Firstly regarding the poll, i'd rather have you make your vote before reading the rest of this post and then i can be sure that as a study the results are unaffected by what is written below. Secondly, it is possible that you agree a little with all of the options or do not completely agree with any. If this is the case, just tick which ever box is closest to your views and feelings even if the option does not reflect them exactly. edit: thirdly, (darn it i forgot to put this one in) as tempting as it may be for some, can you make your vote before looking at the results so far so that they are uninfluenced....NICE ONE!!!
... he he, i'm a good little amateur sociologist 
Well, there are many different understandings of the term love, it probably means something different to everybody. Here are some writings on the subject displaying many of the different perspectives on the topic.
QUOTE
Sonnet CXVI
by William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love,
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
Oh, no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests.. and is never shaken.
It is the star to every wandering bark
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love is not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out.. even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
by William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love,
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
Oh, no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests.. and is never shaken.
It is the star to every wandering bark
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love is not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out.. even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Who better than to start with, than the consumate craftsman himself. Shakespears poetry has a far more thoughtful introspective nature and can be quite philisophical. This poem concerns itself with the constancy of love, drawing its comparrison to that of a star which symolised loves constancy and also guidance. People used stars in those days to navigate when sailing. He also speaks of how true love lasts through age and hard times.
QUOTE
The Clod & the Pebble
by William Blake
Love seeketh not Itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care;
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.
So sang a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet;
But a Pebble of the brook,
Warbled out these metres meet.
Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to It's delight:
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heavens despite.
by William Blake
Love seeketh not Itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care;
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.
So sang a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet;
But a Pebble of the brook,
Warbled out these metres meet.
Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to It's delight:
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heavens despite.
It seems that Mr Blake had a far more negative oppinion of love. He speaks of it as something that is quite selfish, as something that only seeks to satisfy one's personal needs, but it is also interesting that he talks of it as though it were some sort of outward entity, a disease almost. In the beginning it starts off as something that appears to be wonderful and ultimately results in something quite awful.
Here are some extracts from a psychology study entitled Romantic Love: An fMRI study of a Neural Mechanism for Mate Choice, which looks into the correlate brain function of love, what peoples brains are doing when they're in luuurrrve
. I found it very interesting indeed, theres a link to the full article at the bottom.QUOTE
.....Romantic love is accociated with subcortical doperminergic pathways in the reward system, and romantic love is primarily a motivation system, which leads to various emotions, rather than a specific emotion. However activation of subcortical doperminergic pathways of the VTA and caudate may comprise only the "general arousal" componant (Pfaff 1999) of early stage intense romantic love.
Nevertheless, these data suggest two important things about romantic passion: Foremost romantic love may be a primary motivation system, a fundamental human mating drive. Pfaff (1999) defines a drive as a neural state that energises and directs behaviour to aquire a particular biological need to survive or reproduce; and he reports that all drives are associated with the activity of dopamine. Like drives, romantic love is tenacious; it is focused on a specific reward; it is not associated with any particular facial expression; it is exceedingly difficult to control; and it is associated with dopamine-rich neural regions (Fischer, 2004). Drives lye along a continuum. Thirst is almost impossible to control, while the sex drive can be redirected, even quelled. Falling inlove is evidently stronger than the sex drive because when one's sexual overtures are rejected, people do not kill themselves or someone else. Rejected lovers sometimes commit suicide or homicide.....
Nevertheless, these data suggest two important things about romantic passion: Foremost romantic love may be a primary motivation system, a fundamental human mating drive. Pfaff (1999) defines a drive as a neural state that energises and directs behaviour to aquire a particular biological need to survive or reproduce; and he reports that all drives are associated with the activity of dopamine. Like drives, romantic love is tenacious; it is focused on a specific reward; it is not associated with any particular facial expression; it is exceedingly difficult to control; and it is associated with dopamine-rich neural regions (Fischer, 2004). Drives lye along a continuum. Thirst is almost impossible to control, while the sex drive can be redirected, even quelled. Falling inlove is evidently stronger than the sex drive because when one's sexual overtures are rejected, people do not kill themselves or someone else. Rejected lovers sometimes commit suicide or homicide.....
QUOTE
.....Our subjects in longer term relationships also showed increased activity in ventral pallidum. The ventral pallidum has been associated with attatchment behaviours in prairie vowls (Lim et al., 2004; Lim and young, 2004). These data suggest that as romantic love changes across time, brain systems associated with attatchment increase activity - perhaps to enhance relationship stability and motivate parenting behaviours.....
QUOTE
.....While viewing their beloved, those who self-reported higher levels of romantic love also showed greater activation in the right anteromedial caudate body (r = 0.60; p = 0.12). This result provides strong evidence for the link between a specific brain region and a specific brain function, romantic love. However, this specific region was also activated during anticipation of a monetary reward (Knutson et al., 2001).....
QUOTE
.....In a study of 37 societies, Buss (1994) reports that men and women rank love, or mutual attraction, as the first criterion for choosing a spouse. This brain system has inspired Love songs, Love poems, Love magic, myths and legends about love, and sucide and homicide cross culturally (Jankowiak and Fischer, 1992; Fischer 2004). Romantic love is most likely a primary aspect of our complex human reproductive stratergy.....
(Helen Fischer, Authur Aron and Lucy L. Brown 2005)http://homepage.mac.com/helenfisher/Sites/...ourCompNeur.pdf
This article speaks more technically of some of the behaviours associated with love and attributes it to many processes rather than defining it as one. It defines the beginning stages of love as a reward system. This highlights love as something of an exchange rather than the personification it claimed from Mr Blakes poem and the nurturing eternal romance denoted in Shakespeares Sonnet.
M. Scott Peck (1978) defines love as:
QUOTE
....The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth....
QUOTE
....it may be noticed that, as defined, love is a strangely circular process. For the process of extending one's self is an evolutionary process. When one has successfully extended one's limits, one has then grown into a larger state of being. Thus the act of loving is an act of self-evolution even when the purpose of the act is someone else's growth. It is through reaching toward evolution that we evolve....
(extract taken from 'The Road Less Travelled') but he also differentiates between love and "falling in love"
QUOTE
....The temporary collapse of ego boundaries that constitutes falling in love is a sterotypic response of human beings to a configuration of internal sexual drives and external sexual stimuli, which serves to increase the probability of sexual pairing and bonding so as to enhance the survival of the species. Or to put it in another rather crass way, falling in love is a trick that our genes pull on our otherwise perceptive mind to hoodwink or trap us into marriage....
(extract taken from 'The Road Less Travelled')Here is an extract from chapter five of the Bhagavad Gita, it is a beautiful representation of a view that many faiths relatively adopt that awareness of one's divine self is a True love which is infinate and extends to all but also identifys that it is not something that comes from feelings but from awareness. The parts that i have highlighted demonstrate this.
As most of you probably already know, the Bhagavad Gita story is based on a conversation between Arjuna and Krishna on a battle field. This extract has Arjuna who represents us as we are in life as it is, having to deal with all the challenges that prevent us at times from progressing; Krishna, who represents our highest aspect, to some this is God and to others it is consciousness; Sanjaya, who is the seer of the King of the €œother€ side within the battle, he represents intuition; and King Dhritarashtra who was born blind, he represents our human mind which is ignorant of our true nature€he he, just a bit of background info so if anyone does want to read this they will understand it a bit better if they do not already
QUOTE
....Arjuna looked puzzled. "Can you explain what you mean by 'harmony in all things,' Krishna?" he asked.
Krishna could hardly wait to reply. "Yes," He said. "It means someone who is free from desire and therefore detached. He follows worldly pursuits like everyone else, but at the same time is completely free inside. He will not rejoice when good things happen or shudder when unpleasentness occurs." He paused, to make sure Arjuna understood what He was saying. "He is truly God, Arjuna," He said with feeling. "Is it any wonder that he finds no pleasure in sense objects?"
"What do you mean Krishna?" Arjuna was confused again.
"Well," Krishna replied patiently, "once the Chakora bird has tasted clear moonbeams among the beds of lotus flowers, would it ever want to lick sand?"
Arjuna smiled at the beauty of this imagery and Krishna waited for it to settle in his mind.
