>..your statement is self-contradictory, Nepe.

>How is it a genuine love when you expect

>nothing-sort-of-a perfect reciprocation for

>your feelings, something so abstract.

Guest4-jyu,

Perhaps the confusion is on your part. You probably confused “genuine” with “ideal”. By “genuine love”, I do not mean an “ideal love” at all. I simply meant an un-fake love in its natural raw form, let’s say, one our cave-dwelling ancestors passed to us (unadulterated and un-conditioned by social and political norms, kya).

Natural love is selfish. That is why unreciprocated or rejected love always makes us unhappy.

Only the saints who have overcome (or pretend to have overcome ) that natural limit  are unaffected by the unreciprocated or rejected love. Everybody else are affected, it hurts them.

So coming to my point, yes, a genuine lover expects a genuine love in return. An ideal lover might not, but a genuine but un-ideal loves certainly does.

And before we potentially get confused more, here is a helpful classification of love based on how its three components- passion, intimacy and commitment – flare.

Types of love:

SOURCE: Sternberg. (1986). "A Triangular Theory of Love." Psychology Review 93: 119-135.

That was from a psychological perspective. Now here is one step deeper understanding of love from neurology:

The science of love:

http://www.youramazingbrain.org/lovesex/sciencelove.htm

Hope it is helpful to this discussion.

Nepe