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Love yourself and Watch
By Nikhil Gangoli
Love Yourself and Watch - The Dhammapada
To love yourself is the first step to developing spiritually.
We have been told to love
others but not to love ourselves. This is a very harmful
piece of advice and we will get
into trouble if we attempt to follow it.
We have been told that if we love ourselves we will
develop a big ego, become a
narcissist and so forth. However the exact opposite is
true. Watch the do-gooders, the
people who serve society, the politicians, the
missionaries, and the social workers. You
will observe that they have the biggest egos of all. They
will tell themselves that they do
not love themselves but love humanity. Their egos will be
nourished and they will
develop big egos.
In fact unless these servants of humanity love
themselves their love for humanity will
only be an ego trip and they will do harm instead of
good.
Osho Rajneesh says that it is only the person who loves
himself who can love others. Just
as you respect yourself you will find yourself respecting
others. Just as you meet your
own needs you will find yourself understanding the
needs of others. Osho compares
loving yourself with a pebble being thrown into a lake.
The ripples caused by the pebble
will at first arise close to the pebble. It is only later that
the ripples spread out and reach
the shores of the lake.
If you prevent the ripples from arising close to the pebble
naturally they will also not
reach to the shore. In a similar manner unless you love
yourself you will not be able to
love others.
Another benefit to loving yourself is that you will be able
to meditate. You will be able to
be alone with yourself only if you love yourself. A person
who hates himself will seek all
manner of distractions because he will not be able to
stand his own company. He will
seek out friends to socialize with, go to a movie, or
switch on the tube 每 anything to take
him away from himself. Doing meditation means being
alone with yourself and you will
only benefit from this practice if you love yourself.
And the practice of meditation, the watching 每 which is
the second instruction of the sutra
will help you and benefit you in many ways. Indeed it is
possible to learn to love yourself
by doing meditation if you follow the right method.
The method for cultivating love for yourself by meditation
is this 每 watch whatever arises
during the course of your meditation, and acknowledge it.
You may want to focus on the
in breath and the out breath as you are doing the
meditation. Thoughts and feelings will
inevitably arise. Welcome those thoughts and feelings
and acknowledge them. Just this
much is required 每 no more. This is a powerful Buddhist
method of meditation and it will
lead to all manner of benefits in your life, in your
relationship with yourself and with
others. You can practice this method of acknowledging
your thoughts and feelings at
stray moments during the day when you have nothing to
do. During a traffic jam, while
waiting for a bus or train 每 whenever you find time,
practice acknowledging your
thoughts and feelings. Anchor yourself in the present
moment by simultaneously
observing the breath. Follow this practice for a few
weeks and observe the changes in
your life.
Awareness of yourself, observing yourself is a source of
bliss and also transformation.
The story is told of Nagarjuna the famous Indian mystic.
Once a thief came to him and
said that he desired to learn and practice the way. The
thief said that he is prepared to do
anything but not to give up stealing. He asked if
Nagarjuna would accept him as a student
and would teach him. Nagarjuna said, "Certainly I will",
and taught him the techniques of
self-observation and mindfulness. He simply asked the
thief to practice mindfulness as he
went about his job of robbing people. The thief went
home and tried to follow these
teachings. A week later he returned to Nagarjuna and
asked to be accepted as a disciple.
The thief said that he had found it impossible to rob
others and at the same time be
mindful. He had to choose 每 either be conscious and not
steal or be unconscious and
steal. This was the choice faced by the thief. Nagarjuna
accepted the thief as a disciple
and later the thief went on to become enlightened.
Be conscious and watch as you go about your daily
activities as well as during
meditation. You will find that truly 每 virtue is its own
reward.
I hope you enjoyed this article and that it will be useful to
you.
Stay tuned for more in this continuing series.
About the Author
For more articles in this series straight to your inbox and for a Free report on Eastern Philosophy and Quantum Physics please visit http://www.eastern-philosophy-and-meditation.com/buddhism.html These teachings will transform your life.
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