February 7, 2006
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On Love, Part 4
By J. Krishnamurti
How few of us are generous, forgiving, merciful! You are generous when it pays you. You are merciful when you can see something in return. When these things disappear, when these things don’t occupied your mind and when the things of the mind don’t fill your heart, then there is love; and love alone can transform the present madness and insanity in the world—not systems, not theories, either of the left or of the right. You really love only when you do not possess, when you are not envious, not greedy, when you are respectful, when you have mercy and compassion, when you have consideration for your wife, your children, your neighbor, your unfortunate servants.
Love cannot be thought about, love cannot be cultivated, love cannot be practiced. The practiced of love, the practice of brotherhood, is still within the field of the mind, therefore it is not love. When all this has stopped, then love comes into being, then you will know what it is to love. Then love is not quantitative but qualitative. You do not say, “I love the whole world” but when you know how to love one, you know how to love the whole. Because we do not know how to love one, our love for humanity is fictitious. When you love, there is neither one nor many: there is only love. It is only when there is love that all our problems can be solved and then we shall know its bliss and its happiness.
From your own experience, can love be cultivated and practiced?
Comments (16)
Love can, and must be cultivated and practiced. I remember when I was in the service my aunt told me to find a sweet Christian girl and fall in love. What I thought was love 43 years ago was not at all like the love I have for her now.It actually takes work at times to put into practice what you say.
I agree completly with ronet41 because that is my song. I think the love is best seen as a linear progression where you have selfishness on one end or loveless and the other end is God or love. As we strip away the selfish pursuit our understanding of love grows and we receive the spiritual confirmation or reward of the selfless act and the progression begins. I could be wrong but that is how I see it today.
Great post
Lenn
i dont believe that we all come into this world and already know how to love,
so i would have to say that we, at one point or another in our lives, do or will
have to learn how to love.
and to me learning, IS practicing…………
but some people just never learn, oh well, all we can do is move on…….
have a great day…………phuong
wow………you were born in 73 too?..thats nice..
so ur an ox……yea they say the ox is a born leader and strong…hmmmmm…
is there any truth to that?…phuong
I believe love can be cultivated but not practiced… as Thoreau said “there is no remedy for love but to love more.” …
I agree with if you can love one person, you can love all. Because I can love a person unconditionally (family), I know I can do the same for others (non-family). For me, love does grow through time and experiences. It is cultivated, except for when I am in love with nature, with beauty, and with a moment in time.
If there are others who can love without requiring time and experiences, then that is just love, equally for one and for all.
Yes.
Good afternoon Trim. Thanks for the kind message. I’m grateful to know that.
) If you’d like to read more of my work visit my site at http://www.davidHchiem.com Thanks again! Have a wonderful day.
-David
Love is the cause of man’s ruin
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Start small love one small thing and love grows. Give that love where you can unconditionally today and tomorrow you will find it has grown to two or three and so forth and so forth, Love to you this day, Judi
Love is a verb.
Love confuses me as of late, but I would say yes.
another “yes”.
…l don’t know.
What’s a loving act? An act is an avenue of communication, perhaps even more potent than words or images. What to one person might be considered an act of love can well be to another an affront to his or her independence. That, combined with the fact we can’t always see the consequences of our actions, might make one a little wary of calling an act loving on its own terms.
So as long as it’s intended to be good, is it love? That I want to communicate to you that I’ll be there for you, that I treasure and value your existence and well-being? For what reason? Is it to give my life a purpose or to fulfill a certain societal role (i.e., serving you and giving myself up for you)? Is it fear of the alternative of being alone and unnecessary, or not wanting to lose the more tangible benefits of a relationship? Am I just following the way I’ve always seen things done? Is an act from any of these things actually considered an act of love?
Krishnamurti’s wonderfully consistent with himself. If love is rooted in self-affirmation, then it’s not love but the gain of ego – and that can be cultivated, trained. If love is rooted in what ultimately amounts to total self-annihilation, then it can’t be cultivated, for you build up nothing…
Wowww.. so many Love entries lately Anh… I can hardly keep up with your daily postings. Is this going to lead up to grand Valentine’s day entry? :p
Going back to Conversations With God – we are a not a human doing, but a human being.
Which basically to me means that I cannot cultivate or practice love. All I can do is be love.