Do we find a bigger box?

The universe is finite. There is no such thing as infinity.

Love is not a quantifiable resource. One can love many people/things, seemingly infinite; on the contrary one can live a loveless life. You’re not using “love box” as a metaphor for something else are you? made me think something dirty maybe lol

I see love as the emotion that accompanies the realization that one is not separate. When we find our perceived separation with another dissolving, see how our lives and minds are intertwined so that distinctions lose their relevance, we feel a wonderful release from the solitude of separation. It’s a transcendence of self in that self suddenly extends beyond the individual. The “box” has become larger. That’s a beautiful feeling.

That box is infinitely expandable. The separations—the walls of the box—are never as real as they seem. With that realization, reinforced by repeated experience, one begins to mistrust that perception of separation. The “I am in here and the world of others is out there” illusion breaks down. World and self blend. The box becomes infinitely big, which is the same as saying there is no box at all. And in reality, there never was a box.

@glenjamin Oops. That was unintentional—and unfortunate.

I’m not a physicist, but I disagree with @meiosis – when the physics boffs run out of numbers to express ‘infinity’, they call it a ‘singularity’. One. The closer they come to finding some unifying principle, the more complex the universe appears. But, the notion that infinity doesn’t exist, is simply due to the relative lack of skills we (humans) yet have in understanding, or properly describing, our own existence.

The first law of thermodynamics ”...the total amount of energy and mass in the universe is constant; energy and mass can be neither created nor destroyed” (from here but there are loads of academic refs) is very clear, and can be applied to all the energetic states we are able to record or experience. Even if the Universe itself is described as ‘finite’, energy cannot actually ‘go’ anywhere. I think this relates to experiential infinity. We describe the hugely indescribable as infinite, or eternal and are beginning to realise this in scientific terms.

If one perceives life as finite, then the world becomes a loveless place. The point in attachment is lost, it will be broken; the end of living is simply the end. However, if science means anything (and it so clearly does) the suggestion is that there are absolute constants. That existence itself can never truly cease. Our comprehension of this is small – we are young in our understanding – but it provides a substrate for the many belief systems humans have invented, to explain the very big and difficult.

There is essentially, no need to define a ‘box’ of love. If life energy (I like to think of it as such) can never disappear, if our molecules get recycled, our spirit/consciousness/elan or whatever dissipates but remains part of a larger whole, then love can be sustained and become infinite also. I don’t like labeling it as ‘God’, there are too many connotations which limit any real understanding. I do like the sense that I am part of a whole. I have never felt ‘small’ in the face of nature or it’s actions, only part of something, connected. This is where our future as a species lies I believe… Sticking my neck out now – we need to evolve a conscious way of attending to the life we seem to have such control over. We have to grow up and take care of our world, we have the power!

sorry if i started to get a bit evangelical there, but this is important stuff! GQ @wundayatta!

God is love and God is infinite,
I am Love and i am God,

God has established himself by the one way of thinking…
that is the way Love…Love only has one way and that way is Truth.

So therefore I am about establishing myself through the one way of the Father, which is Love through Truth.

Nevertheless I am already established because my Father is established.

Love is a decision, you can decide to sit in a certain chair every morning just like you can decide to love someone until death do you apart.

I think my love is infinite. Is there a way to disprove that? no.

I don’t think you need a bigger box, @wundayatta You are certainly loved here!
Love is something that you get more and more of as you give it away. So the more you love, the more you are loved. I don’t think there is a box big enough to hold that much love!!

Unfortunately, the word love is applied to too many things to have a meaningful discussion of it. God’s love is even more meaningless because you have to have faith to believe in it, and I don’t.

The Greeks had several different words for love, such as Agape, a general kind of “I love life”; Eros, romantic, sexual love; Phillia, a platonic type of love of friends, family and community; and Storge, strong affection, such as “I love my dog”.

There is an excellent essay about love in the Wikipedia, it is very interesting and presents many of my ideas much better than I can express them.

I think that in speaking of God’s love being infinite Christianity teaches that not only is it boundless, not only does it encompass all of his children (that is, all human beings not only Christians) but it means a non-conditional love. The whole concept of love the sinner, hate the sin is central to this whole way of thinking. The Old Testament focuses on more of an authoritarian, punitive God. It instills the fear of God. Whereas the teachings of Jesus focus on forgiveness and acceptance. On not judging others harshly as we are all sinners. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” This is one way of thinking about omnipotent, boundless love. And let’s not forget that if, according to one of the definitions of God, He is all-seeing and all-knowing this is a truly incredible love. I think only a God could be capable of such love. We are human and make conditions on our love. We require certain things of a person. We expect certain actions to nurture our love.

With human love we come to it with so many wants and needs and expectations. When the other person fulfills our idea of what is lovable we respond by an outpouring of love on our part. Depending on the person and their idea of what love is, this will come with more or less conditions. Some people not only have conditions, they have pre-conditions. lol
Love involves being open to another person and accepting them as they are, as they exist for themself and not on how they can fulfill your needs and wants. The capacity to love depends a lot on this openess and acceptance, I think.

We live in a monogamous society. Some people believe in the idea of soulmates. That one perfect person who was meant to be with you for all eternity….or at least, for your lifetime. It’s the Hollywood version of love. I don’t knock it. I am a sucker for it like almost everybody else. But I think that for every person there is more than one possible soulmate. Maybe it depends on where you are at , at that point in your life story, maybe it depends on an undiscovered aspect of yourself that a certain person taps into….whatever it is, if you are open to it, it expands your sense of being in the world. It helps you to understand who you are. And the box has to expand to fit this new experience. If it doesn’t it is like amputating part of your self.

We live in eternity. Our 70 or so years here on earth are just a side-trip. Your love and loved ones go on forever.

“How do we stay within the rules of society yet still honor our feelings? ”

What does society have to do with you and your love?