Is "unconditional love" misunderstood?

Unconditional love is exactly like you say it is, "pure, primal, eternal".

The love that passes for unconditional love in the dream is symbolic of our natural state but a symbol is only that. Sometimes it is necessary for people to believe their love is unconditional before they can realize they were in error.

Like you say Unconditional Love just is. Perhaps some would think it was less than it is; but I would agree with you.

Usually we just aspire to the true reality that unconditional Love is. Eventually we will let the illusion go; Illusion cannot exist without our participation.

When we refer to God's Love we are referring as you say to that which is neither with-held or given.

Surely unconditional means no conditions; nothing to get confused about.

Focusing on what unconditional Love means would/is a beneficial practise probably:))

Love is a divine expression, but on earth this expression gets contaminated like almost all the pure and divine expressions. This is what is known as falling down from the Garden of Eden when pure divine love gets converted into lust and selfishness. The human condition is such that unconditional love has become almost extinct. Reaching the state of unconditional love for entire existence is what is known as liberation or Moksha, unconditional love is truth and beauty and bliss, but is impossible to achieve here on earth.

Conditional and Unconditional both are relative terms, it is unconditional relatively to conditional and not absolutely unconditional, unconditional is not an absolute term or an absolute freedom. We are all bound by the Order that runs Creation, it would be foolhardy to cross it and by following/living to that order, there is peace, love and 'freedom' although it is under 'condition' of the Order, yet there is absolute joy/bliss in it. It may appear paradoxical because we are not only putting it in words(conditional/unconditional) which can never approximate reality but also the Creation is not run by that logic, it is beyond all words, all categorization, it can only be lived, being that alone illumines which can not be conceptualized, it need not be done also as it would be illegitimate to do so. Just be. Just be without categorizing like 'conditional' and 'unconditional'. Experiential/Living in the Order alone illumines on the kind of love we are talking about, not verbalization of it. Conflict and confusion arises when we want to capture in words that is uncapturable(but wholly livable)!

Too many people never get to experience unconditional love.The Ancient greeks formulate 5 types of love ranging from the familial love that is combined within the family to the erotic love that most people confuse love with.There is also the love that grows between a band of brothers i.e soldiers or people who face great destruction and death.

Today love has become the realm of the contrived romanticized condition that judges the person on the form they present.This is a source of profound confusion and has damaged relationships between men and women.Look all around you and you will see its insidiousness.It is the false love that cannot let go and leads to envy,jealousy amd other negative thoughts that are programmed and conditioned into our collective consciousness.

Christ in my opinion represented unconditional love in that he gave his life for everyone.

Even those who don't believe in him should take heed of the fact that many people have laid down their lives for others and this is what is achievable for all who have open hearts.

The conundrum is that people pray to the ineffable thinking that the Divine will choose them...say for instances in a war situation...yet all revealed truths deny this form of favouritism..for it seeks for us to go into that place where unconditional love resides.

In today's world as yesterdays there will always be the Them and Us and religion promotes this.People state they are christian yet they may feel a joyous emotion akin to love when they see or hear of the otherness in our brothers and sisters has been dealt the killing blow.

I'm afraid this love you speak of is too far out of reach for most people who inhabit their own mind-set giving only love in return for an illusion that dies with you.

We must try to reach this level if we are to survive on a human level never mind a spiritual one.

I have experienced that unconditional love that the universe is made of. It binds all things in harmony, assurance and joy. It is dependent upon no 'thing' for Its expression, for Its existence. We are made in Its image and It is our natural state of Being. We lose sight of our true nature when we are bound by the ego/mind state of being which misunderstands its relationship with 'What Is'.

I agree that it is the unconditional love that is our true nature but not that we become 'it'. We are already It but It is hidden from our awareness by the bondage we have to the false self, the ego/mind that experiences itself as the senses and emotions, the limited perception of being in form. We are the formless awareness, the unconditional love, the joyous essence, the unbound Spirit that lies hidden behind our small perceptions of self, our limited experience of self, our contracted concept of self.

No wonder so many people think of God as some old man with a long beard that sits in an antiseptic corner of the universe on some fancy chair. They imagine that being made in God's image means that God is bound by the same little boundaries they are bound by. It is all in the ego/mind, the mistaken idea of who we are.

Since you asked for thought, I can only define what I consider unconditional love. I have actually given very few what I consider unconditional love, to me it is,

1. Knowing the person for what they really are and accepting them as nothing more than that.

2. It doesn't mean I condone behaviors that are not acceptable to this society, but continue to love the person no matter what.

Since this is not a blog site I think you might want to offer you thoughts on another site, that was created for the purpose of discussion and not for answers.

I don't think ANY love is unconditional.

Or at least *barely* any.

For instance, I have a boyfriend, and I love him a lot.

But it's based upon certain criteria, like for instance him caring about me and not becoming a total @sshole.

Same goes for family members and friends.

You could always do *something* to them which would make them not love you anymore. It might take a lot, but still.. It is indeed possible.

I guess, maybe, the closest you can get are cases where a person is completely OBSESSED with some other individual, and they see them as perfect, regardless of their actions. But then again, is that really love..? Or is it just a form of stalking / morbid addiction?

There is no such thing as UNCONDITIONAL LOVE,,,, For when anyone falls in love there have to be a set of do's and don't do's...... For I do not believe someone will stand for his woman sleeping around, I am sorry but I can not believe that anyone can love someone without a set of condition

Unconditional Love and Conditional Love are Models of the parental Love a Child incorporates along its need within the transcending of its Maturing.

Unconditional Love is the essence of Existence itself, primal beginning, the inner world. Unconditional Love is Mother (birth, nourishing...)

Conditional Love is the Male Polarity, undetachable extention of Unconditional Love (the Y chromosome:); the "Spiritual conquest of Rationality" and outer aspect of the Dual. Its function is the outer world. Conditional Love is Father (protection, guidance, support...).

The two are like a a one ball of Life flow; the Everything Existing with an inseparable inner and outer aspect.

The transcending of Maturing on collective level, is reflected by Religion being a phase of collective self-awareness. Meister Eckhart (XIV century German priest and mystic who was hunted by the Inquisition for his progressive thoughts) wrote that God gives us All His Love (Oneness of the two polarities). Doing so, we are given to become "One with God", but... We have "free will" - the rational choice of reaching for it or not; of living according to principles our ancestors have lightened the path for us and pushed Civilization "forward". Perhaps this is better explained in Buddhism (Each explanation to its level of comprehention :P).

I can see myself as One with Everything Existing (for YA purposes only), but that is just my rational projection of what I would like to be-come. I need to turn back and become aware of the missing pieces while I make the right steps forward. Life is going away, but I need to make eternity out of every breath. To love life. That is Love.