Heather wrote:Dallas....
Is that what love is? When you feel things but to describe it with mere words doesnt seem like enough?
Hmmmm....thats really good to know. That clears up a lot of things for me!
Nope. That's not what I meant. Back to the drawing board?
Love is a verb. (For some it's a noun) For me it's a verb. It's an action word that describes my actions... not my feelings.
Love wasn't what I was referring to above... but since you asked:
a. Love is a verb that describes actions. As in "a Loving God". (A God that is doing divine Love.... because God is Love. And, God is doing what God does because that's what God is. And, it's also why it is so difficult to describe God. Our vocabulary probably isn't advanced enough in addition to our ability to use it -- if it was -- to describe God or our experience with God. Which is why some of us rely on a "God as we understand God. It is important to have an understanding. Understandings are the results of thoughts.
But, it's not always so easy to describe the contents of our thoughts with words. And, words... are the way that we express our thoughts.
Logos. "the Word"; "the Idea"; "the expressed Thought"; "Logic".
So, I can see how the idea that the Logos and God are One.... (as understood by some). And, if God is Love... Love is a spiritual quality of Action. How can you use words adequately enough to describe God? Spirit? Truth? Love? Logos?) (I believe that this is why in the Gospel of John, in the Bible, in Chapter 1, it starts similar to Genesis 1:1, of the Old Testement: "In the beginning God" ... and " "In the beginning was the Word (Logos)... and the Word... was with God... and was God"... and later on down the chapter, it explains that the Logos... was manifest in flesh... or God in the Flesh. Son of God / Son of Man).... "God's expression of Himself in the Flesh -- through the Word".
Enough of that though... just using it here for illustration and comment.
b. "Being in love", for me: Describes my state of being -- in the actions.
Example "In Him I live and walk and have my being" These are all actions that describe the active state of my being. Love describes the movement -- the action -- in association with my active state of being.
c. The feelings: Describe the environmental changes that are produced by the loving actions.
d. It is possible to love without feelings. Feelings are not the evidence of love -- feelings are the evidence of our thoughts about love. If we are doing Love without thinking about it -- it's likely we will be loving without feelings or emotions. However, once we start to "think about it"... we experience an environmental change within ourselves.
e. All of our feelings -- emotions -- are the result of our thinking. It's not possible to have a "feeling"... without having thoughts that are producing the feelings. Therefore, if we find a way of living -- that will control our thinking -- our thinking will change -- and we can be in control of the things that we feel (Emotions).
This is often why in AA we say that "feelings are not facts." Thoughts are not facts. Thoughts are the way that we express our ideas or perception of reality.
They (our thoughts) are like "a map of our reality"... "our map" is not reality... the map simply illustrates the perception of what we believe to be our reality.
If I were going to go from Arkansas to New York, I would obtain a map. The map is not the road that I would travel -- it's simply an illustration or expression of the "thought of the road" to New York.
The feelings experienced in association with a state of being that's in movement... "in love" would be the results of my thoughts about what I'm doing.... in relationship to "my map of reality."
Thoughts are sometimes difficult to define. Some emotions (feelings), are more difficult to define.... than the thoughts that are producing the feelings.
Dallas wrote:Spiritual truth. Like God. Words cannot adequately describe.... no matter how hard we try.
Perhaps, it's because the totality of spiritual truth could possibly be beyond our understanding. And, all we get is a shadow of the truth... and we try to explain the shadow that we see, and feel and experience. Words are unable to describe the Divine Majesty of it all.
It’s kind of like love. Like when you’re really in love… and you want to describe it, but the words escape the efforts to describe.
This is why for me, it's easier for me to describe God, as I understand God, by expressing my understanding that God is Love. God is Good. God is Life and the Giver of Life. God is Light and in God there is no darkness.
Does that mean that this is what God is? No. It simply means it's the expression of my thoughts according to "my map of reality"... my perception, or understanding of what God is. And, the feelings inside me are the environmental changes that I am expressing as a result of "thinking about" God.
So, I am able to try to describe my "map of reality" of God... or my thoughts in association with my "map of reality"... of God... but it would explain no more about God... than a map would explain New York!
Beware: don't take any of this to the bank, yet... I'll have to read what I wrote a few times to make sure that I wrote what I meant to write!
Dallas
