Sublime Love Essay and Anthology-Stuart Rose

Sublime Love is an enquiry into the heart of all religions and spiritualities, into that which gives them their meaningfulness. In two parts, Sublime Love first meets with and illuminates spiritual love from every angle, and seeks to establish much more precisely than hitherto what spiritual love is, and what it entails. The second part is a comprehensive collection of this love’s most important non-mystical writings, which seeks to broaden and extend what has been found in the first part.
In the essay, first many questions are raised and responses given from a personal perspective — the only possible primary “evidence”. Then three well-known scriptural accounts of spiritual love are given in full with discussion: Krishna, Jesus, and the Buddha. Questions were put to authorities on spiritual love (priests, rabbis, monks, and the like), including: Are all neighbours to be loved? Does love always entail suffering? Through literature analysis and more questions, six nuances are explained. Is the experience the same for women and men? Is spiritual love unconditional? And what is the relationship between spiritual love and sexuality? Finally, four vital elements are met: Self, peace, beauty, and bliss. The essay ends with two parts illuminating spiritual love at its very highest.
After a short context-setting introduction to each entry, the Anthology presents substantial extracts from 36 writings, including: Aquinas, Aurobindo, Bahya, Dionysius, Fromm, al Ghazzali, Gibran, Gurdjieff, Kierkegaard, Lewis, Maslow, Merton, Mo-tse, Plato, Plotinus, Tolstoy, and Vivekananda.