Meditation for Dummies by Stephan Bodian in Chapter 10 ("Opening Your Heart: Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness") explores four "cornerstones of a happy and fulfilling life" which he suggests are four dimensions of love:
Lovingkindness: Arises spontaneously in response to the kindness of others and consists of warm, loving, caring feelings that can be deliberately increased and extended.
Compassion: Takes love a step further. In addition to caring about others, you also feel their suffering and naturally feel motivated to help relieve it. (The word "compassion" means "to suffer with.")
Sympathetic joy: Is the flip side of compassion. It consists of happy feelings that arise in response to the happiness and good fortune of others.
Equanimity: Can be cultivated through the basic meditation practices taught in this book; also known as steadiness of heart. No matter what happens, you expand to include it without allowing it to upset or disturb you.
(cf. Find the Beauty, Just Sitting, Roadside Distractions, Three Poisons, Turning Attention Inward, ...) - ^z - 2011-07-13