When a person aspires to be more loving towards others, what does that mean?

Starman: When a person aspires to be more loving towards others, what does that mean?
I have read (probably some tabloid at the checkout stand) that loving others is key to happiness. But if I set a goal for unconditional love for all mankind, how do I bring that about? It seems difficult to simply invoke love in my heart when someone is ranting at me and I don’t get the warm and fuzzy feeling when I read about the news of men raping children in Haiti. How do I be more loving?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Olivia A.
Read Thich Nhat Hon’s True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart

It will change your life!!!!

Answer by ♥
You can’t set a goal for it, you have to live in the moment and realise that everything and everyone is fleeting and its beauty is susceptible to annihilation. Then love will grow as a result of your appreciation. When you set a goal for something, you’re just training yourself to view it as an impossible task only possible in the future. It also means you’re trying to force a feeling.

Answer by Sweet Chick
It’s funny because I ask myself the same question all the time. You’re right. If you love others, you receive love in return and I believe that leads to happiness.
I don’t know about reading about people you have no relationship with at all in the newspaper and trying to have an unconditional love for them. I don’t know if it’s possible. Maybe it is.
With people I do know in my life, I know that one needs to forgive often in order to be more loving. Forgiveness means letting go and that is difficult. At least for me it is. However, I believe that is where it begins.

Answer by Zach
You gotta accept what you see as peoples’ faults (i.e. the tendency to spread misery) as more of a golden rule that applies to all mankind in that we do unto others as we have been done unto. The men raping children in Haiti were most likely raped themselves in the past.

If you can open your eyes a little wider you’ll see that the same rule applies to us all. Let’s face it: in an alternate universe where you live a hellish life, do you think even you would rape a child? I think the sad truth is that we all would under some kind of circumstance.

Sorry if my answer is depressing. I’m a depressive personality. But hopefully I can serve some kind of purpose and be of some assistance.

Answer by Private <}:-})
They are talking about being “Humanitarian.”
Like Father Flanagan of Boys Town, and
Mother Teresa of Calcutta. <}:-})

Answer by Audrey
I wonder if love is a personal choice that we make. We won’t always have that “warm, fuzzy feeling.” For example, if someone is nasty to me I don’t appreciate it but I can choose to be polite to that person. Perhaps I can even go out of my way by being extra nice to that individual. Is that showing love? Perhaps I can’t do much for the children in Haiti but I can, hopefully, be loving to the people I am around.