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"How Great Thou Art" Reflections and Readings Love [ True Love - UCS ] [ Love - Gibran ] [ Love - Tao of Elvis ] [ Love - Elvis ~ A Lighted Candle ]

True Love United Communities of Spirit When the individual realizes Truth and fulfills God's purpose for his life, he comes to embody universal love. He delights in the well-being of others and selflessly works for their benefit. Love or Compassion, being the core of Ultimate Reality, is expressed in the love of the saint who can rise above self-centered attachments and desires. It is true love, love that is totally committed to the welfare of the other. It is love that is universal, overcoming the ordinary tendency to self-centeredness or favoritism for one's own. The ideal of love described in this section is rare in the world. Such love requires the foundation of integrity, truthfulness, and unity with the Absolute as described in the previous section on Perfection. Other passages which describe love as an ethic can be found under Loving Kindness, pp. 826-30. This section opens with several well-known passages that describe human love as grounded in divine love: 1 John 4 and 1 Corinthians 13 of the Christian Bible, from the Bhagavad Gita, and the Buddhist Metta Sutta. The following passages describe divine love as universal, flowing impartially to all beings, insentient to likes and dislikes. The last three passages discuss true love from the standpoint of love in the family. On the one hand, as love for children and love for spouse are the most intense of human loves, such love is the standard that should be universally applied to all. Thus a Buddhist sutra states that the bodhisattva loves everyone as though they were a loved only child. On the other hand, even love of family often succumbs to partiality; as the Confucian passage from the Doctrine of the Mean cautions, it is not true love if the personal foundation is not right. Interfaith passages at: origin.org/ucs/ws/theme024.cfm

Love Kahlil Gibran For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. Source: The Prophet, p. 11-17

Love The Tao of Elvis Through love one may be courageous - Lao Tzu Elvis's love was expressed often and in profound ways. He deeply loved his mother, Gladys, whose middle name was Love. Elvis loved may women; they loved him in return, and for quite a number, the love was everlasting. ... Although he loved intensely and passionately, tragically he was not able to word off love's twin, "strife". Source: Tao of Elvis, pp. 30-2

Love Elvis Presley "Love comes unasked and unsolicited. It doesn't confine, condemn or criticize. It frees, protects and uplifts the beloved. It is a gift from God, to be nurtured and cared for. So many people think it is their right to own another person, that isn't love, it is possession and will not survive in times of crisis." "People in love they say, always tend to overlook the loved one's faults, but I think it's more that they see them and love them too much to let it bother them. That to me, is what love really is - being willing to accept each other for what you and they are, regardless of flaws or inconsistencies, loving in spite of, instead of because of another's ways." Source: Elvis ~ A Lighted Candle

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