Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00401)

Mar 20 2005

Dear Friends:

Re: It has been said that love is not an emotion. Could someone
elaborate?

Perhaps this will assist us all

Dallas

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               "LOVE WITH AN OBJECT"   



Some distinguished contributors to theosophical literature have of late been
describing what qualities are necessary to constitute a perfect man, i.e.,
an Adept. They said that among other things it was absolutely and
indispensably necessary, that such a being should possess Love — and not
merely Love in the abstract — but love regarding some object or objects.  

What can they possibly mean by speaking of "love with an object," and could
there possibly be love without any object at all? Can that feeling be
called love, which is directed solely to the Eternal and Infinite, and takes
no cognizance of earthly illusions?  

Can that be love which has no object or — in other words — is the love of
forms or objects the true love at all? If a man loved all things in the
universe alike, without giving any preference to any of them, would not such
a love be practically without any object; would it not be equal to loving
nothing at all; because in such a case the individuality of any single
object would be lost to sight?

A love which is directed towards all things alike, an universal love, is
beyond the conception of the mortal mind, and yet this kind of love, which
bestows no favors upon any one thing, seems to be that eternal love, which
is recommended by all the sacred books of the East and the West; because as
soon as we begin to love one thing or one being more than another, we not
only detract from the rest an amount of love which the rest may rightfully
claim; but we also become attached to the object of our love, a fate against
which we are seriously warned in various pages of these books.

The Bhagavad-Gita teaches that we should not love or hate any object of
sense whatsoever, nor be attached to any object or thing, but renounce all
projects and fix our thoughts solely on It, the Eternal, which is no-thing
and no object of cognition for us, but whose presence can be only
subjectively experienced by, and within ourselves.  

It says: "He is esteemed, who is equal-minded to companions, friends,
enemies, strangers, neutrals, to aliens and kindred, yea to good and evil
men 1;" and further on it says: "He whose soul is united by devotion, seeing
the same in all round, sees the soul in everything and everything in the
soul. He who sees Me (Brahmâ) everywhere and everything in Me, him I
forsake not and he forsakes not me.... He who sees the same in everything —
Arjuna! — whether it be pleasant or grievous, from the self-resemblance, is
deemed to be a most excellent Yogin 2."


LOVE in the BHAGAVAD GITA 


On almost every page of the Bhagavad-Gita we are instructed only to direct
our love to that which is eternal in every form, and let the form itself be
a matter of secondary consideration.  

"He must be regarded as a steadfast renouncer, who neither hates nor
desires." ... 

"In a learned and modest Brahman, in a cow, in an elephant, in a dog, and a
Swapáka; they who have knowledge see the same thing." ... 

"Let no man rejoice in attaining what is pleasant, nor grieve in attaining
what is unpleasant; being fixed in mind, untroubled, knowing Brahmâ and
abiding in Brahmâ." ... 

"He who is happy in himself, pleased with himself, who finds also light in
himself, this Yogin, one with Brahmâ, finds Nirvana in Him."

The Great Hermes Trismegistus teaches the same identical doctrine; for he
says: 

"Rise and embrace me with thy whole being, and I will teach thee whatsoever
thou desirest to know."  


LOVE in the BIBLE


The Bible also tells us that "God is Love 3," and that we should love Him
with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind 4, and while it
teaches that we should love nothing else but God 5, who is ALL in ALL 6, yet
it affirms, that this God is omnipresent, eternal and incomprehensible to
the finite understanding of mortals.  

It teaches this love to be the most important of all possessions, without
which all other possessions are useless 8, and yet this God, whom we are to
love, is not an "object" 9, but everywhere. He is in us and we in Him 10.
We are to leave all objects of sense and follow Him alone 11, although we
have no means of intellectually knowing or perceiving Him, the great
Unknown, for whose sake we are to give up house and brethren, sisters,
father, mother, wife, children and lands 12.

What can all this mean, but that love itself is the legitimate object of
love?  


LOVE as a UNIVERSAL POWER -- ATTRACTION


It is a divine, eternal, and infinite power, a light, which reflects itself
in every object while it seeks not the object, but merely its own reflection
therein. It is an indestructible fire and the brighter it burns, the
stronger will be the light and the clearer will its own image appear. Love
falls in love with nothing but its own self, it is free from all other
attractions.  

A love which becomes attached to objects of sense, ceases to be free, ceases
to be love, and becomes mere desire. Pure and eternal love asks for
nothing, but gives freely to all who are willing to take. Earthly love is
attached to persons and things, but Divine spiritual love seeks only that
which is divine in everything, and this can be nothing else but love, for
love is the supreme power of all.  

It holds together the worlds in space, it clothes the earth in bright and
beautiful colors, it guides the instincts of animals and links together the
hearts of human beings.  

Acting upon the lower planes of existence it causes terrestrial things to
cling to each other with fond embrace; but love on the spiritual plane is
free. Spiritual love is a goddess, who continually sacrifices herself for
herself and who accepts no other sacrifice but her own self, giving for
whatever she may receive, herself in return.  

Therefore the Bhagavad-Gita says: 

"Nourish ye the gods by this and let the gods nourish you. Thus nourishing
each other ye shall obtain the highest good 13;" and the Bible says: "To
him who has still more shall be given, and from him who has not, even what
he has shall be taken away 14."     

Love is an universal power and therefore immortal, it can never die.  

We cannot believe that even the smallest particle of love ever died, only
the instruments through which it becomes manifest change their form; nor
will it ever be born, for it exists from eternity, only the bodies into
which it shines are born and die and are born again.  


LOVE and MANIFESTATION


A Love which is not manifest is non-existent for us, to come into existence
means to become manifest. How then could we possibly imagine a human being
possessed of a love which never becomes manifest; how can we possibly
conceive of a light which never shines and of a fire which does not give any
heat? 

But "as the sun shines upon the lands of the just and the unjust and as the
rain descends upon the acres of the evil-minded as well as upon those of the
good;" likewise divine love manifesting itself in a perfect man is
distributed alike to every one without favor or partiality. 

Wherever a good and perfect human being exists, there is divine love
manifest; and the degree of man's perfection will depend on the degree of
his capacity to serve as an instrument for the manifestation of divine love.
The more perfect he is, the more will his love descend upon and penetrate
all who come within his divine influence.  


PRAYER


To ask favors of God is to conceive of Him as an imperfect being, whose love
is not free, but subject to the guidance of, and preference to, mortals. To
expect favours of a Mahatma is to conceive him as an imperfect man.

True, "prayer," i.e, the elevation and aspiration of the soul "in spirit and
in truth 15," is useful, not because it will persuade the light to come
nearer to us, but because it will assist us to open our eyes for the purpose
of seeing the light that was already there.  


CONTACTING THE ADEPTS


Let those who desire to come into contact with the Adepts enter their sphere
by following their doctrines; seeking for love, but not for an object of
love, and when they have found the former, they will find a super-abundance
of the latter throughout the whole extent of the unlimited universe; they
will find it in everything that exists, for love is the foundation of all
existence and without love nothing can possibly continue to exist.


LOVE, WILL and IMAGINATION


Love — divine love — is the source of life, of light, and happiness. It is
the creative principle in the Macrocosm and in the Microcosm of man. It is
Venus, the mother of all the gods, because from her alone originates Will
and Imagination and all the other powers by which the universe was evolved.
It is the germ of divinity which exists in the heart of man, and which may
develop into a live-giving sun, illuminating the mind and sending its rays
to the center of the universe; for it originates from that center and to
that center it will ultimately return. It is a divine messenger, who
carries Light from Heaven down to the Earth and returns again to Heaven
loaded with sacrificial gifts.

It is worshiped by all, some adore it in one form and some in another, but
many perceive only the form and do not perceive the divine spirit.
Nevertheless the spirit alone is real, the form is an illusion.  

Love can exist without form, but no form can exist without love.  

It is pure Spirit, but if its light is reflected in matter, it creates
desire and desire is the producer of forms. Thus the visible world of
perishable things is created. "But above this visible nature there exists
another, unseen and eternal, which, when all created things perish, does not
perish 16," and "from which they who attain to it never return."  

This is the supreme abode of Love without any object, unmanifested and
imperishable, for there no object exists. There love is united to love,
enjoying supreme and eternal happiness within her own self and that peace,
of which the mortal mind, captivated by the illusion of form, cannot
conceive.  

Non-existent for us, and yet existing in that Supreme Be-ness, in which all
things dwell, by which the universe has been spread out, and which may be
attained to by an exclusive devotion.

— EMANUEL

1	Chapter vi., 14
2	Chapter vi., 29, 32
3	I. John iv., 8
4	Matthew xxii., 37
5	Matthew xx., 37
6	Ephesians I., 23
7	I. Timothy vi., 16
8	I. Corinthians xiii., 2
9	John i., 5
10	Romans xii., 5
11	Luc. v., 2
12	Mark x., 29
13	Chapter iii.
14	Luke xix., 26
15	John xiv., 14
16	Bhagavad Gita viii., 20
---

"LOVE WITH AN OBJECT" was printed in Volume I of LUCIFER (1887) by HPB and
signed "Emanuel." It was reprinted in Volume I of THEOSOPHY Magazine. 

