination and visualization to magnify and expand love? Can I break through into absolute love by solely using my mind and thoughts as a tool to achieve that?

Edited August 22, 2019 by Igor82
added question

[Forestluv]

@Leo Gura When you said transcending death, it brought up this experience. Would this be a relevant analogy?

While hiking in Sedona, I noticed that the prickly pear cacti were covered in some type of fungus. It looked like a nasty disease. Parts of the cacti looked healthy green, other parts were unhealthy greyiish / blackish. I loved the heathy green parts and recoiled from the infected parts. I felt bad for the dying cactus and wanted to help it. I felt disappointed that the wildlife was not being maintained in the trail system. Then I saw a sign saying the cacti are actually a symbiosis of cactus and many microorganisms living in harmony as One. This transcended my previous perspective and the cacti / microorganisms suddenly became so beautiful. I got up close to admire it’s beauty and I felt love for the whole thing. 

[herghly]

I'm curious what you think about this @Leo Gura. I had this insight on a psychedelic trip, it's not we need to learn how to become more loving. 

Love is our most true essence.

We have to find all the barriers we have to destroy all the barriers we have built between us and Love.

[Leo Gura]

@Serotoninluv Yes, that's a good example.

What happened there was by reading that sign, your small picture was expanded to a bigger picture. As the picture got bigger is put otherwise ugly & bad things into proper context, thus erasing the badness and ugliness.

Now imagine that extrapolated to the entire universe.

My claim is this: if you adopt a large enough picture, every action that has ever occurred or will ever occur in the universe will be seen as an expression of Absolute Love. But you need to seriously expand your picture. It's far too small. In fact, your picture must become infinite.

[Leo Gura]

4 minutes ago, herghly said:

I'm curious what you think about this @Leo Gura. I had this insight on a psychedelic trip, it's not we need to learn how to become more loving. 

Love is our most true essence.

We have to find all the barriers we have to destroy all the barriers we have built between us and Love.

Those are just two different ways of framing the same thing.

Learning how to love is about eliminating various judgments and selfish attachments. But it can also be proactive. Just, like, practice loving things more! It can be that simple.

[Good-boy]

Even enlightened individuals have some ego. Does Love completely dissolve the ego?

[Forestluv]

5 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

@Serotoninluv Yes, that's a good example.

But you need to seriously expand your picture. It's far too small. In fact, your picture must become infinite.

The smaller pictures have greater clarity. As I zoom out, it gets less clear. 

I’ve been a big picture on 5-meo and now I’m working to integrate small human picture with big trans-human picture. It helps knowing I’m oriented in the right direction.