Types of Love
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 3 years before Aug 14, 2016
MiBeloved 3 years ago
From LinkedIn:
Natubhai wrote:
Unconditional love begins where small, ego-driven self- interest ends.
MiBeloved’s Remark:
I feel that deliberate unconditional love, planned thought-thru unconditional love has a high potential to be motivated while spontaneous non-planned automatic applications of unconditional love are the real thing.
But all the same a person should not rely only on the spontaneous applications but should cultivate the planned type which is done deliberately even when one is in a selfish mode, where one extracts the self from that condition and acts freely without motivation. The motivation will be there and it should be seen for what it is and then left aside so that one can apply oneself without it.
An example is a woman who has co-wives. This is not common today, but it was in some gaps of history previously. In such a situation a certain wife would be spontaneous in love to her children and would be harsh to the children of another co-wife.
Our nature is capable of contrary actions, where it can love someone dearly and selflessly and then dislike someone else selfishly.
A co-wife will exhibit many selfless acts towards her son but will give harsh selfish acts to her step-children, the sons of other co-wives. Thus she could practice to leave aside the natural prejudice to her step-sons.
Nature itself endorses and enforces a passion for the exhibition of prejudice towards the step children. And unless she makes an effort to put that aside her selfless nature will always disappear in dealings with her step-sons. But when she masters the selfish energy and ignores it, she should, must also check to see if there is a hidden motive.
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In the Ramayana we see that Princess Kaikeyi (kai kay ee) was never prejudiced to Rama until she got the urge to dispose of Rama so as to install her son as the heir of their father. Were her selfless acts before this incidence actually selfless love or was it really veiled selfish acts.
Selfishness also is something which has definite motivation but it can hide itself under another selfless act. Kaikeyi was said to have saved King Dasharath when the king was knocked down on a battlefield. At the time when the King expressed his appreciation for being rescued and offered her a favor in compensation, she acted in a very selfless way and did not take compensation, saying that she might ask about it later. Was there a hidden selfish energy supporting that?
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Something to be considered also is the recipient of a selfless act. Does it matter or does it made a difference who benefits from a selfless act. Today in the world we have a problem with extremists who perform ghastly acts for their cause. One part of the act is for the benefit of the offended people, and may be regarded as a selfless act, but the other part of it which related to those who are injured or killed is a selfish act. In those cases the same act has a two part aspect to it, selfless and selfish.
unlimitedsun 3 years ago
When is a human act devoid of all motivation?
