Let me not declare any reasons why two
\nTrue-minded people should not be married.
\nLove is not love
\nWhich changes when it finds a change in circumstances,<\/b>
\nOr bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful:
\nOh no! it is a lighthouse
\nThat sees storms but it never shaken;
\nLove is the guiding north star to every lost ship,
\nWhose value cannot be calculated, although its altitude can be measured.
\nLove is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty
\nComes within the compass of his sickle.
\nLove does not alter with hours and weeks,
\nBut, rather, it endures until the last day of life.
\nIf I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love
\nThen I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Shakespeare kind of successfully described the most ideal love anyone could give and have. A perfect love that flows freely unconditionally based on trust and understanding, that is able to withstand the challenges of crises and cruelty of fleeting youth. But… should love endure to the extent when a lover betrays? Honestly, I was a bit uneasy when I read that. Well, unless one is enlightened, such break of trust will definitely tear love apart. How do we not ‘bend from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful’?<\/p>\n
Was Shakespeare telling us to accept a lover’s deliberate unfaithfulness? What if the person is unrepentant? How long should one endure such untrue love? It would be foolish to love someone who does not love you back as much? (But that would make it conditioned love.) Then, I came to realise that it is quite impossible for anyone who truly understands love and wholeheartedly loves someone to be unfaithful, even to the unfaithful. I can’t truly speak for Shakespeare but at least, this is my version of true love. True love should endure all kinds of extremes, but it takes enough love and wisdom to know when one should at least appear to ‘end’ it for the sake of not letting the unfaithful create more negative karma. It also takes enough compassion to know when one should end it for one’s own well-being; physical, mental and spiritual-wise.<\/p>\n
If we see the sonnet in the Dharma’s perspective, we can see how brilliantly Shakespeare described what is close to Buddhas’ and enlightened Bodhisattvas’ true love for samsaric beings like us. Their true love will definitely not alter when it alteration finds, or bend with the remover to remove. Like a mother\/father who loves and gives unconditionally to their only child. And we are each their only child. Simply because enlightened beings are void of greed, hatred and ignorance, filled only with pure generosity, compassion and wisdom. If we realise the immeasurable number of times we have not requited their love since beginningless time, we would surely be shocked and ashamed. When will we give ourselves a chance to experience true love by being mindful of them and the Dharma they share? Their true and enlightened love has no expiry date but this life is expiring second by second.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although I’m no expert of Shakespeare’s works but his words certainly inspire many. I remember travelling occasionally to London with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,274],"class_list":["post-15362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mix","tag-love","tag-true-love","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Although I’m no expert of Shakespeare’s works but his words certainly inspire many. I remember travelling occasionally to London with like-minded friends just to watch some of his amazing plays. I resonate with some of his philosophical views on love and life. His wit needs no introduction. Yet I still do not consider myself a fan because some of his words seem more to entrance than to enlighten.<\/p>\n