[Buddha-l] Being in Love

[Dan Lusthaus]

The Bhikkhu Bodhi translation is much better. The point of the sutta is
karma (kamma). The same type of action leads to the same type of
consequences, so if the couple perform the same type of kamma (activity of
body, speech, and mind), they will accrue the same consequences, in this
life, and subsequently. An interesting re-framing of a couple's togetherness
("The same in virtue and observance"; "When both are equal in virtue").

Their bond is kamma, not love per se, though love is one of the things that
feeds the kamma.

The sutta also includes the standard moralist tag -- do good and you'll
prevail, overcome ("Their enemies are left dejected").

It is the western (= Christian) obsession with "love" as the highest virtue
and noblest pursuit that has spawned the ridiculous idea of agape, romantic
love (in its philosophical and popular forms), the distinctively western
brand of "family values" (as compared, e.g., with Confucian family values),
and the "moral" of 99% of Western movies and tv shows (not to mention
Beatles lyrics). Even Buddhist scholars try to smuggle that back in
(translating terms like maitri, friendship, as "love," etc.). Hard to shake
one's conditioning. Possible Western antidotes: Nietzsche and Bruno
Bettleheim's _Love Is Not Enough_.

Dan Lusthaus