4) Love Comes from One's Counterpart
Love cannot be realized alone. Where does love come from? It comes not from myself, but from my object partner. Because love comes from my object partner, I must lower my head and live for the sake of my partner. This is the source of the heavenly law, "Live for the sake of others." To receive that most precious and valuable thing coming to you, you must put the philosophy "live for others" into practice.
Love is something even God cannot realize alone. Love is always realized on the foundation of a relationship. Where does love begin? It does not begin from myself, but arises from my partner.
There is love among human beings. However, love does not arise by itself Love does not arise when a man is alone. It arises when a woman stands before the man as his partner. When the partner appears, love arises for the first time.
We say, "My parents' love is good," and "My husband's (or wife's) love is good." This means that the true love is not love centered on oneself Love does not begin from myself but begins from my counterpart. It arises from my husband or my wife, from my sons and daughters, from my brothers and sisters. Love does not start from myself alone; it starts from my counterpart. Who, then, is the owner of love? The counterpart is the owner of love.
Where does love come from? It comes from one's partner. If your partner is ugly and you dislike him or her, love tends to retreat. If your partner is good looking and you like him or her, love's effect works that much faster. Your partner's speech, beauty, smell, taste, etc. determine love's effect.
Alone, one can never feel love. It is the same with happiness. Likewise, we cannot talk about peace if we only consider one country. We must speak about the relationship that can form between two or more countries.
It is the same with happiness. Can you feel happiness alone? You can feel true happiness only when you and your partner, with whom you form a mutual relationship, love each other.
It is the same with freedom. True freedom cannot be realized alone. True freedom is obtained within love, together with love. Only within love can infinite freedom blossom. Within true love, even if one partner holds all authority and rules with a whip, his or her partner would feet no restraint, but rather feel deep joy and delight. This is because in love one lives for the sake of one's partner, ready to sacrifice oneself to save the other's life.
What is the base of love? The base of love is not I. The noun "love" is a relational concept. No matter how handsome a man may be, if he has no relationship with a partner, he cannot have love. The base of love is not I. It is Satan who has been saying, "Love is for myself." The base of love is not I. We have believed that the base of love is myself, but until we expunge this idea and have the correct concept, we cannot change the course of history.
Wives have been asserting that they are the center and expect to be served, while their husbands, for their part, have been asserting and expecting the same. This causes a rupture. Because the base of love is not in you but with your partner, you must sacrifice yourself in order to obtain love. Love always requires sacrifice. Love also requires that you overcome difficulties.
In this respect, the substance that can subjugate this satanic world cannot be found anywhere in heaven and earth. It can only be found through the law of love centering on God; thus, God is always strongly holding on to love. The word "compassion" cannot be spoken apart from love in the world. The word "humanness" (jen) cannot exist without two people. The words "compassion" and "humanness" (jen) are both relational concepts.