Buddhism encourages
Lovingkindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and a particular form of equanimity are the four kinds of love taught and encouraged in classic Buddhist teachings. None of these are uniquely Buddhist; they are four qualities of heart that reside within everyone, at least as potentials.
Love, in this simple Buddhist definition, is unselfishly wishing others to be happy; to be delighted to be in their presence; to offer our affection and smiles and hugs and help freely without wanting anything in return.
The precepts are commitments to abstain from killing living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication.
Ānantarya Karma (Sanskrit) or Ānantarika Kamma (Pāli) are the most serious offences in Buddhism that, at death, through the overwhelming karmic strength of any single one of them, bring immediate disaster. Both Buddhists and non-Buddhists must avoid them at all costs.
The Dhammasangāni [5] regard five acts – matricide, parricide, slaying an Arhat, slaying a Buddha, and causing division among priesthood to be five unpardonable sins.
According to one – the Buddhist Women Special Marriage Law – before a Buddhist woman can marry a non-Buddhist man, the couple must go through an administrative process, including the public posting of a marriage application and allowing the community to submit objections.
The Buddhist counterpart of unconditional positive regard is loving-kindness (maitri in Sanskrit, metta in Pali). Loving-kindness is unconditional friendliness—a quality of allowing and welcoming human beings and their experience.
Have you heard this “relationship advice” attributed to Buddha? “When you meet somebody and your heart pounds, your hands shake, and your knees go weak, that is not your “soul mate”. When you meet your “soul mate” you will feel calm.
Even though the Buddhist texts are silent on the subject of monogamy or polygamy, the Buddhist laity is advised to limit themselves to one wife. The Buddha did not lay rules on married life but gave necessary advice on how to live a happy married life.
In the teaching of the Buddha, true love needs four elements. The first element is loving kindness or maitri, which means the capacity to offer happiness. In romantic love, if you are not able to help the other person be happy, that is not true love.
The first is maitri – friendship, brotherhood, loving-kindness. And the second is karuna – capacity to understand the suffering and help remove and transform it – compassion. Mudita is the third element – joy – your joy is her joy, her joy is our joy. The last element is upeksha – nondiscrimination.
Dalai Lama Quotes on Love
"Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back, and reasons to stay." "The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your action will be." "Love is the absence of judgment." "We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection."
Without loving yourself, you can't love anyone else.
Under Burmese Buddhist law, a man has the right to take more than one wife, but a wife cannot legally take more than one husband.
A Buddhist wedding honors the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama and expresses the couple's devotion to wisdom, compassion, and harmony in their partnership. Unlike other spiritual traditions, Buddhists consider marriage to be a secular matter, meaning it is the individual's choice and not a sacrament.
Since marriage is secular, Buddhism has no restrictions on divorce. Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda has said "if a husband and wife really cannot live together, instead of leading a miserable life and harboring more jealousy, anger and hatred, they should have the liberty to separate and live peacefully."
The basic causes of suffering are known as the Three Poisons : greed, ignorance and hatred. These are often represented as a rooster (greed), a pig (ignorance) and a snake (hatred).
Buddhism, the Thai state religion, teaches that use of intoxicants should be avoided.
Traditionally in Buddhism, forgiveness is done through the practice of repeating phrases of forgiveness toward oneself, toward those who have harmed us, and toward those whom we have harmed. Forgiving ourselves can often be the most difficult.
Upon the death of Gautama Buddha in 400 BC, Buddhism divided into two sects: Mahayana and Hinayana.
' So, a Buddhist doesn't let go of toxic friends out of hostility, but out of self-protection. Because even though it's better to avoid certain people, it doesn't mean that we can't feel love and compassion for them. In Buddhism, feelings of hostility (like hatred) belong to one of the five hindrances: anger.