By Noel Boughner

What does the word “love” mean? Does it mean the same for everyone? How many kinds of love are there? Do we ever stop to consider love and what it means? How do we learn about love? Do we in fact learn what love means or do we just take for granted that we know all about love and simply wander through life thinking that we know what it means? There’s a lot to think about this thing called “love”.

Let’s start with the meaning of love. Does it mean the same for everyone? I don’t think it does. I think that if we gathered any number of people together and asked them to define love we would get many different definitions. Does this mean that they are all wrong or does it mean they are all right? I suspect that they are right, therefore I conclude that there are a myriad of meanings for the word “love”.

Think for a moment about some of those meanings. First, I think that we can agree there is the romantic love one person feels for another. Second, love is expressed by one person for many people. Third, love for other sentient beings. Fourth, love for inanimate objects and love for ideas and practices. (When it comes to the love of objects and ideas, I think a better way to describe this feeling of love is to say we are pleased with them.)

It, therefore, appears that love is indeed a many-layered experience. For me, the main question is: What is the most important kind of love? In Bodhi Meditation terms, I think we would agree that love for our fellow human beings is the primary love.  After all, we certainly try our best to better our fellow humans. We strive to improve the health and happiness of all persons. We are caring and compassionate, yet can we love our fellow human beings if we do not at first love ourselves? I think not. We must be very happy with our own feelings and our Bodhi life before we can attempt to truly love and help another person. When we truly are comfortable in our own skin and happy with our true attitude we cannot fail to help others just by the fact that we radiate true happiness, or to put it another way, we are in love with ourselves in an honorable way.

At Bodhi Meditation, the prime example of love is the motivation and compassion of Grandmaster JinBodhi in his teaching and dedication to helping others be able to enjoy health and happiness. Our striving to follow his examples not only makes others healthy and happy, it also improves our wellbeing. Love is all.

Grandmaster JinBodhi
Grandmaster JinBodhi, Founder of Bodhi Meditation