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KAMA -- LOVE


KAMADEVA (Sk.). In the popular notions the god of love, a Visva-deva, in the
Hindu Pantheon. As the Eros of Hesiod, degraded into Cupid by exoteric law,
and still more degraded by a later popular sense attributed to the term, so
is Kama a most mysterious and metaphysical subject. 
The earlier Vedic description of Kama alone gives the key-note to what he
emblematizes. 
Kama is the first conscious, all embracing desire for universal good, love,
and for all that lives and feels, needs help and kindness, the first feeling
of infinite tender compassion and mercy that arose in the consciousness of
the creative ONE Force, as soon as it came into life and being as a ray from
the ABSOLUTE. Says the Rig Veda, 
“Desire first arose in IT, which was the primal germ of mind, and which
Sages, searching with their intellect, have discovered in their heart to be
the bond which connects Entity with non-Entity”, or Manas with pure
Atma-Buddhi. 
There is no idea of sexual love in the conception. Kama is pre-eminently the
divine desire of creating happiness and love; and it is only ages later, as
mankind began to materialize by anthropomorphization its grandest ideals
into cut and dried dogmas, that Kama became the power that gratifies desire
on the animal plane. 
This is shown by what every Veda and some Brahmanas say. In the Atharva
Veda, Kama is represented as the Supreme Deity and Creator. In the Taitarîya
Brahmana, he is the child of Dharma, the god of Law and Justice, of Sraddha
and faith. In another account he springs from the heart of Brahmâ. Others
show him born from water, i.e., from primordial chaos, or the “Deep”. Hence
one of his many names, Irâ-ja, “the water-born”; and Aja, “unborn” ; and
Atmabhu or “Self-existent”. Because of the sign of Makara (Capricornus)on
his banner, he is also called “ Makara Ketu”. The allegory about Siva, the
“Great Yogin ”, reducing Kama to ashes by the fire from his central (or
third) Eye, for inspiring the Mahadeva with thoughts of his wife, while he
was at his devotions—is very suggestive, as it is said that he thereby
reduced Kama to his primeval spiritual form.” T. Glos., pp.
170-1


"...the brute in us is made of the passions and the astral body. The
development of the germs of Mind made man because it constituted the great
differentiation. The God within begins with Manas or Mind, and it is the
struggle between this God and the brute below which Theosophy speaks of and
warns about. The lower principle is called "bad" because by comparison with
the higher it is so, but still, it is the basis for action. We cannot rise
unless self first asserts itself in the desire to do better. In this aspect
it is called rajas or the active and "bad" quality, as distinguished from
tamas, or the quality of darkness and indifference...rajas [gives] the
impulse, and by the use of this principle of passion all the higher
qualities are brought to at last so refine and elevate our desires that they
may be continually placed upon truth and spirit...Theosophy does not teach
that the passions are to be pandered to or satiated, for a more pernicious
doctrine was never taught, but the injunction is to make use of the activity
given by the 4th principle so as to rise and not to fall under the dominion
of the dark quality that ends with annihilation, after having begun is
selfishness and indifference..."	OCEAN 49-50


"...the word Kama...means "desire,"...the 4th principle was the "body or
mass of desires and passions." [GITA NOTES 197: -- "Western psychology in
classifications refers solely to mental states...[Eastern} and the ancient
sages classifies the moral states, treating the mental states as mere
effects produced by moral conditions...It lays bare unsuspected bases of
error; it discloses the most subtle forms of self-delusion; it marks out
the true course so painstakingly that the dullest mind cannot fail to grasp
a clear perception of the path to true knowledge."]...The west divides man
into intellect, will and feeling, but it is not understood whether the
passions and desires constitute a principle in themselves or are due
entirely to the body..."desires of the flesh"..."fleshly appetites."
OCEAN 45


"The passions and desires are not produced by the body...on the contrary,
the body is caused by the former. it is desire and passion which caused us
to be born, and will bring us to birth again and again in some body on this
earth...[it] is the balance principle of the whole 7. It stands in the
middle, and from it the ways go up or down. It is the basis of action, and
the mover of the will..."Behind will stands desire." OCEAN 46


SKANDHAS - THE VEHICLES OF KARMA


[kama]...the 4th principle in the classification of man's
constitution...they are not merely inherent in the individual nor are they
due to the body per se. While man is living in the world the desires and
passions--kama--have no separate life apart from the astral and inner man,
being...diffused throughout his being. But...they coalesce with the astral
body after death and thus form an entity with its own term of life, though
without soul...During mortal life the desires and passions are guided by the
mind and soul [Higher Manas]; after death they work without guidance from
the former master; while we live we are responsible for them and their
effects, and when we have left this life we are still responsible, although
they go on working and making effects on others while they last as the sort
of entity...without our direct guidance. In this is seen the continuance of
responsibility. They are a portion of the skandhas...which are the
aggregates that make up man. The body includes on set of the skandhas, the
astral man another, the kama principle is another set, and still others
pertain to other parts. In kama are the really active and important ones
which control rebirths and lead to all the varieties of life and
circumstances upon each rebirth, They are being made from day to day under
the great law that every thought combines instantly with one of the
elemental forces of nature, becoming to that extent an entity which will
endure in accordance with the strength of the thought as it leaves the
brain, and all of these are inseparably connected with the being [man] who
evolved them...all we can do is to have thoughts of good quality...the
Masters are not exempt from this law, but they "people their current in
space" with thoughts powerful for good alone."	OCEAN 101-102


Dallas

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-----Original Message-----
From: L.R. A
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2005 2:56 AM
To: 
Subject: Love / emotion

Hi Friends,
 
It has been said that love is not an emotion. Could someone elaborate?
 
All the best,
 
L.R.