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.
爱是人类最重要的情感之一。不过，爱有很多种，爱情当然是其中最有意义的一种。它可以美丽，精彩，令人心碎，有时同时出现。爱情让我们的生活充实而有意义，也能让我们摆脱孤独和痛苦。
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.
心理学和生物学都没有发现爱情是否有目的。然而，历史上哲学家们提出了自己的观点。希腊哲学家柏拉图说过爱让我们完整。他讲述了一个有趣的故事，人类最初有4条胳膊、4条腿和2张脸。后来他们触犯了众神，被切成两半。从那时起，每个人都在寻找自己的灵魂伴侣——另一半的自己。
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.
另一位哲学家认为爱情是一种幻觉。在他看来，人们坠入爱河是因为他们相信另一个人能让他们快乐。但其实这只是个假象，目的是我们生儿育女。一旦我们有了孩子，我们就会恢复最初状态，重新寻找快乐。对大自然来说，这是一个成功，因为我们有了孩子来维持我们自身物种的延续。但是爱情依然会让我们寻求更多。
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.
在佛教中，爱情被认为是满足我们欲望的一种尝试。这些欲望是需要我们克服的缺陷，解除痛苦的方式就是摆脱欲望。一旦摆脱了欲望，我们就能达到一种平和智慧的状态。这种状态称为涅磐。
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