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Self-Love and Meditation!

As a meditator let me explore the concept of aiming meditation towards the transformation of self-love on the meditative path. When one is ready for the truth, a path will be found. The seeking could have been difficult with many blind alleys explored.

However, readiness for what we think we desire brings about the necessary discipline to accept the truth found. Once found, the laws of nature reveal the nature of the reality that has always been. Love plays a pivotal part in the meditative journey. It brings into play natural unity and universal energy.

There are many downward expressions of love towards personal wealth, personal power, and personal craving. These are finite views of love which carry with them constricted views about human potential.

Specifically, a transcendent understanding about how love works in meditation and how love towards a transcendental outcome is developed has not been well articulated in the teaching of meditation.

Meditation practices teach us to develop the essential understanding of what it is that we genuinely love about life. We often call the love we develop for this understanding self-love or love for self. Loving life is an essential component of spiritual development. What we will usually discover on a meditative path is that we have grown to love meditation itself, as well as the philosophical and explorative journeys that it takes us on. We also grow to love ourselves as we develop a deeper understanding of what it is that the concept of self truly represents.

Growing to love ourselves is a natural outcome of loving the path leading towards the discovery of our true inner being. Unlimited love can be generated when the state of unity is explored and accepted. Beyond this is universal love for all the expressions of energy.

Developing Self-Love

Self-love is one of my favourite topics. I believe that self-love is the most fundamental bottom line for happiness. Many people come to me who want to do things to be happy, but we need to take a step back.

We need to love our own self first before trying to love others. We also need to love ourselves realistically. I believe you can love others as much as you love yourself. If I ask, “What if someone else loves you more than you currently do to yourself?” You will likely be confused, as my question is not understood, and nobody can answer it.

I think it’s natural because we cannot imagine others loving us more than we currently love ourselves. When you love yourself more than now, you will be able to imagine it. Moreover, you will be able to share that love with others. Children also find pleasure from giving with their naturally existing pure hearts. Adults also want to value these pure things in their hearts.

When you do not love others or when success in your work does not come to you, I think it is time to pay attention to the world which is inside yourself, and time to give love to yourself, even if a little.

Defining Self-Love

Brené Brown, shame and vulnerability researcher, says that in discussions of her work it’s often the concept of self-love that is met with the most scepticism and eye rolling, making the suggestions in her work on vulnerability and shame extremely difficult for many to implement.

Her research found that a strong correlation between self-love and connection existed, and that when people placed a high value on avoiding detachment and rejection as they formed their lives, they operated from a place of love for themselves. In contrast, those who shielded themselves from connection by putting a high priority on hiding and protecting who they were operated from a place of not loving themselves.

Self-love is not simply a lack of self-hate. It’s deeper and more active than benignly allowing ourselves to take up space. It’s more than just giving ourselves permission to eat the foods and have the relationships that society says we shouldn’t. It’s not pushing ourselves to be aggressive or strong either.

Self-love is a way of coming back to and accepting the natural and easy connection we’re born with, the one atrophied by oppressive cultural structures. To love the self is to commit to making active contact with and valuing both the strength and vulnerability that’s present within us.

Exploring the Concept of Self-Love

We examine the moral concept of self-love. We begin by looking at two different but related strands of moral philosophy which embrace the idea of self-love as the basis for morality.

The first sees self-love as the opposite to excessive self-denial; the second identifies the compatibility of self-love with benevolence towards others. Turning to the historical development of the concept, we find a third strand which seeks to distinguish between an excessive self-love and a worthy form of self-regard. In assessing various contemporary endeavours to comprehend the nature of self-love, we consider the pitfalls which accompany the undifferentiated use of the term ‘self-love’ and suggest that the notion might be fruitfully reassessed in terms of self-humanity. In conclusion, we advocate a distinction between two different aspects of self-love.

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