[Michah]

Hi everyone,

Recently my psychologist and I discussed LOVE and it left me with more questions. I did not think of love as being one-sided or two- sided...I always though of love as a sort of "collective" feeling. Love to me is as contagious as panic, yet panic is easier than love, or people recognise panic more readily than love.

I have Aspergers Syndrome and being quite fortunate to have a psych who specialises in this field, he was able to bring up the idea of love without me instantly being on guard. For when person tells me that they love me, or asks me the question "Do you love me?", I am suspicious. Why would a person need to keep telling me they love me or do I love them, when once is enough? I do not need to reassure a person that they are loved when I have already said it once. If the love I feel changes, then I will let them know. So why this strange and uncomfortable behaviour? Did the person doubt me the first time I said it? I am genuinely curious.

I would have posted this in the AS forum, but I wanted peoples thoughts on love, and what it means to them, AS or not. I am quite besotted by love. When I witness it, it makes me feel things I cannot describe, and I seek to acknowledge that I also possess that love. I love my book collection, obsessively in fact, but I do not feel that level of visceral joy for human love. Maybe it is because I can love my book collection as much as I want without it saying a word. And I can touch my books without the fear of them wanting to touch me back.

So, in my fascination for Love, I am seeking stories of love, or what love means to you.....

Thanks,

Michah

Word association: love - dumb trick - betrayal - stoic - void:

Loneliness is an aching void in the center of our beings, a deep longing to love and be loved, to be fully known and accepted by at least one other person. It is a hollow, haunting sound sweeping through our depths, chilling our bones and causing us to shiver.

Is there a person, anywhere, who has never felt the stab of loneliness, who has never experienced the eerie distance of isolation and separation who has never suffered the pain of rejection or the loss of love?

The final rupture or breakdown of a valued loving relationship, the sudden death of someone who was close and special, an unavoidable separation from a loved one—these things strike loneliness into our hearts, the intense experience of the absence of that specific person.

Besides longing for a specific person, sometimes loneliness has no name attached. This is the general feeling of being alone, isolated, separated from others.

And there is a third kind of loneliness—existential loneliness—which is even deeper and more pervasive than either of the first two. It often disguises itself as longing for a specific person or pretends to be yearning for contact with anyone, but this deeper lack or emptiness-of-being is not really a kind of loneliness at all.

Being together with other people, even people we intensely love, does not overcome this deep incompleteness of being. This inner default of selfhood has never been solved by relationships, no matter how good and close and warm our relationships might be. http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/CY-LONE.html

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...-love-fails-us

[spiritual_emergency]

Oh. Dear.

*sigh*

THE MYSTIC HEART

"Artwork courtesy of and copyright
by Daniel B. Holeman

In Sanskrit the name anahata was given to the fourth chakra, which literally means "unstricken" It refers to the subtle vibration that is the creative energy of the Void and is chanted as the sacred syllable OM. It is said to be heard inwardly in meditation when consciousness awakens in the heart or kundalini has reached this chakra. The fourth chakra is also, commonly referred to as the Mystical Heart in the Christian mysteries and as the Intelligence of the Heart in the Egyptian Mysteries. When the heart center is awakened, then the impulses of spiritual inspiration and altruistic love pour in and an ardent desire for all beings to enjoy the love and beatitude available at this level of awareness is, felt. In the Buddhist tradition, this urge is, expressed as the vow to assist all sentient beings to reach Enlightenment. A person who actualizes this vow becomes a Bodhisattva. All forms of romantic love are, motivated by this search for union with the source of love. However, it is an unconscious distortion of the ego and a great misfortune that this search is directed outward and that the source is misunderstood as being “a person” outside of oneself.

Source: The Mystic Heart

Music of the Hour: The Gate of Sorrow

[Michah]

Thanks Byz.......you hit on something with that. I have instinctively reached some data to do with "inner love"(very simplistic way of stating it, sorry..couldn't think of better words).......is it with "inner love" that one loves others? And how does it translate to others? Does love get overshadowed by logic? Is love of self a leap of faith? Many questions

I understand the concept of self love intrinsically, but I still struggle to "feel" it. Maybe it is my lack of self-esteem.

Spiritual Emergency, by your *sigh* in your post, did you want to reflect fustration with my thread, or something else. You "sounded" hurt. And is that chakra that you speak of located in the solar plexus? If it is I will get chills, for you are not the first person to have brought it up....

Thank you both for your valuable input

Michah

[spiritual_emergency]

Hello Michah,
The sigh was in part because I'm hurting for some people I care for. That is one of the problems with caring for others, you may feel their sadness.

Manipura is the chakra in the solar plexus. I was talking with a woman a few weeks ago, very knowledgeable. She told me the solar plexus chakra is associated with our sense of separate ego identity, our sense of will and power. Perhaps this is why an action perceived to be a form of deep hurt or betrayal will feel "like a kick in the guts". I had a lot of pain in this area during my experience. It made sense when she explained it's linked with ego identity. The color associated with the Manipura chakra is a warm, sunny, yellow.

Sitting above the solar plexus chakra is the heart chakra -- anahata. This chakra is associated with a deep emerald green. The masculine (Yang) and feminine (Yin) energies come together in the heart center. I had pain in this area too and maybe that's part of what my sigh is also about.

My musical link didn't work for some reason. It pairs well with information related to the heart chakra: http://thefifthbody.homestead.com/aw...of_sorrow.html

As for love... in its highest form I think of it as of immense intelligence. But also an energy state. Perhaps this is similar to your own experience of "love as a collective state".

~ Namaste


PS: I like your demon run icon.

[Michah]

Originally Posted by spiritual_emergency

Hello Michah,
The sigh was in part because I'm hurting for some people I care for. That is one of the problems with caring for others, you may feel their sadness.

Manipura is the chakra in the solar plexus. I was talking with a woman a few weeks ago, very knowledgeable. She told me the solar plexus chakra is associated with our sense of separate ego identity, our sense of will and power. Perhaps this is why an action perceived to be a form of deep hurt or betrayal will feel "like a kick in the guts". I had a lot of pain in this area during my experience. It made sense when she explained it's linked with ego identity. The color associated with the Manipura chakra is a warm, sunny, yellow.

Sitting above the solar plexus chakra is the heart chakra -- anahata. This chakra is associated with a deep emerald green. The masculine (Yang) and feminine (Yin) energies come together in the heart center. I had pain in this area too and maybe that's part of what my sigh is also about.

My musical link didn't work for some reason. It pairs well with information related to the heart chakra: http://thefifthbody.homestead.com/aw...of_sorrow.html

As for love... in its highest form I think of it as of immense intelligence. But also an energy state. Perhaps this is similar to your own experience of "love as a collective state".

~ Namaste


PS: I like your demon run icon.

Absolutely fascinating.....there is something I want to discuss with you but just trying to get the words together

I am glad you liked my Demon Run icon It is Wolfie and I having a howl. Loved it the moment I saw it. It is also about Love to some degree..

Thank you for your very valuable input SE....

Michah

Wolfie?