What Love Means

Love means dwelling in someone's goodness. What does it mean to dwell in goodness? Simple! It means wanting their well-being, being able to see their good qualities, genuinely wishing from your heart that they live well, praying for their welfare, highlighting their positive aspects; and even being able to accept that person exactly as they are. Being able to accept them even if it means setting the whole world aside.

To love someone means continuing to love them whether we have them in this life or not; that they feel good in your presence. All your love becomes worthless toward someone who doesn't feel good thinking of you or being in your presence. Yes, this is love. Let's say we love someone, we have a romantic relationship with them. At some point we break up—does love then get destroyed? Does the beloved ever truly disappear from life? No, this is never possible. Because when we love them, when we speak these words with purest faith, then it comes from the heart. It's a sacred feeling, a pure feeling.

This love is the most powerful feeling in the world. Whether we have them or not, there's no reason for that love to disappear. By loving them, I feel a certain strength within myself, and through this strength I keep myself well, I want their well-being, I feel good seeing them happy. Even if they're not with me, maybe they're with someone else, but if they're happy with that person, I feel good seeing that too. The person who is with them—I wish that person well, I wish them prosperity. If that person is well, they'll be able to keep my beloved well. So I deeply want that person's happiness too.

Love is selfless, a desireless feeling. There's no question of wanting or getting here. It's wonderful to have the beloved, but even without having them, love clearly endures. Perhaps romance doesn't last, relationships don't last; but love does endure. Once someone is loved, you can never think of harming them, never have an ugly thought about them. So love always stays fresh, always stays present.

I loved someone; eight years ago. Actually, saying "loved" isn't right; I should say: I love someone. Because in these eight years I've never been in touch with them, never spoken. But I still wish them well from my heart. When I pray, their thought comes to my mind and I want them to be well, to have a healthy body, a healthy mind, for their life to be beautiful—these things work within me and work within everyone who truly loves. The person who doesn't even know I love them—it's for them that I pray every day! Perhaps because I love them, fearing misunderstanding, I could never tell them of my love. I can accept that my beloved doesn't love me; but it's very hard to accept that they might misunderstand me.

This love is an intense, sometimes gentle mental feeling, nothing else. Whether I got them or not has no relation to love. Even from their side...I love them whether I receive love or not—it's that kind of thing. If it happens that I didn't get someone and immediately lost love for them, then that's not love. That's merely romance.

Not all relationships are love. Love is something higher, something more elevated. Love never depends on spending time together, wanting and getting, calculations, presence or absence. Love is a pure feeling of the heart, which lives on in pure feeling for life. Even without having someone, love for them never runs out, never disappears. It endures. When their memory comes, the mind smiles, the lips smile, the eyes smile, and that smile spreads deep peace through all feelings for a long time.