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Whatever you love, if you know that God is in it, or that it is itself
a bit of God, then you're on the path... I agree, also, that the exploration of Love doesn't get off the ground until we can love our selves without reserve.
posted by
Ciel
on May 6, 2005 at 12:12 AM
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Metta -
Good point.
posted by
sannhet
on May 5, 2005 at 7:03 PM
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MaryX -
You're absolutely right. They are not separate.
posted by
sannhet
on May 5, 2005 at 7:03 PM
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Rame -
As I said in the reply to Pappy, it can be done. But some have difficulty in separating not being happy with one's self and not loving one's self. Social conditioning equates one with the other many times. But if one can separate the two and correct the behavior in a loving way, then there is no conditional love.
posted by
sannhet
on May 5, 2005 at 7:02 PM
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Pappy -
We can, but it is difficult for some to separate the two.
posted by
sannhet
on May 5, 2005 at 7:00 PM
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I think
in learning to love God, and finding His face in everything (including ourselves) we learn to love ourselves unconditionally...
I know the more I love God the more I like myself and everyone I meet...
posted by
Metta
on May 5, 2005 at 5:59 PM
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Sannhetseeker,
Unconditional love of oneself and God don't need to be two separate things: knowledge of the unconditional love of God, while being aware that things I do are not always acceptable, was the first step towards loving myself.
posted by
Blanche.
on May 5, 2005 at 4:02 PM
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You can love yourself and not like some of the things you do.
Being human, we all do that. It's our nature. If you truly love yourself, you will see the wrong you did and correct it, or at least try to. That doesn't make your love for yourself conditional.
posted by
RAME
on May 5, 2005 at 3:38 PM
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sannhet
We can love ourselves, I think, without loving the way we act sometimes.
posted by
pappy
on May 5, 2005 at 3:05 PM
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Painter -
Very well put!
posted by
sannhet
on May 5, 2005 at 2:53 PM
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too many people get hung up
on the god thing.
they u se it to separate themselves from the world around them -- something of a drug that insulates them from their problems
and the forget about the people around them.
I've seen this too often in religious folks -- preaching love god and love jesus and jesus loves you -- but ignoring and even mistreating those around them -- being quite selfish.
for these people, the religious experience is like a narrow vertical shaft, where "It's you and me, god.", and other people be damned.
that's not what Yeshua said. "Love thy neighbor as thyself."
and in I John 3 is the most telling instruction, "If a man cannot love his brother whom he can see, how can he love God, whom he can't see."
These instructions tell us that, first and foremost, we must consider everyone around us as being as important as we are, and secondly, as sacred as anything we can imagine. The god directed mind loves those with whom it interacts as if those are god.
posted by
Xeno-x
on May 5, 2005 at 2:02 PM
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