英语流利说 Level 5 Unit 2-1 The Psychology of love 1

音频

One of the most important human emotions is love.

However, there are many different kinds of love.

Romantic love is certainly one of the most interesting kinds of love.

It can be beautiful, wonderful, and heartbreaking, sometimes all at the same time.

Romantic love can make our lives full and meaningful, but it can also be an escape from loneliness and suffering.

If romantic love has a purpose, neither psychology nor biology has discovered it.

However, throughout history, philosophers have offered opinions about it.

The Greek philosopher, Plato, said love makes us complete.

He relates a comic story in which humans originally had 4 arms, 4 legs and 2 faces.

Then, when they angered the Gods, they were cut in half.

Since then every person has been searching for their soulmate, the other half of his or her self.

Another philosopher believed that love is an illusion.

In his view, people fall in love because they believe the other person can make them happy.

But in fact, this is just an illusion designed to make us have children.

Once we have children, we are right back to where we were, still searching for happiness.

For nature this is a success, because we have children to maintain our species.

But it leaves us still searching for something more.

If something is an illusion，it isn't what it seems to be.

In Buddhism, romantic love is seen as an attempt to satisfy our desires.

These desires are a defect, something we need to overcome.

The way to free ourselves from suffering is to remove desires.

Once free of desires we can reach a state of peace and wisdom.

This state of being is called nirvana.

Other kinds of love include love between a parent and child.