What Does Love Mean?

This is copied directly from Dr ibn-Hyman's blog and represents his response to the question posed by a student: What does love mean? 

He is a wise man and I am honored to study under him. ~~GH

What Does Love Mean?

We are so inclined to label "love" what we think it is.

A behavior that we do. A psychology that we adopt. A philosophy that we hold.

Something that merely affects us, intoxicates us, plagues us, even condemns us.

Never is it clear what love is not.

Love is not behavior. You behave in particular ways to appease, even defer to love.

Love is not psychology. You think certain ways to understand love.

Love is not a philosophy. You believe certain ways to keep faith in love.

It is that profound recognition, that self-affirming sense of comfort, that sacrificial surrender of selfhood to the certainty that you have encountered your God in the flesh - living, breathing, dwelling among men.

And,  for the sake of love,  you submit...relinquishing all.

~~ Sundjata Keita ibn-Hyman

Guest Poet - Kahlil Gibran on Love (and Cats)

Guest poet today on ChickenScratches: Kahlil Gibran. In case you've never read it, it is not sweet, romantic, positive fare. Gibran acknowledges the very real aspects of sacrifice and submission when it comes to love. We can only hope to achieve full maturity through learning to give ourselves over to love. 

JUST FOR FUN: Like "Fractured Fairy Tales" from "Rocky and Bulwinkle," here is an experiment I dreamed up. Although this verse is profoundly deep and meaningful, I invite you to consider entertaining yourself by replacing love with the word cat throughout. Yeah, I'm weird like that. Enjoy. ~~GHC

Kahlil Gibran on Love 

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.