Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

In the words of Jesus, we are taught to love our neighbors as ourselves. These days, many people are so miserable that they don’t love themselves. Instead, they find someone else to blame and go off to create more misery for other people.

The are caught in a self-destructive cycle of self-hate and don’t even know it. Anyone who loves themselves is bound to feel compassion for other people. It is like it is impossible to love someone and at the same time be angry with them. Either love or anger will prevail.

Maybe it all boils down to issues of self-esteem. Things get really cloudy in peoples lives when they are constantly belittled.

In my own life, I was bullied by two of my cousins who were within two months of my age. They would push me over and say, “See baby fall!” Later, I was bullied by kids in the neighborhood and at every school I went to before ninth grade.

I grew up with such a dim view of my worth that I remained shy, withdrawn, and afraid most of my life. Things began to turn around when I was nineteen and had unexpected and unexplained spiritual experiences. I had glimpses of my true self and didn’t know how to cope with them.

My meditation practices began to change all of this. Now I have a wonderful wife and three wonderful children. I live in one of the most beautiful counties in the United States. I have earned the right to speak my peace and practice what I teach. Now I am truly capable of loving my neighbor as myself.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.“

– Jesus

Pals Cathedral Cross by Jerome Freedman, 2014

Are you able to follow the teaching of Jesus and love your neighbor as yourself? If so, how does this manifest in your life? If not, we should talk.