Hi Friends,
Thanks for this thread about love.
Here is love in its best senses, as I've thought of it, in my Dalton Friends' letter, which is quite Friendly, as well as Nontheistically F/friendly -
http://scottmacleod.com/daltonletter.htm#BestLove -
'... empathy; delight; sympathy; centered caring; tenderness; sensitivity; ineffable ecstasy; incredibly positive - potentially lifelong - feelings of connectedness; sublimity; kindness; “love in the air;” gentleness; an understanding of developing, mutual otherness; friendship; mirthful, playful freedom in bodymind, words and gestures; thoughtfulness; dating; cuddling/physical intimacy/sensuality (1-2 hours per day); making love (intimate and warm)~coitus; a delightful, “glowing” party; ongoing smile / sincere and charming affection / “flow” experiences (for “flow,” see Csikszentmihalyi’s “Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience” - 1993) with a community / network across generations; openness; generosity; coming closely in tune with good friends; fulsome trust; anticipatory, beneficial surprises; sweetness; nurture; receptivity {to love}; sharing; hail gladdening love; non-harming, altruistic engagement; acts of kindness ~ voluntarism; considerateness; cordiality; congeniality; collegiality; flourishing (viz. eudaimonia); warm, radiant fun; sociable, flirtatious, and gleeful, inner and outer movement, which some people experience while dancing (e.g. unconditional~free-form dancing, New England contra-dancing, Scottish Country Dancing, Dances of Universal Peace~Sufi dancing, contact improvisational dance jams, etc.); having a ball with you; euphoric merriment; cherishing as well as feeling / being cherished; (love-related) passion; the numinous; a loving bliss economy~loving bliss indices {a way of measuring groups' affective neurophysiology, as a whole, linked with socially conscious, index, mutual funds}; old friends; an unburdened feeling of lightness of being; falling in love; the fun of raising / being with kids; cheeriness; positive psychology (viz. Seligman's “Authentic Happiness”); following your bliss; well-received, intense, salutary interest; the deep, inward release that comes in remarkable / easing moments and which is cultivatable; deeply exuberant, beneficent pleasure with another ~ a partner ~ a love; best friends; understanding; reverie; friendliness; what gives you joy?; imagination to love profoundly, and then to love; wholesomeness; well-being; peace, peace of mind, and at peace-ness; being in love; ahimsa {non-harming}; a good connection; virtue, esp. of transcendent, jubilant love; helpfulness; doing good; loving touch (e.g. a gentle hand, hugs, massage, Watsu*Waterdance {Wassertanz} & more); singing "I love you;" the inspiration for the creation of great, loving art; rich, bountiful inventiveness / imagination in amity; Harbin Hot Springs ~ harbin.org; heart consciousness; harmony; the neurochemistry of romantic love~heightened levels of four neurotrophins, - i.e. NGF, BDNF, NT-3, and NT-4 (Emanuele et al., 2005); loving bliss ~*MMmmm ~ loving bliss and practices for this*~ (naturally, and with many qualities, but ecstasy is a reference experience ~> oxytocins~dopamine); practicing loving bliss vis-à-vis a musical instrument; balance; wonderful, oceanic wholeness; free love; happiness; contentment; the joy / rapport / 'reading' of minds that goes on between two (or more) skillful musicians / listeners, who are improvising; love letters; harmony, love fests; love is the answer; loving bliss as friends; the thought, experience, and generation of love; quiet wisdom ~ love of wisdom; and sophisticated, intuitive caritas - (e.g., see Tolstoy’s “The Three Questions”) - (what are other positive characteristics / expressions of love that you can add, besides the American Friends' Service Committee, the Friends' Committee on National Legislation, and others like them? And how can we develop them together? How can we move toward world peace & love?) ...' (http://scottmacleod.com/daltonletter.htm) -
One question I focus on is how to elicit these aspects or qualities of positive love when and as one would like ... and this 'loving bliss,' wiki, subject page is one place to explore this further: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Loving_Bliss_(eliciting_this_neurophysiology).
Here are two queries I have for us here on this NtF email list : How to cultivate positive love in wonderfully f/Friendly ways, for example, especially in Quaker Meetings and in flourishing ways (think Grateful Dead concerts, or similar, for whatever else moves you greatly, musically or otherwise) as a corporate leading? How to get to the experience and feeling of far-reaching Love, caring and communitas within social gatherings / gatheredness (think Grateful Dead, Mozart arias, Raga from India or similar) in Friendly ways?
Warm regards,
Scott
...