Self Love Rules The World

[Starman]

In my opinion Jesus had love in his heart when he scarified for others. Love is very simple but relationships can be very complicated. They are complicated because they are conditional; human beings are conditioned and they want love according to their own conditioning.

In my opinion self love, without narcissism, can make us have more empathy and sensitivity towards others. Narcissism is isolated love of self, self love is not. It is a form of gratitude and respect for your own existence, which can translate to showing gratitude and respect for the existence of others.

Again I say, love is simple but human beings want to complicate it. Love is what we feel towards ourselves and others; it brings with it a sensitivity and open-ness. Jesus knew he would be crucified long before it happened and he came to accept it as God’s will, in my opinion.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Starman

How can we love another person if we do not love ourselves.

I hear this so often...I must not be getting something.
I can easily picture a hardened, heinous criminal in prison..
having much time to hate himself AND his actions AND society and his mother.
Then, a young, sweet nun comes to visit him everyday, giving him
compassion, hope, inspiration with her twinkling eyes...
how could he not love her,yet he is still disgusted with himself.

(Sean Penn w/ Susan Sarandon playing that very Nun in a True Story movie.)
My thought is you can hate yourself, yet love another.*shrug*

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by Starman

How can we love another person if we do not love ourselves.

There may be few like Jesus for whom there are no others.

Normally loving self and loving others is fairly natural for majority people (even animals e.g with kids / lover/friends /siblings in varying degrees ). Nowadays many places even loving closed ones like aforesaid may be a luxury.

Loving self or loving others is not always a single option binary choice (like yes/No). It's multiple option choice with varying degrees (e.g. from 0 to 100 ). So there is ample choice , flexibility and individual freedom in exercise of such choice.

When we live in communities (which we will always ) , there needs to be merging of interests and that can come easily naturally if the members have good propensity to love others and that may be difficult or even impossible if people's propensity to love is severely constrained . Of course there are traditions , customs and state laws which mandate many things in these areas leaving us very few options. So according to me if we develop habit of loving others/showing concerns/care for others as a habit (rather than just relying on customs /laws) , life can be more fulfilling , flexible and enjoyable.

Of course that's my opinion which others may not agree.

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by Starman

In my opinion self love, without narcissism, can make us have more empathy and sensitivity towards others. Narcissism is isolated love of self, self love is not. It is a form of gratitude and respect for your own existence, which can translate to showing gratitude and respect for the existence of others.

If the self love results in more empathetic & grateful beings , I am all for such self-love. But generally I have seen many places many times it results in outright selfishness devoid of concern /care/love for others .
Never mind we are on one page on this .

[sky]

“You can search the whole tenfold universe and not find a single being more worthy of love and compassion than the one seated here—yourself.”

The Buddha.

[Starman]

Miss Hepburn, if loving someone else makes a person feel good inside of themselves then they are not totally disgusted with themselves. I believe that you have to feel love to express love. How can we express what we do not feel? There are many levels to loving oneself, one level is just caring for yourself and not doing any self harm, another level is feeling love within yourself and having grateful appreciation for your own existence.

No, I did not see that movie, but I do embrace that a hardened hateful person can be changed by another persons’ love, and in that change that once hardened hateful person can become remorseful. Love may start with remorse for past insensitive deeds, a truly hateful person would have no remorse and feel no guilt about their past hateful ways, in my opinion. There are also many levels, or types, of love; appreciation is a form of love, etc.

[Starman]

HITESH SHAH, I embrace what you have shared and feel it is primarily because how people define love. Lots of people think that sex is love, or they think that self love is all about their own survival with no regard for others. The word “love” is thrown around a great deal, and people talk about falling in love or being in love. They also say they have fallen out of love, etc. People love places and material objects even when they are disgusting and hateful to other people.

But to love without an object or person to love. To love for the sake of loving an nothing else, and sharing that love with others, expecting nothing in return, that in my opinion is a precious gift. That is what a new born baby or infant does. It exudes love freely, beaming, most of the time, to anyone who comes in its presence. I used to work as a nurse in a hospital newborn nursery and I have also delivered babies, actually the mother delivered the baby I just assisted. Babies amaze me, not only because of their love but also how simple they are.

[marcin458]

Actually love is a kind of an energy as all in the universe and it is very powerful and strong kind of energy which it is hard to destroy/remove.

If you truly love all world it is a very hard mission to destroy that or lower that.

Greetings
Marcin

[DaneA]

It's bordering on the Gnostic, to me.