Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Love is Fun

To the Lonely,
    Can love be fun? Yes. It's called Friendship. Friendship is amazing in that it can be the highest form of love, even higher than marital sexual love. Since it has no relationship to sex, it's free to be between genders. The only barrier to this is our sex-obsessed culture.
    A friend is another self but he's not a perfect copy. In fact, you can disagree on most things, but there is a mutual respect and care. A good friend is one who willingly desires what is best for you. If that sounds like the definition of love I constantly throw out, that's because it is with one added factor. Friendship is two people loving each other according to this pure definition.
    A friend is one who desires for you to become the best you can be, and he'll do what he can to help you. This also means that a good friend will challenge you, but he will also celebrate with you in good times, and mourn with you during the bad times.
    I tell you this to show that commitment to the Religion of True Love does not entail misery. In fact, hanging out and having a good time with friends is almost a requirement. Not only does it soothe your soul, but it increases the bond between you and your friend, making you even more capable to love. You can watch movies, play video games, have a good laugh, etc. As long as nothing you do attacks your love for your neighbor, you can do many things and have fun. When both friends are committed to the Religion of True Love, then it can be one of the greatest treasures on earth. The only thing that can destroy such a good friendship is the poison of selfishness.

    Friendship is a beautiful thing as I've praised before. However, I've noticed that our culture has had trouble with helping people understand it. Having 1000 decent friends is not nearly as valuable as 1 good friend. In fact, it's very difficult to have such great love for more than 4 friends. You can have 1000 friends, but you probably will never have the deep relationship for more than 4 at a time, and that's okay. Another thing is that I've noticed in a few TV shows where they take a great friendship and make it sexual as if that is the goal and perfection. That is absolutely not the case. In fact, it can detract from it. Sex is an act of passion, but if you recall something I also constantly write about is that Love is an act of the will.  Even when you are feeling hurt and angry at someone, love is something you can choose to do and that makes it the best thing in the world. It is influenced by the heart, but even when your heart doubts, your brain can prevent you from committing grievous acts that only cause harm.
     An example of this is one time my wife and I were both feeling hurt. Something happened and we were both upset with each other. We did not want to be near or touch each other, but I knew this would only hurt our love. I knew that we needed to hug and talk, despite my heart saying no. However, my brain won with its argument that our love needed to be taken care of or it would be injured. The result is that we actually reached peace within 2 minutes versus a whole day of sulking with broken hearts.  This also resulted in our love growing for each other rather than being damaged. Misunderstandings happen a lot, but love always seeks reconciliation as soon as possible, despite the protests of a sensitive heart. Friendship is a mutual love and it is fantastic!

With Love,
N. D. Moharo
    

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

To Grow in Love

To Those Who Desire Perfection,
     I have written that the perfection of mankind is to truly love. I've also written long before that the phrase "Be a Man" means to "Be a Hero". There are no greater heroes than those who act out of love. These are the heroes that everyone benefits from. Even those who live by doing wicked deeds depend on these heroes existing. In fact, the only way the world could ever be perfect is if it embraces the message of true love rather than corrupting it. Of course, even if we are to recognize acts of love, how do we grow in it so as to become heroes?

    The answer to that lies in virtues. I think the word virtue contains the Latin word for "man" because of this connection. Of course, many cultures have their own set of virtues and some are directly opposed to each other. However, I do believe we can identify a global set of virtues and the key is true love. I will say it again that "True love is putting another's deeds before your own." This is important in helping know what is a virtue and what is not in order to not be conflicted. When your conflict is gone, you end up with internal peace, bliss, and perfection. It is a tough battle because we have been preached the message of selfishness from birth. But we do see people who have obtained that joy, and so we know it is possible.

     A helpful start and proof of concept for how love improves our lives is the 5 Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman, which I covered in how to recover from a spat. Something to know is that when someone's "love tank" reaches the high numbers, they are more joyful and perform many acts of love themselves. I recall waking up one morning, finding my mother prepared something for my day, and I no longer minded those bad drivers who cut me off on my commute. As yes, patience is an act of love since love is one of the three keys to dealing with impatience
  
    I do need to make one note, and it appears worldwide in some form or another. The Golden Rule is "Do unto others as you will have them do unto you." I consider this slightly better than the Confucian way of "Refraining from doing unto others what you would not want for them to do to you." This is because the former indicates to act rather than refrain. This promotes acts of love and societal growth, but the latter can let society decline. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because self-love is important to have. The concept of love grows with humility, but not with self-hatred. When you don't love yourself the amount proper, you constantly leave your love tank at empty, meaning you have no motivation to love others as well. So yes, I encourage you to take care of yourself, take pride in your work, and have a healthy self-esteem, but never at the expense of other people. That is the difference between self-love and selfishness. In fact, the goal of those things should be to assist you in helping others.

