Questions on Unconditional Love

[xxxx]

Questions:

1) What does unconditional love look like towards the people we love? 

2) What does unconditional love look like towards strangers/ those who have hurt us / others in that similar bracket? 

3) Boundaries and unconditional love — the much-needed balance. Your thoughts?

4) What is your experience with such a beautiful phenomenon, and how does it get incorporated and manifested in your daily life?

Edit: P.S. I know, some of y’all would tell that unconditional knows no boundaries, etc. However, I want to know how you practice this kind of all-encompassing love, in this materialistic world. 

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by xxxx

[Preety_India]

Maybe try not. It's a materialistic world. Deal with it in a materialistic way. 

If you showed unconditional love in this world, maybe you might get ignored and exploited and worse get treated like a doormat. 

The only people who you can show unconditional love to are pets. 

Unconditional love often doesn't get the treatment it deserves in real life. 

 

[xxxx]

@Preety_India

Your insight is duly noted. Thank you.

Still, that is the reason that I put it into four distinct questions.

The perils of exhibiting something like unconditional love to all, the same, shouldn’t come at the cost of one-self, too — right, I agree. Unconditional love starts with the recognition of our own value amongst everything else of value. 

I just want to know if it is possible at all. If yes, how does one meander through it while being practical and thoughtful? 

Some relationships demand certain ways of being. 

With unconditional love as the core, I want to know your different experiences dealing with it in this life, through the many different roles that we play. 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by xxxx

[xxxx]

Thank you for your answer, @Tim Ho

Your reply did get me thinking about the idea of the categorization of anything. We all usually end up over-emphasizing the categories that we think are similar, and under-emphasizing the categories we think to be different. 

I, inadvertently, put my first two questions in entirely two different categories, forgetting how thin that line can be. We can love some one a lot, and still, they may be the ones that are hurting us the most. So, perhaps, at that particular moment, my love, too, cannot be put into certain boxes through which I could pick and choose, accordingly. Similarly, the concept of a stranger is also dubious; I may have known someone all my life, and love them, and they would have never heard of me; or they would have known me, and I would have no idea about them --- and then where would I place them in my set of questions? I am still exploring this idea of categorization.

I have some questions for you that I shall be happy if you, or anyone else could answer - (Here, I am not talking about the kind of all-encompassing infinite love that unconditionally loves hate, accepts disgust with pure joy, lives through every bit of pain inflicted in an effervescent manner, and dances to the tunes of egoic love that is just one of its infinite components. I am talking about, as I mentioned in my question, the aspects of this all-encompassing unconditional love that we can practice in this material world that does not have the same kind of big picture outlook towards hate, disgust and pain like most of us on this forum do, perhaps.)

1)

When you add variables such as culture, education, age, family status and the like --- do you mean to tell that ascending the ladder in terms of these variables has a positive relationship with something like unconditional love, or vice-versa? You told that they act different. I would like to know how different, and are we sure that these are good indicators for a reasonable assessment? If we take an example of an economically poor mother that loves her child -- the mother would, keeping other factors like culture, family status, and the like aside, anyway provide unconditional support to her child --- in the same manner that a mother from a billion dollar household may also do if she really does love her child. 

People from extremely poor households that are anti-social elements in the society, may give their only piece of bread to a beggar down the road.

There are people from rich households that do a lot of charitable work, and may be cruel to their house-help. 

There may be poor people who work for gangsters that give away their kidneys to their loved ones because they want them to survive.

There may be rich people who work for the biggest of charities, but may be waiting for their family members to die so that they might get a part of their will. 

So, how do I do a reasonable assessment? I am torn.

2)

Inside the periphery of this dual, limited existence, where does the concept of justice play a part? Now, people on the forum talk about devilry and devilish activities, and how it has consequences, etc. While they may be aware of this infinite love, they are still talking about this from a worldly perspective, where there are certain rights and wrongs. If I invade anyone's private territory and snatch away all their belongings needed to survive, I have done a wrong, according to a consensus. I think people on this forum would agree with that. This act will be called devilish. There is a clear moral conduct in place in this dual, human existence. So, how can a person who is endeavoring this path towards understanding unconditional love act towards those who do something morally outrageous on the societally accepted principles? While I may know that it is all stemming from his idea of love, where would I place him in this social system of justice? As a person X trying to walk the path of spirituality, I might understand, but, say, as a lawyer or a judge, what do I do? 

What if there is a dissonance? Should I look at giving the person a death sentence as Love? Or should I give that person a life imprisonment and know it is all Love? Or, should I let a person walk away and let them kill more people ---as killing one or killing millions in the infinity, equals to killing no one, and it is all Love?  

3)

And from the second question stems the third one --- where I would want to know about the boundaries that I need to have to make the requisite distinctions, if there are any. 

.

I hope this does not seem too cluttered. Do let me know. 

 

Edited November 29, 2020 by xxxx