English Audio Request

1) One of the most important human emotions is love.

2) However, there are many different kinds of love.

3) Romantic love is certainly oneof the most interesting kinds of love.

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

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

(Besides romantic love, another kind of love is between parents and
children.)

(Other kinds of love include the love between a parent and child.)

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

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

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

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

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

4) 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. (…it isn’t what it seems to be.)

In 'his view, people fall in love
because they believe the another 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.

(Some people say love can be a
disguise for our sexual desires or a biological trick to make us have
children.)

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

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

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

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

This state of being is called Nirvana.