Claim. True love is operationally defined as the act of giving and then forgetting what one gave, repeated without account; God Himself created and sustains the universe by this pattern.
Elaboration. SMM gives the definition twice in close succession: “What is true love? It is to give and give, even investing your life completely and then investing it again. True love begins only when one can give and give and forget what one has already given” (1.2. Centering on true love, 256-179 1994.3.13). And the parental form: “What kind of parents are great parents? They are parents who invest and invest and then forget. If parents were to keep a record and prepare an account saying, ‘I put you through college, so you must pay us back by taking care of us in our old age,’ they would be false parents” (239-62 1992.11.23). The pattern is cosmologically primary: “The fundamental foundation for the creation of heaven and earth in the beginning was not the action of drawing things in to oneself. … Everything in this world requires investing oneself. The axis for the creation of the universe belongs to God, who has been seeking the ideal of love. It did not begin with drawing or pulling things in, but with investing” (284-71 1997.4.15). This is the same pattern late SMM names absolute love — God’s own self-divestment is the standard.
See also. csg-living-for-others-is-the-foundational-principle-of-creation, csg-god-created-with-absolute-faith-love-and-obedience