"When you have discovered the bliss of the Self, Arjuna," He said at last "and attained Self-realisation, you will find you will just give up all attachment to, or pursuit of, sense objects quite naturally."
Krishna looked at Arjuna's expression and saw that he was finding it hard to believe. "Your curiosity will make you wonder about this, no doubt," He said and Arjuna nodded. "You know that people who do not know themselves indulge in sense pleasures like a thirsty deer rushes at a mirage in a desert.
"It's important to understand that the happiness gained from enjoying sense objects is actually painful. But people are so deluded by the attraction that they feel that they cannot even live without these pleasures. To such unfortunate people, pain seems to be the heart of pleasure, but they simply cannot live without it, just like a fish cannot live without water." Arjuna felt slightly shocked by the truth in his words.
"Those who have learned to control their minds," Krishna continued, "and the physical tendencies of the body, experience only bliss in their hearts. Their sence of separateness simply vanishes in the same way that the wind is lost into the sky. When all trace of duality disappears could you say you are all that's left? You are united in the embrace of the Lord, and in such a state of union that only the bliss of the Self remains.
"Shutting out all external objects, focussing the attention between the eyebrows, equalising the in breath and the out breath, thus controling the mind, senses and intelligence, the sage whos highest aim is freedom and from whom desire and anger have departed, is forever free."
Arjuna sighed as the longing to experience this state swept over him again. "How do you become like this?" he asked eagerly.
"First of all you must renounce desire, and once you have done that, you must concentrate the mind within the body," Krishna replied. "With your gaze turned inwards and fixed between the eyebrows, equalise the incoming and outgoing breaths because when you control breath," He explained, "the mind becomes stilled in the inner space and desire ceases."
Arjuna was filled with wonder and at the same time relieved, because at last here was a practical method he could easily understand and follow. Krishna realised this and smiled. "Have my words brought you peace of mind?" He asked.
My Lord!" Arjuna replied. "You are such a master at understanding the mind and i know you completely understand the way mine works." Krishna smiled a secret smile that said nothing and gave nothing away.
"But listen!" Arjuna was now filled with enthusiasm, "the path you have shown me is indeed like a bridge which makes the river easier to cross, but it seems to me that for people who are weak, the path of yoga is easier than the path of knowledge. Can you just help me to understand this a little more clearly?"
Sanjaya turned towards the King. He was excited. "Oh great King," he said, "listen to what Lord Krishna is about to explain to Arjuna. It is though Krishna has prepared a great spiritual feast for him and we, the guests, have just arrived at the right time.
"Our good fortune is very great, dear master!" Sanjaya was so delighted to be able to hear the discussion between Krishna and Arjuna that he found himself babbling like an excited child. "We are like thirsty men who have found water in the desert."
Dhritarashtra was unmoved and unaffected by the information. "Just get on with it," he snapped impatiently.
Sanjaya understood what was in the King's heart. Blinded as he was by his love for his sons, he could not appreciate the great revelation that they were party to. "But how can he understand?" Sanjaya thought sadly. "How can a blind man see the light of day? Only those who have given up all thought of heaven and earth out of love for self-realisation can appreciate the sweetness of this knowledge."
He dare not say it, however, for fear of offending his beloved master and instead, turned his divine gaze eagerly back inside himself to experience the precious dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna.
Krishna could hardly wait to reply. "Yes," He said. "It means someone who is free from desire and therefore detached. He follows worldly pursuits like everyone else, but at the same time is completely free inside. He will not rejoice when good things happen or shudder when unpleasentness occurs." He paused, to make sure Arjuna understood what He was saying. "He is truly God, Arjuna," He said with feeling. "Is it any wonder that he finds no pleasure in sense objects?"
"What do you mean Krishna?" Arjuna was confused again.
"Well," Krishna replied patiently, "once the Chakora bird has tasted clear moonbeams among the beds of lotus flowers, would it ever want to lick sand?"
Arjuna smiled at the beauty of this imagery and Krishna waited for it to settle in his mind.
"When you have discovered the bliss of the Self, Arjuna," He said at last "and attained Self-realisation, you will find you will just give up all attachment to, or pursuit of, sense objects quite naturally."
Krishna looked at Arjuna's expression and saw that he was finding it hard to believe. "Your curiosity will make you wonder about this, no doubt," He said and Arjuna nodded. "You know that people who do not know themselves indulge in sense pleasures like a thirsty deer rushes at a mirage in a desert.
"It's important to understand that the happiness gained from enjoying sense objects is actually painful. But people are so deluded by the attraction that they feel that they cannot even live without these pleasures. To such unfortunate people, pain seems to be the heart of pleasure, but they simply cannot live without it, just like a fish cannot live without water." Arjuna felt slightly shocked by the truth in his words.
"Those who have learned to control their minds," Krishna continued, "and the physical tendencies of the body, experience only bliss in their hearts. Their sence of separateness simply vanishes in the same way that the wind is lost into the sky. When all trace of duality disappears could you say you are all that's left? You are united in the embrace of the Lord, and in such a state of union that only the bliss of the Self remains.
"Shutting out all external objects, focussing the attention between the eyebrows, equalising the in breath and the out breath, thus controling the mind, senses and intelligence, the sage whos highest aim is freedom and from whom desire and anger have departed, is forever free."
Arjuna sighed as the longing to experience this state swept over him again. "How do you become like this?" he asked eagerly.
"First of all you must renounce desire, and once you have done that, you must concentrate the mind within the body," Krishna replied. "With your gaze turned inwards and fixed between the eyebrows, equalise the incoming and outgoing breaths because when you control breath," He explained, "the mind becomes stilled in the inner space and desire ceases."
Arjuna was filled with wonder and at the same time relieved, because at last here was a practical method he could easily understand and follow. Krishna realised this and smiled. "Have my words brought you peace of mind?" He asked.
My Lord!" Arjuna replied. "You are such a master at understanding the mind and i know you completely understand the way mine works." Krishna smiled a secret smile that said nothing and gave nothing away.
"But listen!" Arjuna was now filled with enthusiasm, "the path you have shown me is indeed like a bridge which makes the river easier to cross, but it seems to me that for people who are weak, the path of yoga is easier than the path of knowledge. Can you just help me to understand this a little more clearly?"
Sanjaya turned towards the King. He was excited. "Oh great King," he said, "listen to what Lord Krishna is about to explain to Arjuna. It is though Krishna has prepared a great spiritual feast for him and we, the guests, have just arrived at the right time.
"Our good fortune is very great, dear master!" Sanjaya was so delighted to be able to hear the discussion between Krishna and Arjuna that he found himself babbling like an excited child. "We are like thirsty men who have found water in the desert."
Dhritarashtra was unmoved and unaffected by the information. "Just get on with it," he snapped impatiently.
Sanjaya understood what was in the King's heart. Blinded as he was by his love for his sons, he could not appreciate the great revelation that they were party to. "But how can he understand?" Sanjaya thought sadly. "How can a blind man see the light of day? Only those who have given up all thought of heaven and earth out of love for self-realisation can appreciate the sweetness of this knowledge."
He dare not say it, however, for fear of offending his beloved master and instead, turned his divine gaze eagerly back inside himself to experience the precious dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna.
So, those are a few examples of different approaches and interpretations towards what love is. I think they all bring up interesting questions.
What are your oppinions and beliefs on the meaning of love?
How true are feelings of love and at what stage do you believe it becomes this?
How do your personal experiences prove your beliefs?
Does a true love come when you give up your desires rather than follow them?...why?
Is the love that comes from desire a cause for ignorance or a product of it?...why?
I think the section highlighted at the end of the Bhagavad Gita quote brings up an interesting question. For those that have faith, do you love your your children more than your divinity?
What does everybody else think of this concept?
hmmm, i think thats perhaps enough questions to be starting with, you don't have to answer any of them directly they're only a guide, i'm just interested in what you think
HA HAAA hope you enjoyed the read
....I LOV-IT!!!! 
NICE ONE!!! 
nn23
...LMAO! ....no this hasnt got anything to do with my profession.
So I don't really know what love means to me, I'm still figuring it out.
...he he, Meditating to "find" meaning sounds a bit silly to me 
). 