Self-Love - baseline into spirituality

Self-love is not love that is received from anything outside of the self.

Self-love is love of the Self By the Self – for the sheer beauty, the sheer wonder, the sheer joy of the Self being who and what it truly is.

I simply know these words are blessed gifts, and I’ll have big and ongoing reflections with them.

Self-love is the starting point of perceiving unconditional love. The true knowing of self-love is the milestone and step stone to any substantial spiritual achievement. It’s the most important sign of self-awakening.

Self-love is the key to healings. It’s the stop button to all violence. It is foundation of the clarity and the lighthouse in the mysterious, unbounded, never-ending seek of Truth or Life.

I don’t say these words rhetorically to only make an impression. I don’t say them light. It seems to me that 34 years of encounters, searching, falling, struggling, learning, trying, is to prepare me to reach the shore of Self-Love.

Unconditional Love

I recall the moment when my eyes were first put in front of Lake Wakatipu(Queenstown) on the highest viewing platform. My breath stopped for a few second. It was stunning. In that moment, all thoughts ceased. I was stoned in that moment.

It’s awe. It’s appreciation. Every praise I gave to that place only came to mind after the initial moment. In that initial first moment, I didn’t have me. I forgot about me. My mind stopped. When a person is in that state, she doesn’t ask anything, let alone to ask for anything in return.

That is the experience of unconditional love, pure and affirmed. We have experienced unconditional love within ourselves more than we thought. It’s just that we normally don't recognized these subtle feelings. Because it’s simply Nothing in Mind in that moment.

When you hold a new born baby in arms, what’s your feeling? Do you decide you will give care and tenderness to the baby only if she’s pretty? Only when her parents are your friends? Only when there’s clue that she’s going to be successful in the future?...

No, the moment the baby is in your arms, you hold breath and give all attention. You recognize and affirm the value of the little fresh life, straight away.

Self-love feels that way. But replace the subject to our own precious Self, our own precious life. The sheer wonder of self by the self to the wonders of its existence.

In Self-love, one wouldn’t say to himself, you need to be loved by others to be valuable, you've got to achieve some results to be lovable. Nothing is asked to put on the scale. Excuse me, I should say there is no scale at all. No label, no success, no tasks, no expectations, no rankings, no... nothing is behind the joy. That is self-love. That is the biggest wonder and celebration.

Self-love leads us to see Who We Really Are. Then, we make choices and decisions in life to Express Who We Really Are. That's the real deal and purpose of life. To express who you really are, to create, instead of re-act in the given situation.

The moment Self-Love begins is the moment the deeply rooted cognition - separation from others falls apart. We cease from the fight over disagreement with others – they merely express Who They Really Are. We stop "giving mercy" to those who have different values from us. Instead, we hold genuine curiosity and respect. We unlock the attachment of results – Results are the product or aftermath as the collection of expression of everyone’s true self. Results does not bear measures to your own identity. That's to say, results don't add sweetness or bitterness to self-perception.

Unless, you don’t know Who You Really Are, and get confused or believe that your values is built, by meeting the teachings of a religion/organization/culture/society...

In the next writing, I’m hoping to reflect on the three categories of intellectual conducts of our mankind: believe in a God (信主), value virtues (重德) and philosophy (爱智), and how they could impact one's approaching to Self-Love.