I had written a few months back thus: “Intellectually, I am a sage. Emotionally, I am just a teenager.” When … More
Tag: Love
The Epistemology of Love: From Lust to Truth
Two aphorisms, one teaching. “Love is one way to conquer lust” — a claim Spinoza would recognize instantly: an emotion cannot be destroyed by reason alone, only by a stronger contrary emotion. Willpower against lust is thought fighting affect, a losing battle; love against lust is affect against affect. Augustine goes further — lust is not love’s opposite but love disordered, energy awaiting redirection. The Sufis made it doctrine: ishq-e-majāzī, human love, is the bridge to ishq-e-haqīqī, the divine. And the second aphorism — “to begin to understand love is to begin to understand the truth” — finds its natural home in Advaita, where ānanda is not an attribute of the real but its very nature. Every love, as Yājñavalkya taught Maitreyī, is love of the Self, misaddressed. To trace love to its source rather than its objects is vicāra itself. Love conquers lust because love is veridical and lust is hallucinatory — one sees, the other hallucinates its own hunger.
What is Love?
“When it comes to love, I have totally lost the plot.”
Love & Truth
“To begin to understand love is to begin to understand the truth.”
Love & Lust
“Love is one way to conquer lust. Actually, love is a good and pleasant way to conquer many evils in … More
Love is a skill, not a feeling | Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton on Love
“What are we here on earth for?”
Much as I love her, yes I do, Much as she does not love me Though she cares for me, … More
Don’t Worry About the Future — It is Already Fixed
Here is the email I wrote to my younger sister Kavitha just now, who is travelling with her family in … More
No Happiness Outside
Here I am sitting alone At past 1 am, mulling on What never was the case One which I thought … More