Love

Eros, Philos, and Agape

Eros

Eros is the love between two people.  The spirit that unites them.  A love that dares to risk.  Eros is best when united with philos.

Philos

Philos is Friendship

Agape

Agape is in both Eros and Philos. 

The main form of agape is Total Love.  The highest form of love.  Love that consumes the person who experiences it - their world demands so little, they experience the care-free-feelings of childhood.  A feeling that suffuses, that fills every space in us, and turns our aggression to dust.

The other form of agape is Enthusiasm. The 'larger-than-life experiences' that NT talks about, in Mark Hamilton's book 'Happiness Forever' and elsewhere.

This is agape directed at a particular idea or specific thing. Here we feel our selves to be stronger with a feeling of serenity that is based on the certainty that nothing can shake us.  Unusual strength allows us always to make the right decision at the right time, and when we achieve our goal, we are amazed at our own capabilities.  Because when we are involved in the good fight, nothing else is important; enthusiasm carries us toward our goal.  Usually manifests itself with all of its force during the first years of our lives.  At that time, we still have strong links with he divinity, and we throw ourselves into our play with our toys with such a will that dolls take on life and our tin soldiers actually march.

We lose our enthusiasm because of the small and unavoidable defeats we suffer during the good fight.  And since we don't realize that enthusiasm is a major strength, able to help us win the ultimate victory, we let it dribble through our fingers; we do this without recognizing that we are letting the true meaning of our lives escape us.  We blame the world for our boredom and for our losses, and we forget that it was we ourselves who allowed this enchanting power, which justifies everything, to diminish - the manifestation of agape in the form of enthusiasm

"I started to weep.  I wept because I was re-experiencing the enthusiasm of my childhood; I was once again a child, and nothing in the world could cause me harm."

"I thought of my family, my wife, and my friends.  I experienced an enormous feeling of love, and, at the same time, an absurd happiness, because all of a sudden I understood everything about the dog."

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