There are various types and forms of love.
And today, “love” seems to be understood in a rather skewed way.
The word “love” in the lyrics of popular music is often limited to “love between a man and a woman,” with the meaning of “how to be loved by others.
In the case of lovers and couples who are worried about “love,” for example, they often say, “I no longer have the desire to love him.
Underlying this phrase “no longer have the desire to love” seems to be the idea that the feeling of love can suddenly come from somewhere and, on the other hand, disappear at any moment.
In other words, the feeling of being able to love or not being able to love comes by itself from “outside,” from a source that is separate from oneself. The idea is that it is outside of our control.
However, “love” in ancient Greece, and “love” in a Christian context, actually has several types and usages.
In this paper, I would like to discuss the nature of love, mainly from a Christian perspective, while listing the types and categories of love that have existed since ancient Greece.
Four kinds of love languages
First, let me list four different words to show how the type of love that was considered in ancient Greece is understood in Christianity.
- Eros: sexual love, instinctive love
- philia: neighborly love, fraternal love
- Storge: familial love (love based on blood)
- Agape: love that seeks nothing in return
In the Christian context, “philia” and “storge” can be broadly classified as “love of neighbor.
However, this “love of neighbor” is easy to hear, but quite difficult to put into practice.
So, let’s consider then why the practice of neighborly love has become so difficult.
Love is “proactively giving love”
First, here are the basics.
Simply put, love is not something to be received/taken, but something to give, i.e., “proactive love.
When the word “love” is used, the emphasis is generally placed on “receiving,” as in “he (she) loves me.
In contrast to the ” proactive love” mentioned earlier, this could be called “dependent love. The direction of energy is the exact opposite.
Measuring one’s own worth and happiness by whether or not one is loved by others is still dependence.
And since the thoughts of others are beyond our control, as long as we are dependent on them, we will have a very unstable sense of well-being.
When “love” is used in witchcraft and spirituality, there are many testimonials and advertisements such as, “My love life was fulfilled when I had the pendant with the talisman of ◯◯! This also means “dependent love” rather than ” proactive love.
Then, outside of romance and partnerships, the desire to be “valued” excessively in self-actualization is also typical of “dependent love.
Or, if you think you are practicing “proactive love,” but you want something in return, that is a conversion to “dependent love.
Why is “proactive love” important?
This is ultimately related to the “theory of origins” of why human beings and all phenomena repeat the seemingly eternal cycle of reincarnation.
The purpose of reincarnation, in a nutshell, is to get closer to the beings called gods and angels, and to evolve into angels ourselves.
What, then, are the characteristics of God and angels? It is that they are “giving beings.
Since ancient times, sun worship and the worship of the sun god have been practiced in all regions of the world, because people feel that the sun is also a symbol of the gods.
In other words, if we want to understand what God is, not in difficult words, but intuitively, we can learn from the sun.
The sun is truly a giver, isn’t it? He continues to give equally to the good and the bad. It is a being that continues to give without asking for anything in return.
So, what lies ahead in our evolution as souls is to “become a giving being” like the sun.
And the one who gives the greatest amount of love, that is, the one who is like God. This is what an angel is.
So the moment you give love to someone, you are becoming more like God. And you are one step closer to God.
Closer to God = spiritually evolved, which equals success. It means you are being rewarded.
So it is not a question of whether or not there is a reward for giving love, but rather, at the moment of giving, ” approaching God = evolving as a soul,” and the reward has already come.
Angels are in a “default state of giving love,” so to speak, where they are happy to give love because they do so.
But for those in the pre-angels stage, first, “The moment you proactively give love to another, you become more like God. That is to say, you are evolving spiritually. It is important to know this as knowledge.
When we are born with a physical body on earth, we tend to be influenced by our own physical senses, so it is easy for us to turn to “dependent love,” or love that is given to us.
However, just keeping in mind the knowledge that heavenly love is “proactive love” that we actively give to others can be a brake to prevent us from falling into “dependent love.
The most important aspect of this proactive love is what the Christians call “agape.
Agape is “love that seeks nothing in return,” and therefore has the property of having no restrictions on its object. Since it transcends the ego, it can also manifest itself as “self-sacrificial love.
We have listed four types of love in this paper, and you will see that the objects of love are spread out in the following order.
- Eros: sexual love, instinctive love (seeking love)
- Storge: familial love
- Philia: love of neighbor
- Agape: love that seeks nothing in return
Agape, the ultimate stage of love, is described in the Bible as a “command.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
In another passage of Scripture, it is taught as follows.
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Eloce, in a nutshell, is “seeking love,” and although it is treated as a slightly more badass form of love, it can be said that loving and seeking God is affirmed.
To love God as a child seeks his parents, God must also want to be loved.
And by seeking God’s love, we can transform the energy we receive into love for our neighbors.
Rather, this sequence from faith to neighborly love seems to be the ideal circulatory system of love.
*Reference article: Are Agape and Eros Really Opposites? – Development into No-self love (anattā-Agape)
It is the love of the (angel (bodhisattva) that gives wisdom
There is the question of quantity, how much love we give proactively, and then there is the question of quality, what kind of love it is.
If the essence of the human being is the soul (existential energy), you can see that the higher level of love is to give love in a way that promotes healing and improvement of the soul rather than giving things.
*Reference article: Meaning and Mission of Life – What is the Most Winning Theory of Success?
That is, to convey the truth of God and Buddha, in other words, to give wisdom is the highest love, the love of angels.
In Buddhist terms, it is called Dharma Dāna (charity).
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The following is a summary of this topic.
- There are four kinds of love, but above all, agape love (proactive, gratuitous love) is the highest love. The love of angels
- Because God is love itself, a giving being. And to be like God is the true improvement of human beings
- There are stages of love, and it is the love of angels that gives wisdom
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