7. The Natural Way of Love
Here is a story from my childhood. One day I caught a pair of birds and tried to make them kiss each other’s beaks. To see them kiss, I put them in a cage, fed them, and watched them. I did it out of a child’s desire to see them love each other and sing happily together.
This was an experiment done out of curiosity to understand the principles of nature. I continued this experiment, which I now understand to have been quite naughty.
It was only much later that I came to understand that love happens in natural settings. Sincere love occurs naturally, in a most natural setting. Only after a long observation did I come to this correct understanding about love. (Blessed Family-353, 08/20/1986)
If we want to regain the lost value of love, does it help to pursue a university education? Most likely we would only accumulate knowledge, become individualistic and come to worship at the altar of materialism. Just as Korean bean soup tastes right only when it is served in an earthenware bowl, so we can find genuine love only by the discipline of training our character.
The flower of world civilization blossoms on the basis of artistic harmony. For example, roasted ribs should be served on a platter and Korean bean paste soup should be served in an earthenware bowl to bring out the proper taste of each dish. Once you grow accustomed to the rough, deep and refreshing taste of Korean bean paste soup, you will never forget it no matter where you may go.
Likewise, once people become used to the earthy, deep, relaxing taste of love, they will always keep their taste for it. However, just as we easily tire of instant foods that are usually heavily sweetened, if we could obtain love easily and anywhere, like instant food, we could not call it true love. (Blessed Family-353, 01/03/1986)
Likewise, once people become used to the earthy, deep, relaxing taste of love, they will always keep their taste for it. However, just as we easily tire of instant foods that are usually heavily sweetened, if we could obtain love easily and anywhere, like instant food, we could not call it true love.
Love does not deepen because you bathe in a fragrant bath. I would say that the love of a couple living in the remotest countryside, who wash themselves in cold water before going to bed, is purer, longer lasting, and ever deepening.
A couple that brushes their teeth before kissing is not experiencing natural love. The toothpaste smell prevents them from tasting the unique smell of their partner. When I look at people who brush their teeth before kissing, I don’t know whether they are trying to taste love or taste toothpaste. (Blessed Family-353, 01/03/1986)
When you meet someone you like and you fall in love with her, you want to embrace her and kiss her. This is a natural instinct between the sexes. Previously you may have explored your surroundings and made relationships with its places and creatures in order to develop feelings of affection for the universe. It was natural for you to do so, as a stage on the road to finding your one partner of love.
When we relate to each other in accordance with the ideal of partnership – with each man relating to one woman and each woman relating to one man – there will be no acts or incidents that violate the order of love. A society that upholds the order of true love will emerge only when men and women join together on the basis of the ideal of partnership. (Blessed Family-353, 01/13/1981)