    Back to the nature of virtues, it has been claimed that Selfishness is the source of all sins. So the complete opposite and "Mother of all Virtues" is Love. Not only is it the key to virtues, it's a virtue itself. You can create a good habit of doing everything with love so that it is how you are known. Here are some examples of other virtues: Respect, Honesty, Kindness, Justice, Almsgiving, Fidelity, Helpfulness, Hopefulness, Joy for Neighbor's success, Sympathy during Neighbor's misfortune, Merciful, and Forgiving. 

    A very important virtue is the Worship of Pure Goodness. The word worship may have negative connotations today, and perhaps deserves it, but that's because the things we worship in daily life are not what is meant to be worshiped. Sex is a good thing in itself, but there are people who will fight, sacrifice, and speak words of hatred in defense of their pursuit of sexual pleasure in all things. The same goes with money and entertainment. They are good things, but only in their proper places. Money makes it easier to bargain and trade. Entertainment helps soothe the soul. But when these things are brought out of proportion, they bring about suffering everywhere. We may not recognize the suffering it causes us, but the biggest effect is that it hurts our ability to love.

    Here are some vices that hinder our love for others: Disrespect, Dishonesty, Envy, Cheating, Infidelity, Corruption, Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Apathy, Rage, Hatred, Censorship (the evil kind, not the proper one). All of these increase our own selfish desires at the expense of others. Even if another person is not directly involved, we are exalting ourselves to be above what is good. This actually only creates an imbalance in ourselves, which is a sign of us moving away from perfection.

    This is the perfect man: He is honest and respectful. He rejoices in the good while disdaining evil. He shows Mercy and Compassion to those who need it. He rejoices in the fortune of his neighbor and mourns when misfortune falls upon his neighbor. He learns in order to perfect himself. He is hard-working and perseveres through difficulty. He is courageous and wise. Where there is despair, he hopes and prays. Everything he does is with love. This is a hero worth imitating.

With Love,
N. D. Moharo

P. S. The phrase was "Pride is the queen of all vices." However, I've found the proper understanding of this, and helps explain why it's okay to take pride in your work, is the word "Selfishness." The idea is that an excess of self-love that takes its pleasure even at the expense of someone else is the end goal of all sins. 

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

True Love

To those searching for love,
    One of society's greatest lies is that True Love is something sexual. Far from the truth. I can attest that True Love exists. I can testify that it can be at first sight, or better yet, not even have to wait for first sight. Let me tell you about True Love and how great it is.
    True Love requires at least 2 people, but only 1 has to give. This is because True Love gives and receives, but the joy it receives is from giving. This is True Love:

  • A mother dreaming about her child's future while caressing the womb he occupies
  • A father who works hard so that his family will not starve
  • A poor man giving his only blanket to a helpless and abandoned baby
  • A soldier going to war in order that his country may stay free
  • A mother who cries after being told words of hatred by her child, but still cares for her children.
  • A man who forgives his brother of his sins.
  • A friend who gives up his life so that someone else may live.

    True Love does not care if we are worthy. It cares that we exist. True Love is Godliness and it is the source of all that is good. It is the True and Perfect Religion. Anything that hinders you from being able to love is an evil.

    I do not care what you have done. I do not even need to know you. But I can show you an act of True Love by evangelizing it to you. I have given you many examples so that you may be able to distinguish it from the world's corruption. When you really know what True Love is, free from the lies of religions and societies whose god is money, power, or pride, you can become truly happy. This is because the Perfection and Purpose of Mankind is to Love. Know this: You are Loved.

With Love,
N. D. Moharo

More examples:

  • The neighbor who weeps with you in time of mourning
  • The friend who rejoices you won even when he lost
  • The religious man who prays for those who hate him
  • The man who runs into a burning building to save a child
  • The stranger who performs emergency CPR
  • The friend who loans without demanding interest
  •  Love is “Willing the good of the other,”
  • “Love is putting someone else’s needs before yours”
  • Love desires what is best for someone,