[y not]

Dear Noble Friends:

With intermittent effort over a number of days.  Intended mostly for those new to the Dhamma.

 

Love, as we experience it,  will not be enough to save another from suffering.  It is powerless, impotent – in the shorter and (to a greater degree) in the longer run. It can neither prevent sickness, pain, calamities and all the mass of suffering of another, no matter how deep (and pure, even) that love may be, nor can it free the other of them once arisen – so much for ‘The Power of Love’ that poets and songwriters go on about! At best it provides comfort, a support, ‘a shoulder to lean on’.  But sympathy provides no cure.  I call this ‘true love’ because the feelings for the welfare and wellbeing of the other are true, sincere. The ‘power’ of this love lies only in its ability to create intense emotions. Those emotions are as fleeting as life itself, then you stand at the end empty-handed!  Therefore love, especially romantic love, is the most exquisite kind of pain we can experience, where the expectations are higher and more numerous than in, say, filial or maternal/paternal love.

 

But by giving the  Dhamma you are showing the other the way to prevent all future suffering, physical and mental.  Once ‘on the Path’  the physical suffering is eliminated first and the mental only afterwards. This I call ‘Real Love’ because it is potent, effective, it does eliminate (future) suffering and there is not a trace of selfishness or self-interest. There is no attachment, in any sense of the word. You need not yearn for the company of the other. Your only interest is the welfare and wellbeing of the other, without expecting  anything for yourself in return.  

 

Most people will consider it just another world view from another religious founder. In truth it is the totality of the Laws of Existence on both the material and the mental planes, knowing which one starts steering oneself out of suffering.  These Laws do not change, ever. They are not the details of a theory a Buddha puts forth, not a conclusion of his.  But because his mind is pure through a long process of self-perfection, Reality itself  impinges on his pure, self-perfected mind and is reflected exactly as it is, perfectly, just as an object is reflected perfectly in a perfect mirror.  

 

“Having confidence in the best, the result is the best”                                                                                                   

The Best of Beings             

The Best Teaching                                                                                                                             

The Best Community                                                                                                                                                           

“Having confidence in the best, the result is the best”                                                                                                                                                                                                      

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Yash RS, Yash RS, TripleGemStudent, Jittananto, dosakkhayo

[Lal]

Wise thoughts! Thank you, y not.

1. As long as one thinks that happiness can be achieved within this world (for humans, it is the pursuit of sensual pleasures), one is not in a position to “show true love/compassion” for another. 

• Once one realizes that the “pursuit of sensual pleasures” only leads to more suffering, one can genuinely “show true love/compassion” for another by explaining “how to overcome the suffering in an absolute way.”

2. Only a Buddha can figure out “how to overcome the suffering in an absolute way.”

• See, for example, “Introduction – What is Suffering?“
• One will have true confidence in the “Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha” only when comprehending the above.

3. I believe that is what y not expressed as follows:

“Having confidence in the best, the result is the best”                                                                                                   

The Best of Beings   (buddhe aveccappasāda; here, aveccappasāda means to have “unbreakable confidence”; thus having “unbreakable confidence” in the Buddha. )          

The Best Teaching  (dhamme aveccappasāda; having “unbreakable confidence” in the teachings or Dhamma.)                                     The Best Community  (saṅghe aveccappasāda; having “unbreakable confidence” in the teachings or Sangha.)                                               “Having confidence in the best, the result is the best”

 

• Those verses are in many suttas. See, for example, “Ānandatthera Sutta (SN 55.13).”
• Also see #3 of “Sotapatti Aṅga – The Four Qualities of a Sotāpanna.”
• Only when one has such  “unbreakable confidence” in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha can one “truly love others” by explaining how to get there. Note: Sangha here does not mean “bhikkhu,” but anyone at or above the Sotapanna stage, i.e., a Noble Person.
• Also see “5. Ariya Metta Bhavana (Loving Kindness Meditation)“

4 users thanked author for this post.

Yash RS, TripleGemStudent, dosakkhayo, Jittananto

[y not]

Thank you for the references Lal.

The sutta I quoted from was  “Aggapassada Sutta (AN 4.34)“. Even the devas tremble at the Teaching (previous sutta), and, from their standpoint, with very good reason!  I have both suttas bookmarked.

 

 

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Jittananto, Jittananto, Yash RS, dosakkhayo

[Author]

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