[Buddha-l] Being in Love

[Franz Metcalf]

Gang,

I'm with Bob and Curt.  Seems to me that the power of love, even  
secular love, to transform us is simply undeniable. The Buddha's  
relative silence about it gives us permission to go to a place he  
couldn't. He didn't say much about capitalism or caviar or attachment  
theory, either. I think we're permitted to make our own inferences. In  
fact, this is our duty.

Sure, I don't expect the Buddha was much of a fan of possessive love,  
but then neither am I. Still, that comes with the territory of living  
with a woman who has given me half of her life, who carried our  
daughter in her womb, and who breaks the crust of my ego every day. I  
sure wouldn't trade her for the rhinoceros lifestyle. No doubt Joanna  
is right that this sort of thing just wasn't part of the emotional/ 
cultural vocabulary in the Buddha's time and place. He wouldn't have  
chosen it, anyway. But I am not he. Not by a long shot. So, we all  
just keep stumbling along.

Franz