What is Love?

Dean A. Banks
What is love? Love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person or an affectionate concern for the well-being of others (dictionary.com). There are many levels or degrees of love ranging from agape (unconditional love) to lust (conditional love). A good way to know what love is is to know what it is not. Following a...re statements of what love isn’t:

Love is NOT negative attention. Whether contrived, forced or abusive, negative attention is NOT love. Positive attention comes from love. Love is the tender and passionate feeling that underlies concern, respect in humanhood and giving of oneself to another.

Love is NOT sexual attraction and desire for selfish purposes. Love is sexual attraction and desire for the mutual expression of love.

Love is NOT living a life filled in with distractions. Love is discovering the purpose for which you were created and taking the steps to become the fulfillment of that purpose.

Love is NOT just loving God and your neighbor. Love is loving yourself by becoming what God created you to be; an individualized expression of the love of God.

When you know what love isn’t, it helps to make what love is very clear to you. Move toward what love is while simultaneously moving away from what it isn’t. The more you move toward what love truly is, the more your life will grow and expand into what the creator created you to be. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.

Welcome to the path of the heart. Believe it or not, to be loved unconditionally and
to begin to become that love can be your reality. This path of love doesn't go anywhere. It just brings you more here, into the present moment, into the reality of who you already are. This path takes you out o...f your mind and into your heart."Ram Dass speaking about his Bhakti Yoga path in BE LOVE NOW.