Love

Through love one adds to the find of human happiness, one makes the world brighter, nobler and purer and prepares it for the good life better than in any other way. There is no ill luck worse than hatred, it is said, and no safety from others’ hostility greater than the heart of love, the heart which hate is dead.

If one has developed a love that is truly great, rid of the desire to hold and to posses, that strong clean love which is untarnished with lust of any kind, that love which does not expect material advantage and profit from the act of loving, the love which is firm but not grasping, unshakable but not tied down, gentle and settled, hard and penetrating as a diamond but unhurting, helpful but not interfering, cool, invigorating, giving more than taking, not proud but dignified, not sloppy yet soft, the love that leads to the heights of clean achievement, then in such a one can there be no ill-will at all.

Love is an active force. Every act of the loving is done with the stainless mind to help, to succour, to cheer, to make the paths of others easier, smoother and more adapted to the conquest of sorrow, the winning of the highest bliss.

The way to develop love is through thinking out the evils of hate, and the advantages of non-hate; through thinking out accordingly to actuality, according to karma, that really there is none to hate, that hate is a foolish way of feeling which breeds more and more darkness, that obstructs right understanding. 

Hatred restricts; love releases. Hatred strangles, love enfranchises. Hatred brings remorse; love brings peace. Hatred agitates; love quietens, stills, calms. Hatred divides; love unites. Hatred hardens; love softens. Hatred hinders; love helps. And thus through a correct study and appreciation of the effects of hatred and the benefits of love, should one develop love.