What if “self-hatred” were something we couldn’t even imagine or understand? Part III: Valentine’s Weekend Series

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.