sexta-feira, 9 de dezembro de 2016

A Brief History of Love



Throughout human history, there has never been anything so misunderstood as Love.

For several millennia, we have heard about Love. Buddha, in his time, was already talking about it, seeking to give an example of behavior based on sweetness, gentleness, and kindness, teaching that all should seek these virtues within themselves, seeking enlightenment. He sought to teach everyone his philosophy of inner enlightenment, and that this enlightenment should be sought within, within thyself. He taught that they were all "Buddhas", they just did not know it yet. But the only way to seek this knowledge was to turn inward, seeking the knowledge in thy heart.


Many thousand years later, in the most western part of the world, there was another Master who came bringing this newness called "Love". We were at the height of the Roman Empire, and the Jews suffered this yoke of domination. The news between them was that there would be a Messiah who would deliver them from Roman domination. Based on the Jewish culture preached at the time, a great expectation was created around a great warrior who would come to free them, with his sword in hand, protected by the force of the Jewish tyrant God, ready to judge and to punish the infidels. It was the law of Talion, it was the eye for an eye, tooth for tooth!

But the great disappointment of the Jews of that time was when they were confronted with a madman who came to question all the teachings of the priests of that time, teaching that the truth was in the "Love of your neighbor, as you love yourself". That was the great law! Love your neighbor just as you love yourself! Love your enemies! Forgive your brother, not 7 times, but 70 times 7 times! "How so?!" Everyone had heard of Love, but no one recognized that they could Love their enemies. What was he talking about?! And where did he come from? What was his lineage, his backgrounds? Why did this so-called "Messiah", called Jesus, contest the religious of the time, the great authorities, the Priests, when he should be facing the tyranny of Rome? Was he really the promised "Messiah"?! "Better crucify him, for he does not attend to our interests!"

And again the message of Love was ignored.

Many years later, more precisely in the 60's, there was the great Hippie Movement of Peace and Love. Again, the subject of Love was surfacing. Several enlightened young people came to awaken to the truth of Love to others, inspired by the teachings from the East, from the Buddhists of that time, questioning the society and traditions of that time. Everything could have worked very well, if not for a "but": all this illumination was achieved at the expense of hallucinogens and drugs of all kinds. All very artificial! And what we got was a whole generation of chemical addicts, addicted to all kinds of drugs. And the movement lost its credibility.

Of course, not everything was in vain! We lived a new Age of discovery of what at that time was considered a human emotion, called Love! With the advent of Psychology and all scientific disciplines focused on the study of human behavior, the said "Love" had reached the status of feeling. And with all the advent of the sexual revolution of that time, marital unions began to be guided by this new feeling.

Strangely, what we had was a contrary move than could be expected! Although at that time we had a large number of stable unions that lasted for years and years, what happened was that the number of marital separations increased a lot. "What do you mean?! Were they not marrying for love? "

Again I want to remind you that all the texts that I will be writing will be referring to the previous texts. Do you remember the text I wrote about marriage earlier? Osho made it very clear: what happened was that people began to discover that although they were getting married by a certain sentiment called "Love," they eventually discovered that they were actually missing with Love for the main person they were to truly love: themselves!

"Really?  Wasn’t it Love what I felt when I got married? I was so in love... "

This concept of Love that was created is in fact much more connected to desire and to a need for possession of the desired object than properly Love. The choice of matrimonial candidates has always been associated more with materialistic aspects than properly with Love as it should be. In this process, we began to choose for our candidates for marriage those who were physically attractive, or very rich, or who gave us material comfort, or who showed us a psychological profile of someone we wanted to be but who we could not be. The old story of the opposites that attract each other! But this has always been an enormous torture over time, because our concept of love encompassed something that did not marry the truth of Love: a certain need to control the loved one, to possess it.

What hurts the most in Love is not this feeling invented by cheap human psychology, but the need we create in ourselves to possess the loved one. All current society has been built around the desire to possess, and that is what destroys us. I have observed people who, within their personal pains, insist that they love more animals than people. Why? What do animals have different from us? They justify their responses by claiming that animals know how to love unconditionally. However, the real truth is that domestic pets can be owned! When we adopt or buy a domestic animal, it actually creates a bond of dependency with its owner, and in that way he will never leave the one who gives him food and bed to sleep. Much more than affection, it is a survival instinct!!!

It does not mean that animals do not feel love for their owners! Of course they have Love in them, and without a doubt we can learn from them what it means to love unconditionally! Even though they stay there because they have food and a warm bed...

And what happens most often when a person gets disillusioned with "Love" is that she begins to feel a great sadness after the separation, an emptiness provoked by the rupture of that affective bond.

And why does this happen? Why does an affective breakdown strike us so deeply?

Because Love, with capital L, is much more than a feeling! It's an energy! Or is it THE Energy?!

Let’s understand this! We are beginning to learn that we are energy in motion, much more than matter. We are spirits in bodies of flesh, but these bodies themselves are not composed of inert matter, but of vibratory particles, as quantum physics reveals. That is, even though incarnated in bodies of dense matter, yet what keeps our molecules together is energy, and that energy can also be classified as Love!

Love is an energy that holds everything in this united universe. It is what brings us closer and keeps us connected with the Creation, which is pure Love! And because we are Love, we cannot stop expressing this Love in our lives. Even if we live in isolation in this world, we feel the need to feel connected to something. Whether it is bound to nature, or a pet, which will be depending on its owner until the end of its life, or to objects or a habit... We will always feel the need to be connected to something or someone. And when that connection breaks for some reason, it shakes us deeply. Do not tell me that you never felt guilty about throwing away that pet typewriter you always used to write your books, but now you use a computer to type them!


And I said that it was going to be a brief story... It could not be shorter! Finally, to conclude, I want only to add that if we want to learn to "Love Unconditionally", that is, to learn what Love truly is, we need to combat in ourselves this need to possess whatever it is. We are all just passing through matter, so we do not even own our bodies! But as long as we are in possession of it, we must rather treat it with much Love, until the moment of farewell.


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