Wednesday, January 25, 2012

As we move closer to the end of time (December 21:-) some thoughts

What is Love ?
As we move into the year that many are afraid is the last year, perhaps we should consider what December 21, 2012 means.  First, as I understand this  the Mayan Doomsday Prophecy is purely based on a calendar which scientist believe hasn’t been designed to calculate dates beyond 2012. Mayan archaeo-astronomers are even in debate as to whether the Long Count is designed to be reset to 0.0.0.0.0 after 13.0.0.0.0, or whether the calendar simply continues to 20.0.0.0.0 (approximately 8000 AD) and then reset. As Karl Kruszelnicki wrote:

“…when a calendar comes to the end of a cycle, it just rolls over into the next cycle. In our Western society, every year 31 December is followed, not by the End of the World, but by 1 January. So 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan calendar will be followed by 0.0.0.0.1 – or good-ol’ 22 December 2012, with only a few shopping days left to Christmas.” – Excerpt from Dr Karl’s “Great Moments in Science“.  Sources: Dr Karl’s Great Moments in Science, IHT, 2012 Wiki

However, if you choose to believe the end is this year then it may be in your best interest to rediscover what love is and what it means to humankind.

Is love as a principle of the universe, not the love we humans have cheapened to a ridiculous degree confusing love and lust?  Is there such thing as love? What do people mean by such phrases: 'love is everything', 'love is life', 'God is love'? Are they just words or do they point to a deeper existential truth?

Buddha says that Craving, attachment, and want are the seed to misery and that the law of nature is that matter and energy are constantly changing.

Is love merely another word for craving, leaving attachment, and want a breeding ground for the seeds of misery?

It is funny that on one hand, we live in a universe where life is sustained by everything eating everything and on the other hand, people tell us that love is what keeps everything going.

What is the relation between those two in terms of matter and energy? Christianity draws a sort of parallel between eating and loving in the idea of 'the bread and the wine', implying that the supreme love is to 'let yourself be eaten' for others, so that what you love can grow. Simone Weil had a similar idea. Unconditional love that leads to sacrifice is, in a sense, the reverse of eating. Another definition of unconditional is to accept the flaws and talents of the loved one.

This acceptance may ensure that there is no disappointment. I suggest that perhaps the only way no disappointment could be achieved is that one would have to be well on the way to enlightenment.

On the other hand, love as a procreative force (love between sexes) creates a temporary unity that does not destroy identity.

The euphoria at the beginning of a relationship that is regarded as "one falling in love" is really an overload of endorphins so basically it’s a drug induced altered state of mind that will change, sometimes for the good, sometimes not.

n the other hand, perhaps this state of mind is a glimpse of what enlightenment would feel like. So have we invented   love to give us hope of living a consistent and blissful life the way we  have invented religions to give us hope that there is an beautiful heaven awaiting us in order not to fear death and the end of time as we know it.

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