Valentine's Day (Celebrating Mara)

Seven (Wisdom Quarterly)

Mara-devaputra in the guise of a beautiful young instigator of desire and attachment.

VALENTINE'S DAY - Cupid is, of course, the "god" of love. Cu·pid·i·ty means excessive desire, especially for wealth; covetousness or avarice. [Middle English cupidite, from Old French, from Latin cupidits, from cupidus, desiring, from cupere, to desire.]

Of course, we never speak of naked desire -- which we as Westerners regard as nearly synonymous with sex -- without masking it in the language of love. Love, of course, is the most abused word in the English language because it is stretched to extremes: for example, "making love" is code for lustful acts motivated by craving more than empathy or altruism. It has more to do with testosterone than oxytocin (the natural love drug).

Sex
The celebration of romantic love is a wonderful holdover from Pagan times. The Greeks (influenced by India) and the Romans (assimilating the Indian lore of the akasha-devas or "gods" and other extraterrestrials) were subsequently absorbed into Europe and American cultures. What do these empires share? The bonds of sex and agape are confounded so no one has to wince with shame if we called things by their actual name.

Why Chocolate?
Chocolate is the "food of the gods" (Theobroma cacao) -- an item considered not only edible but extremely desirable by advanced alien visitors, who organized the Mayans and Aztecs and other Mesoamerican cultures to cultivate and produce the final product we now all love on a mass scale. And the way to see the spirit-forms of such visitors who still visit at ethereal vibrations? Apparently it's red wine.

A "god" (or Roman demigod) who inspires and delights in inspiring infatuation, sex, consumption of addictive sensual foods, and the imbibing of brews that enhance delusion? Let's call him by his Buddhist name -- MARA, a literal living being in the exalted form of Mara-devaputra, who feels he is responsible for keeping beings in the sensual realm (kama-loka).

Agape

We will always have sex. And that's good when one is not intensively developing meditation: Shame and shaming about sex is harmful and destructive. Will we always have agape? If both are forms of love, what is the difference ?

Agape is one of several Greek words translated into English as love, one which became particularly appropriated by Christian theologians.

• Agape: pronounced /ˈæɡəpiː/ and sometimes /əˈɡɑːpeɪ/ after the Classical Greek agápē; Modern Greek: αγάπη [aˈɣapi]). Many have thought that this word represents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love. Compare with Buddhist terms metta (altruistic love), karuna (active compassion), mudita (joy in other's success), and upekkha (impartiality, unbiased equanimity).

The word agape does not have a specific religious connotation. Yet it has been used in that way by a variety of contemporary and ancient sources, including Biblical authors and Christian authors. Thomas Jay Oord defined agape as "an intentional response to promote well-being when responding to that which has generated ill-being." In his book, The Pilgrimage, author Paulo Coelho defines it as "the love that consumes," i.e., the highest and purest form of love, one that surpasses all other types of affection... (Source for agape definition).

• The Love Drug (LiveScience.com)
  With Valentine's Day just around the corner, love is in the air. Or is it oxytocin? This so-called "love hormone" is involved in social bonding, and it always seems to get a publicity boost around February 14. But research suggests that oxytocin isn't all roses and heart-shaped chocolates. Oxytocin is marketed as an all-purpose "love drug" year-round. Online, sellers shill a product called "liquid trust" that purports to contain oxytocin and promises to create an "environment within which you are more attractive to people you previously had no luck with." In San Antonio, Texas, at least one doctor prescribes dissolvable oxytocin strips for husbands and wives going through rough patches...
• VIDEO: Sex, Drugs, and Charlie Sheen: his madam interviewed
• CodePink in Burma and Egypt: no stone unturned

Who was St. Valentine?
You might think there's a grand love story behind the martyr saint who lent name to this day of romance. - Etiquette