“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
Love
Every culture that acknowledges the concept of love sees love in a certain way. Especially in the cultures of romance, it is seen as something that will heal all emotional wounds, and will bond our souls—allowing us to live happily ever after. But, as has been noted, these stories often end with the two lovers walking off, hand-in-hand, into the sunset… They do not walk in to the dawn, but the darkness. For it is when you encounter the dark night of your lover’s soul that the work begins -
Perhaps we are only looking at a one dimensional version of the story - the simplest one, and the easiest to grasp. Love is as complex and many-varied as the human soul—seeing as genuine love is, as we all know, food for the soul. However, just as there are many types of “food”, some processed, some natural, there are as many types of “soul food”, and though some of it might sail under the flag of love, it is certainly not loving!
The reality is that we have to accept the basic fact of duality, and thus complementarity. That is, if there is an up, there is also a down. Thus, as love can bring us to great heights, it can also cause us to experience deep pain.
Soul mate
Why do women seek a twin flame? Having a child is a natural event—it does not require a soul mate. Is it to fill some missing piece, or to fulfil some hole, some missing piece?
If soul love is true love—how will it be expressed?
Energy
What if we looked at what we refer to as love as, firstly, and foremost, as energy. Energy that emerges between two (or more) people. Because, if we take it at its most basic, it enervates, it awakens, it stimulates - it is love(ly)!
However, energy is amoral. It just is, and it just does what it does. For instance, electrical energy…
Thus, in the end, it will stimulate your feelings making them more intense, more overpowering. You will have “fallen” in love, and experience uncontrollable feelings of love… and perhaps hate… and anger… and resentment… and shame… and jealousy!?
Think of love as white light, born untainted, pure and innocent, that splinters into the many colours of existence upon encountering the prism of the lover’s souls. For love seems to contain within it all the flavours of the human soul experience.
Max love
Here is a primary question of our time: How many people is the maximum that a person can truly love? This includes all the different types of love.
{How would one go about answering this question? Or showing that there is no answer to this question? We know the lower bound is one - that which we call self-love. Once again, here is the paradox of bifurcation{which can be self-replication; or birth, a new creation - but that would need some “other” impulse to be able to manifest something new. The only way we could even know that the unknown exists is because there is something in the unknown that calls to us. This is unique to our human experience as far as we can tell. It is only we who struggle with this impulse. All the animals exist in peace (except when disturbed by humans) with the fact of who/what they are. The lion is not striving to be a gazelle. The whale does not gaze wistfully at the seagull flying overhead. It is just living the life of a whale or lion. Only humans constantly wrestle with G-d… unless the opt out. When we say self-love, it is actually love of two, the other is just another you—perhaps a you you like more than you like your “self”. So, the truth is that love must begin with two, though it starts of at one.
It also seems logical that there must be an upper bound to the amount of people one can love. It is almost as if each one of us is granted a portion of love. We can love one deeply, or spread our love over many. The only caveat is to beware of loving the dead.
Tests have been done, that show that the maximum amount of parallel tasks a human can preform at the same time is around seven. Like writing seven letters simultaneously. Yet, no research has been done into love. Perhaps we prefer it to be a mystery - that way it allows for more leeway. Seven might be a good starting place for an upper bound.
However or whatever we approach this question, what it emphasises is that we find ourselves in the uncomfortable position “knowing” love, yet no-one really knowing what it is.
True love is in the interesting position of only being known by experiencing it. Does Truth have the same modicum?
Because, in the end, love is a feeling… Now, the question becomes… what is a feeling? Presenting us with the same difficulty as before. What are we really talking about here?