Part I, Love


We become destructive to ourselves

when our love is intensified and

when we are obsessed and

even captivated by it.  

Although our love is strong,

we become capable of true love.  

Human maturity may be viewed 

as a process of discovering unity

within duality of reasons and

we may find unity in ever distant logic

when we acknowledge the existence and

virtue of God.


For example,

a poet loves a flower

but he does not cut its stem

because he understands flower’s suffering.  

One should be free of possessive desire

one’s love of the object.  

By trying to “possess” the object,

one does not only dispossess the object

but one ultimately gets hurt from it.


Loving flower is

not bringing home a broken stem

and letting it wither.  

This would merely be a type of possession

originated from one’s egoistic greed.  

If one truly loves a flower, one would:


1) feel the flower’s pain as it suffers and

appreciate its beauty,

2) love all grass, trees, forest, bees

and butterflies

that are friends and lovers of the flower,

3) love all of the nature,

such as the earth, sun and air, which supply

nutrition to the beloved flower, and

4) love oneself as a lover of the flower.


The poet, however, was not loving

the flower of perpetual life.  

The poet loved the flower

which just withered away without knowing

how purely and how strongly

a loving person can love and

without the knowledge of

the existence of a poet

who discovered his true self

through the love of this flower.


When and if we understand

love in a possessive way,

we would understand and share

what we have through social acceptance,

tradition or economic and family relationship

rather than appreciating

the value of human existence.  

However, when there is any element

within them is broken,

they could discover that

they never truly loved each other.


We should learn to love

the value of existence itself.  

We feel as though we lose the whole world

when love departs us.  

But we need to see

the importance of relieving ourselves

from the obsession which love brings.  

We must not forget to be free from obsession.  

Understanding how to love truly

also requires us to understand

how to be free from love.  

The only possible way we can truly love

and be free from it

is when we understand and adopt

the value of each other’s

as one who loves and who is loved.


All beings were created by

the providence of God and

have wondrous value of existence and

that is what we must love.   

In order to do that

we must first love ourselves

as beings created by the providence of God.


This love is neither selfish obsession

nor is it possessive desire.  

Christian love is not prone to get hurt

because it loves any being as an individual.  

We must possess the power of love

which does not get hurt

even when the object of love leaves or

when we receive negative response

to our love.


“There is no fear in love,

but perfect love casts out fear.”

(I John 4:18a)

Daniel Ro
December, 1988
New York