Another story changed how I saw the importance of
cultivating Self Love. I read how the
Dalai Lama and a group of his monks were meeting with a group of American
spiritual types (I forget who). The
Dalai Lama and the monks were taking questions from the Americans and someone
was translating the questions into the predominant language of the monks (whatever
that was). One person asked a question
about how they deal with self-hatred.
The whole dialogue came to a halt for several minutes as the translator
went back and forth with the Dalai Lama who speaks English pretty well. The problem, it seemed, was that in their
tongue, there was no concept of self-hatred.
It was so foreign that it couldn’t even be conveyed by putting the word
for “self” and the word for “hatred” together. It’s hard to think what an American
equivalent of impossibility might be.
Maybe “bacon hatred”? No, as unimaginable as that is, even that would
convey to us. We may not know anyone (including vegans) who
“hates” bacon, but we can imagine it. Self-hatred, on the other hand, was
unimaginable to the Dalai Lama’s fellow monks.
Not only that but a survey of people all over the world
taken around that time found that while other westerners understood what was
meant by “self hatred,” the only country where a high percentage of people
actually identified as hating themselves, was the U.S. I still feel terribly sad when I read that
statistic.
This makes me wonder what else is possible. What energy space and consciousness can me
and my body be to give and receive love easily and effortlessly? Can I destroy the polarity between self
hatred and self love so that there is no concept of either one because it is
simply unimaginable to be separate from myself in that way? Can I destroy the polarity between myself and
you so that it is unimaginable to be separate from others in that way? And, ultimately, can I destroy the polarity
between myself and God so that is unimaginable to be separate from the
universal love that is the only thing happening here?
My answer is yes.
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