Category Archives: Courage

Positive Peace versus Negative Peace: A Few Quotes & Excerpts on How Real Peace and Understanding Might Actually Be Achieved


(or—How to Distinguish Those Who Really Are Trying to Promote True Peace from Those Who Are Merely Seeking Comfort, Escape, and the Appearance of Peace) . . Peace is a nebulous word, having at least *two* definitions. And the way … Continue reading

Posted in B4Peace, Baltasar Gracián, Bloggers for Peace, Courage, Critical Thinking, Differentiation, Difficulty, Emerson, Emotional Maturity, Gandhi, Henry Ward Beecher, Luke 12:51, Martin Luther King Jr., Matthew 10:34, Perspective, Spiritual Growth, The Dalai Lama, The Examined Life, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Only Proactive People Can Genuinely Love Others, Reactive People Can’t (updated)


(The following is abridged and adapted and modified from Stephen R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change”) Between stimulus and response, human beings have the freedom to choose—but only *if* we develop and … Continue reading

Posted in "Man's Search for Meaning", "Siddhartha", Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Critical Thinking, Differentiation, Emotional Maturity, Hermann Hesse, Immature Love, Intimate Relationships, Love is a Choice, Love is a Decision, Love is Not a Feeling, Luke 6:32-35, M. Scott Peck, Mature Love, Mental Health, Perspective, Proactivity, Reactive, Real Love, Responsibility, Spiritual Growth, Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Examined Life, The Road Less Traveled, Truth, Viktor Frankl, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Love, the Feeling, versus Love, the Capacity (Immature Love versus Mature Love, part 2)


. A properly (or fully) developed human being is a Loving human being. Love, ultimately, is a capacity. A capacity that develops as the result of developing many other capacities and virtues and behavioral predispositions. Some of these are of … Continue reading

Posted in chapter 13, Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Differentiation, Emotional Maturity, Friendship, Generosity, Gratitude, Honesty, Immature Love, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Perspective, Real Love, Self-Love, Spiritual Growth, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Why Real Love Is So Difficult & Rare (updated 12-26-2012)


. (This is an updated version of a post I first publish on Feb 28, 2012 — “Why Real Love Is So Difficult & Rare“) . . “We have lost our sense of values: when your fence falls, you mend … Continue reading

Posted in Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Czeslaw Milosz, Differentiation, Emotional Maturity, Generosity, Honesty, Immature Love, Intimate Relationships, Love, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Self-Extension, Spiritual Growth, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Thomas Merton, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

What Is This “Love” Thing All About? (Part 1)


. This will be a two part post. Part one will consist of a repost/reblog of an advice column question and the answer that was given in that column. Part two (which will appear sometime in the next few days) … Continue reading

Posted in "Dear Sugar", "Tiny Beautiful Things", Cheryl Strayed, Courage, Death, Honesty, Intimate Relationships, therumpus.net, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Love, Impermanence, Uncertainty, Fear: Which Wins?


. . I posted this over on one of my other blogs, but the topic is apropos here as well. . . . . The Buddha said: “Life is suffering.” Sickness, old age, death: these things cannot be avoided. But most … Continue reading

Posted in Courage, Death, Denial, Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Thomas Merton, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mature Love v Immature Love


. Erich Fromm, in “The Art of Loving,” wrote, “Immature love says: ‘I love you because I need you.’ Mature love says: ‘I need you because I love you’.” The first statement is based on dependency—I am dependent on you, … Continue reading

Posted in "Reverence for Life", "The Art of Loving", Albert Schweitzer, Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Death, Dependency, Emotional Maturity, Erich Fromm, Immature Love, Intimate Relationships, Love, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Rilke, Spiritual Growth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Thomas Merton on Love


. “Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work.” – Anna Quindlen When we are leading a life based on real … Continue reading

Posted in "The Velveteen Rabbit", 1 John 4:16-18, Anna Quindlen, Chris Rock, Conscious Love, Courage, Emotional Maturity, Intimate Relationships, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Schnarch, Self-Extension, Spiritual Growth, Thomas Merton, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Thoreau on Love


Love is a severe critic.  Hate (as well as self-centeredness and self-interest) can pardon more than love.  The heart is blind; but Love is not blind.  None of the gods is so discriminating.  We may love and not elevate one … Continue reading

Posted in Conscience, Courage, Intimacy, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Spiritual Growth, Thoreau, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why Do We Love?


Why Do We Love?  Is it for our own sake or the sake of the one we are loving? [W]e don’t love people and animals because we will have them forever, we love them because loving them changes us, makes … Continue reading

Posted in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7, Conscience, Courage, Czeslaw Milosz, Emotional Maturity, Immature Love, Intimate Relationships, M. Scott Peck, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Thomas Merton, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments