In the movie ‘Suspect X’, a brilliant mathematician plans an elaborate scheme that involves murder to help his love interest get away with manslaughter. When one is driven so much by love that it involves killing another, is such love still healthy? Is such love ‘lovely’ or lovable? Would it be more touching or disturbing? Is such love True Love? If yes, how can True Love for one necessitate hate for another? (In Buddhist psychology, there must be some hate generated for killing to be done, while intelligence does not equate to wisdom.)
At first glance, one might think this man had done a great sacrifice out of love, as he would very likely become a murder suspect. But this is not really untainted True Love, because it has elements of great attachment (to the beloved), great aversion (towards the possibility of the beloved being held responsible, thus being held away) and great delusion (about how love should be expressed). One who has True Love would sacrifice one’s own attachment, aversion and delusion instead of anyone, while generating the opposite qualities of generosity, loving-kindness and wisdom respectively.
True love from a Buddhist perspective is of course very different from the worldly love. Just like you may not understand why the mathematician did what he did, probably he won’t understand why you thought what you did… The irony is that for a “logical” person like the mathematician to get involved with such a highly emotionally-charged tragedy only shows how easily our feelings can sway our rationality. I guess the most logical yet sensible person is still the Buddha after all. 😉