O Love, chief among virtues
Love is endlessly praised as the most fundamental source of wellbeing, goodness and ethical action.
For instance, the essential ethical principle of the new-testament and thus of Christianity, the Great Commandment, is to love. The most ancient gospel, that of Mark, 12, 29–31, where Jesus answers the question "What is the most important commandment?", actually starts with the Sh'ma, a foundational Hebrew prayer: 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
The other Gospels as well as other new-testament sections reiterate this, with John, 15:12: "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you" and again, 17: "This is my command: Love each other." Corinthians, 1:13: "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing [...]13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Song of songs, 8:6–7:
"Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its ardor unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away."
Buddhism also gives immense praise to the virtue of Love: "There is no greater virtue than practicing love everyday". Dhammapada 1:5: " Hatred is never ceased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law." The Itivuttaka, 27, states that "In all the grounds for making worldly merit, none are worth a sixteenth part of the heart’s release by love. Surpassing them, the heart’s release by love shines and glows and radiates."
Some of the acquired benefits are cited by Nāgārjuna, in the Mahaprajñaparamita shastra (as quoted by Thich Nhat Hahn, 2007): "Practicing the mind of immeasurable love puts an end to anger in the hearts of living beings. Practicing the mind of immeasurable compassion puts an end to sorrow and torment in the hearts of living beings. Practicing the mind of immeasurable joy puts an end to sadness and grief in the hearts of living beings. Practicing the spirit of immeasurable equanimity puts an end to hatred, division and attachment in the hearts of living beings."
These four — loving kindness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity — are the four "immeasurables" and are often considered as indispensible aspects of "love" in Buddhism. In AN 11:16 we find that one who practices love sleeps easily, wakes easily, dreams no nightmares, is dear to human beings, dear to non-human beings, protected, gains concentration quickly, has a bright complexion, and... dies unconfused (among other more culturally specific benefits).
Practical ways to develop the immeasurables, Loving-kindness, Compassion, Joy, Equanimity, can be found in many good modern sources such as Thich Nhat Hahn's excellent Teachings on love. Traditional practical instructions can also be found in the discourse on love SN 1:8.
ps: Well, I tried and that's the best formatting I can keep...
