Buddhism on Love

LOVE is all you need?

The definition of love in Buddhism is: wanting others to be happy.

This love is unconditional and it requires a lot of courage and acceptance (including self-acceptance). The "near enemy" of love, or a quality which appears similar, but is more an opposite is: conditional love (selfish love, see also the page on attachment).
The opposite is wanting others to be unhappy: anger, hatred. A result which one needs to avoid is: attachment.

This definition means that 'love' in Buddhism refers to something quite different from the ordinary term of love which is usually about attachment, more or less successful relationships and sex; all of which are rarely without self-interest. Instead, in Buddhism it refers to de-tachment and the unselfish interest in others' welfare.

'Even offering three hundred bowls of food three times a day does not match the spiritual merit gained in one moment of love.' Nagarjuna

"If there is love, there is hope that one may have real families, real brotherhood, real equanimity, real peace. If the love within your mind is lost and you see other beings as enemies, then no matter how much knowledge or education or material comfort you have, only suffering and confusion will ensue"His Holiness the Dalai Lama from 'The little book of Buddhism'

In addition to love, the 4 immeasurables include compassion, equanimity, and joy.
All about it: the source of this page.

I have to disagree with Nagarjuna AND the Dalai Lama. If one moment of love, i.e. wanting others to be happy, is better than 900 bowls of food (presumably to hungry poor), then we'd have a lot of good will and sex (it sounds like sex may have been what Nagarjuna meant), without the concrete action, that if taken by even a fraction of humanity, would alleviate so much of the suffering that Buddhism aims to prevent. Besides, if the food is good, a good meal makes people happy.

As for the Dalai Lama, well, he's perhaps in a cocoon of goodwill. Some people, or vampires if you want to call them that, genuinely enjoy other's suffering. So, if you want them to be happy, you want others to be unhappy. As I'm sure the Dalai knows, pretty much everyone is or has been pissed off at someone, and a nearly ubiquitous response to that is to wish your tormentor ill. Don't lamas spit? Have you heard the song Happiness is a warm gun? Have you ever in your whole life wanted to smash someone's head into a wall? I want to say "get real", but then again, you probably don't have a tormenting voice in your head. Do you wish happy those who seem to define their happiness by your UNhappiness?