Lust, The Love's Shadow

Conditional and love are two opposite words, combining them is like uniting heaven and hell. Conditional love is seated on insecurity, on attachment, on control, on profit; whereas love is footed on freedom, sacrifice, unselfishness, and giving. One of love's most popular meaning is giving without expecting anything in return. This is a very appropriate meaning, since how can we call it giving if the giver is expecting a payback, a profit, or a favor from the recipient. Investing is not giving.

Love is giving and it brings joy. There is joy in giving because of love. People strive to be happy; and if “pleasure is the goal”, then the giver has achieved his goal. He is happy, his heart is joyful, he is complete.

  A mother’s love is real like her joy is real when she freely gives her milk to her child knowing that it is the best milk for him. But when she opt to bottle-feed because breastfeeding will disfigure her body, it is much a hassle for her, and it will get in the way of her desires; then she lessens her giving, she lessens her joy, she lessens her love. And when she gives for a reason other than love, then she is not enjoying while giving; but rather, she is still waiting for that joy. which I believe will never come.

The more we give love, the more we become joyful. The joy in giving is the symptom of love. But if in giving there is no joy, and what was there is but hope that the joy will come upon repayment; then the act of giving is not an act of love. It is not giving but taking, a way of conditional love. Because love is happiness, and there is no real happiness in conditional love, which is based on taking; Conditional love, therefore, is not love. It is but a shadow of love, it is lust.

Love is an overuse word, and most of the time it is use inappropriately. Because most of the time, lust, which is the opposite of love, was mistakenly thought to be love. There is a thin line between lust and love, and most us find it hard to accept that what we actually feel is lust. We are easily deluded by what we see, hear, or feel; but what do we expect from us? What we have are imperfect senses, a pair of limited ears and eyes.

Let me try to explain lust simply by comparing it with love. If love is giving, lust is taking; if love brings joy, lust brings pain; if love is eternal, lust is temporary; if love is based on freedom, lust is based on control. If love is based on knowledge, lust is based on ignorance; if love is spiritual, lust is material; and if lust is conditional, love is unconditional. However, if love is from God, lust is not from evil, for everything is from God. Moreover, although it can and does drive people to do evil deeds, it is not evil; I will simply call it lust. “It arises from contemplation and attachment to sensual pleasure, and it can bring a man to the darkest region of ignorance”. More or less, this is what India’s “Bagavad Gita” states.

In The Vedas, it was also written, “Lust is but a perverted manifestation of love”. Maybe this is the reason why it is hard to distinguish lust from love. It is the shadow of love, and being a shadow, it is present wherever love is present. Similarly, love is present wherever “that shadow” is present. In addition, since love brings joy lust also brings joy. Only that, the joy of lust is short-live and painful at the end.

Love is not blind. And although most people believed that lovers can't see, lovers are not blind either; for if they are, they are not lovers, but men severely infected by lust. In fact, "The Greatest Lover” has a perfect vision and his love is perfect. His love is so great and strong that it enables him to transcend the needs of his body; and even The King of this World could not move him to enjoy material things and objects of sensual desires. His love is so overwhelming that he did not care for other things not even his life. In the eyes of the blind, this act is madness; however, for a true lover: “The way, the truth, the life”. 

...

 

 

My solo acoustic cover/version of the song: 

Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen

Some people, out of ignorance claim that God’s love is conditional; as if God is a miser and is in need of anything from anyone. Obviously, they do not know the real meaning of love; and they have a very limited knowledge about the nature of God. I consider myself a sinner, who is not an expert in the subject of Godliness. But I have a strong attraction for truth. And being in darkness, I can easily perceive light. I have a low level of ignorance tolerance, and I have an unorthodox way of arguing. And just to show and assert my being offbeat: Yes! God’s love is conditional, although that is not the true nature of His love. However, it can be and it will be if that is what He wants it to be; for He can do whatever He wants for He is God. 

...

Those people should be careful about what they wish for. If conditional love is what they want, there is a possibility that that is exactly what they will get. God just might as well give it to them. What if God, out of his conditional love, asked for the reimbursement of all the things that He had freely given to them? What will happen if God asks them to pay for the air that they have already breathed? Moreover, they cannot deny, and it is too late for them to reject that there is a Supreme Being whom they claim loves us conditionally, the One who created all things for us to use, love, and enjoy. A loving father whom they claim is like us, a practitioner of conditional love

 -ArlenKaliFuentes8/1/2010