The original nature of true love is giving for the sake of others 19 What kind of love is true love? The original nature of true love is not to focus on first receiving for one’s own sake, but on giving first for the sake of others and for the whole. True love is a love that gives without remembering having given, and continues to give. It is love that gives happily. A mother feels love and joy in her heart while nursing her baby. A filial son feels joy while making sacrifices for his parents out of love. (556-298, 2007.02.23)
20 True love is love that exists for the sake of others. True love wants the beloved to go higher than oneself. The nature of love is to want one’s beloved spouse and children to be greater than oneself. This is the way it is meant to be in the human world. We want our loved ones to go higher than our parents, to go as high as God. God is the same. He loves the people who are in a reciprocal relationship with Him more than He loves Himself. He invests and forgets. This is God’s original love. (300-237, 1999.03.23)
21 It is not the nature of original love to expect others to live for us. But when we seek to live for the sake of others, love multiplies. Love focusing on oneself diminishes, but love for the sake of others multiplies. It keeps growing. Love for the sake of others keeps multiplying and expanding, whereas self-serving love keeps shrinking. The original nature of love is such that when you want to live for the sake of others, your love becomes greater, but when you want people to live for you, your love gradually disappears. (129-264, 1983.11.13)
22 Real love is not giving and keeping account of how much was given. It is not self-serving. Real love exists for the sake of others. After having loved someone, can you say, “The reason I loved you was so I could be happy”? You must not go there. The person who feels inadequate after having loved, the person who feels many things even beyond inadequacy, is in accord with the principle of ideal love. But the person who says, “Now that I have loved you, you have to love me,” is not in accord with this principle. (60-084, 1972.08.06)
23 When parents love their children, they don’t say, “We bought you shoes and clothes a few days ago, and invested our sweat and blood for you, and it cost this much,” and record it in a ledger. When parents love their children, they want to treat them even better than the princes and princesses in any palace in the world. With hearts wanting to give more, they say, “I did all I could, but this is all I can give you. I’m sorry.” Parents always want to give their children something better. This is why we cherish parents’ love. Parents give and yet feel that it is not enough; they love and yet feel that they should have loved more. Even after giving, they still are not content with what they were able to give their children. Parents’ love connects to eternal love. That is where our tradition of love begins. (60-084, 1972.08.06)
24 Everyone wants true love, but love is possible only when we live for others. We need to serve and sacrifice for our partner. Everyone avoids a person who relates to others with the attitude, “You should live for me.” This selfish individualism is Satan’s strategy, purpose and tool; the result can only be hell. We must live for the whole. If we live for others and for the whole, and serve sacrificially, then everyone will return love to us. (316-241, 2000.02.13)
25 Why is parents’ love so precious? It is vertical love, but it does not remain as vertical love until the end; it seeks to dwell together with horizontal love. Parental love seeks to guide children to avoid going astray, throughout their entire lives. Vertical love is such that it always creates horizontal love. According to that principle, parental love consists of the essence of both vertical and horizontal, based on God’s love. Because parental love has both vertical and horizontal elements and responsibilities, parents want to give all their precious things to their children just the way they are. Parents want to bestow everything they have upon their children and want to see their blessings expand horizontally. This is the original nature of love. Why is original love like this? Love is possible only in a reciprocal relationship between subject and object partners, and this is the only way to create that relationship. Through give and take between subject and object partners, a sphere is formed. The vertical is the subject partner; the horizontal is the object partner. Together they make a ninety-degree angle and form a circle. (34-234, 1970.09.13)
26 God’s love is vertical love, but it is not only vertical. It also has a horizontal quality. Therefore, God can appear in front of His sons and daughters, who are on the horizontal. Those sons and daughters not only widen the base of vertical love but also expand it as horizontal love so that, centered on the vertical aspect, all things of creation can create a horizontal environment on the scale of the world and the universe. It is from the loving heart of God’s sons and daughters that their desire emerges to govern the world, to have possessions, and to pursue their aspirations. This is all because a vision of vertical and horizontal bonds of love lies in the subconscious of our original mind. We cannot deny that satisfying this essential desire satisfies all human desires. (34-235, 1970.09.13) |