Tag Archives: Rilke

Vase or Faces: Is Life Fundamentally Easy; Difficult; or Both?

Posted on February 26, 2013 by John

. How do you view life—as something that fundamentally is supposed to be easy (which means that difficulty and hardship are aberrations)?  Or is life something that is essentially / fundamentally difficult and painful, a struggle (“life is suffering” said … Continue reading →

Posted in Buddha, Critical Thinking, Difficulty, Jose Ortega y Gasset, M. Scott Peck, Pema Chodron, Personal Growth, Perspective, The Examined Life, The Road Less Traveled, Truth, Waking Up | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Love *Is* Difficult

Posted on November 29, 2012 by John

. Love is difficult. It is difficult to learn how to really love another person. It is difficult to learn how to love oneself. Loving another means caring deeply for that person, being good to that person, wanting the best … Continue reading →

Posted in Difficulty, Immature Love, Intimacy, Intimate Relationships, Love, Love is Not a Feeling, Mental Health, Real Love, Rilke, Truth, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Mature Love v Immature Love

Posted on October 11, 2012 by John

. 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 "If You Knew", "Reverence for Life", "The Art of Loving", Albert Schweitzer, Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Death, Dependency, Ellen Bass, 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 , , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

When It Comes to Love, We ALL Start Out As Beginners . . .

Posted on March 2, 2012 by John

When it comes to love, we all start out as beginners. It’s like picking up a tennis racquet for the first time. We may like to think that we already know how to hit the ball, and that with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Alan Paton, Antilove, Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Emotional Maturity, Gandhi, Gratitude, Immature Love, Intimacy, Intimate Relationships, Leo Buscaglia, Love is a Choice, Love is a Commitment, Love is an Act of Will, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Rilke, Spiritual Growth, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What is Real Intimacy?

Posted on December 2, 2011 by John

Intimacy means self-disclosure and self-revelation. Put another way, it means transparency. It means tremendous openness, candidness, honesty. Our capacity for intimacy with another is determined by and limited by our level of intimacy (or openness and honesty) with ourselves. When … Continue reading →

Posted in G. K. Chesterton, Intimacy, Intimate Relationships, Living the Questions, Mental Health, Real Love, Rilke, Theodore Roethke, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Love that We Obtain Too Cheaply & Easily, We Esteem Too Lightly

Posted on August 23, 2011 by John

“The harder the conflict, the more potentially glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply and easily, we esteem too lightly, for it is dearness only that gives a thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price … Continue reading →

Posted in Courage, Hodding Carter, Love is a Commitment, Matthew 13:44, Mature Love, Rilke, Thomas Paine, Thoreau | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Learning How to Deal Better with the Full Intensity of Life by Becoming More Awake and Enlightened AND Conscientious (updated)

Posted on August 13, 2011 by John

(This is an updated version of something I posted on Jan 7th of this year regarding how to become more awake and enlightened and conscientious. . . . https://realtruelove.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/becoming-more-awake-enlightened-and-conscientious/) We do not become enlightened by avoiding what is unpleasant and … Continue reading →

Posted in Courage, Differentiation, Emotional Maturity, James Hollis, Jung, Rilke, Rumi, The Dalai Lama, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Why Are You In the Relationships You Are In? (On “Right Relationship” . . . For the Bluebird in Your Soul)

Posted on August 8, 2011 by John

Why are you in the relationships you are in? Convenience? Because they’re fun and they make you feel good about yourself and being you? Because the other person supports and accepts and salves you? Why do you choose to let … Continue reading →

Posted in Courage, Love, Mature Love, Rilke, Schnarch | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Falling in Love versus Being in Love and Genuinely Loving Another

Posted on January 12, 2011 by John

  Falling in Love versus Being in Love and Genuinely Loving Another The “in-love-ness” of romantic love is an inherently unstable and temporary experience. It does not represent a stable stage of consciousness—it does not represent an earned and more … Continue reading →

Posted in What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Impermanence, Death, Love

Posted on December 16, 2010 by John

From an early age, I have known that life is brief, fleeting, impermanent. I have had these experiences, these overwhelming intimations, where everything around me becomes viscous, where it becomes hideously obvious that there is nothing to cling to here … Continue reading →

Posted in Buddhism, Courage, Love, Rilke, Waking Up | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment