Romantic Love and Sexuality · Friendly Version¶
Love Is the Greatest Creator's Most Beautiful Gift¶
Imagine a world without romantic love — no tender glances between two people who care for each other, no heartbeat quickened by mutual understanding, no warmth of genuine closeness. Wouldn't that be an empty desert?
Lifechanyuan tells us: love is not a sin. It is not a desire that needs to be suppressed. It is the most precious gift the Greatest Creator has given to humanity.
"Affection, love, sexuality, and sensuality are the natural manifestations and most primordial content of LIFE — the most precious constitutive factors of LIFE, the source of all joy, the most essential driving force that keeps life alive."
— 800 Values for New Era Humanity, Value 589
The Richer Your Love Life, the More Beautiful Your Soul¶
Have you noticed? The people who love most fully tend to be the gentlest, the most alive, the most in love with the world. And those who have clamped down hardest on their emotions tend to be irritable, cold, difficult to be around.
This is not a coincidence. The Guide Xuefeng wrote:
"Those with richer romantic lives have more beautiful souls, gentler characters, calmer dispositions — they are closer to the Greatest Creator and better understand how to love life, nature, and others. Those with poorer romantic lives have uglier souls, more vicious characters, more explosive tempers — they are farther from the Greatest Creator."
— 800 Values for New Era Humanity, Value 584
Lifechanyuan even offers a simple, direct definition of heaven and hell:
"What is called hell? A place without romantic love is called hell. What is called heaven? A place filled with romantic love is called heaven."
— 800 Values for New Era Humanity, Value 585
The Core of Lifechanyuan's View of Love: Freedom and Non-Possession¶
Many people misunderstand Lifechanyuan's view of love, assuming it means "anything goes." It does not. The core of Lifechanyuan's romantic view comes down to one word: freedom.
More specifically: - Follow natural affinity — when it comes, enjoy it; when it goes, don't cling - No possession, no monopoly — you are not my "property" - No jealousy — when you are happy with someone else, I am glad for you - Both willing — it must be what both hearts want; no force, no pressure
The Guide calls this "the guiding principle for romantic love":
"Follow natural affinity, move with genuine feeling, act on spontaneous impulse — when feeling arises let the heart shine, when feeling passes let the heart rest empty; no attachment, no obsession, no possession, no monopoly; proceed when both hearts are willing, do not force what is not in resonance; use the happiness and joy of both as the measure."
— 800 Values for New Era Humanity, Value 586
What Is "Poisoned Love"?¶
You have surely seen it: someone pining away for a relationship, unable to eat or sleep, or clinging desperately to another person, leaving them no room to breathe...
Lifechanyuan calls this "poisoned love":
"Love between husband and wife, love between partners, exclusive love, vow-of-eternal-devotion love, 'pining away for one's beloved' love — all these are poisoned love. Once one has poisoned love, life will inevitably become painful."
— 800 Values for New Era Humanity, Value 593
This is not to say that such feelings are not real or beautiful in their own way — but the moment they become possession and control, love's heaven instantly becomes an unbearable hell.
Love and Marriage Are Two Different Things¶
"Once I'm married, everything will be safe and good?" — Lifechanyuan does not see it this way.
The institution of marriage places love in chains: once married, two people possess each other, freedom disappears, and selfishness grows. The Guide wrote:
"Marriage is the grave of love, and family is the hotbed of human evil. Once a person enters marriage, they lose freedom."
— 800 Values for New Era Humanity, Value 620
In the Second Home (New Oasis for LIFE), love looks like this instead:
"There are no marital relationships, no fixed emotional attachments — only free-flowing love that follows natural encounter, natural affinity, and authentic nature. Between men and women it is like flower and butterfly: when they meet it is fate, when they part there is no resentment; no possession, no monopoly, each free, each respected. This is a preview of the way Celestials love, played out on earth."
— 800 Values for New Era Humanity, Value 619
The Ultimate Goal: Becoming "Supreme Love"¶
Lifechanyuan's cultivation of love does not stop at "enjoyment." It points toward something higher: becoming "supreme love."
What is supreme love? It is not about finding someone who loves you the most — it is about becoming a being so full of love that your very existence radiates warmth:
"What is called 'supreme love' is not an emotional peak, nor the apex of a particular relationship, but a state in which a LIFE has elevated into love. Such a life does not go to love someone — it becomes love itself."
— the Chanyuan Corpus · Civilization Essays · The Greatest Obstacle to Supreme Love — Attached Love
And according to the laws of LIFE's reincarnation: the supreme lover ascends to become a Celestial.
Three Sentences That Capture Lifechanyuan's View of Love¶
- Love is the Greatest Creator's most beautiful gift — suppressing it is rebellion against the Greatest Creator.
- No possession, no control, no sinking in — following natural affinity is how love is meant to unfold.
- Cultivate non-attached love, become love itself — this is love's highest destination, and the path toward becoming a Celestial.