"Love one another!" is the title of the Speech of Christ in "Toward the Light". But I would like to start a discussion about the nature of this great thing, giving my view on the subject.

We are all looking for love. We all long to be loved. That is very human. But as we long and search for love, we are often disappointed. We know exactly what it is that we want, but it seems, that we never get it.

I think, that the problem is, that we in fact misunderstand the nature of love. Love is not primarily something that you GET, but something that you GIVE. It is born in the depths of your own heart.

The hole in our hearts will never be filled, if we search for love from others. We all know it: Some may love us, but we don´ t feel it or even see it, or we don´ t apreciate it, as we are longing for something else. It simply isn´ t the right thing, we think, this love is not what we are longing for. We want love from others than those, who really love us, and we want the love in a certain, selfdefined shape.

Thus the love that we think that we want, is an image in our own soul. And that can never be fulfilled by others.

Thinking like this, I once made a sentence, which may be usefull to others too. It sounds something like this in an english translation: Don´ t expect others to light your candle, but light yourself a candle for others in your heart, and the reward for this will be a thousand times a thousand folds!

What I am trying to say is, that you will never find the love, that you seek, if you look for it by others. The only thing, that can really still your thirst, is the love that is born in your own heart.

Humans are swimming around in dusty waters, never finding out, what is mine and what is yours. We have all kinds of projections on each other, as images of what we long for. Our projections are our demands of each other. We always want others to save us, when as the real salvation lies in ourselves, in our own hearts. The love that you want from others, turns to projections, to demands, binding your fellow human beings, instead of setting them free, as only true love can and does.

"Love one another" is the simple, wise and beautiful silverclear words of Christ. That applies to YOU, too. He does not say something like: Others shall love you, or the like. The words are pointed to YOU, and YOUR heart. It is YOU that are supposed to love others, not primarily others that shall love you. Your soul will never be fulfilled by love-demands to others. It will only be fulfilled and brought to peace by the love, that comes from your own heart. Seeing and understanding this, is perhaps the meaning of life.

By Ulla S. Qvistgaard on Thursday, August 30, 2001 - 11:20 pm:

Carsten, thank you for your beautiful words. Yes, I agree: we should worry less about demanding love of others and give more attention to how we ourselves can love others. God's laws work automatically, through natural feedback, and as we know, "To those who have much shall much be given, but from those who have little even this little shall be taken away." This phrase can be interpreted in many ways, e.g. it can also be understood as a somewhat enigmatic way of saying, if you love much and if your love is unconditional - then your trust in love will automatically cause love - unconditional love - to flow back to you, in quantities you never dared to dream of! Whereas, if you only demand love from others, this is something that cannot come about, because you have not first given an example yourself, as to how any such unconditional love might be kindled in the heart of a fellow spirit.