A valentine’s day thought on loving ourselves

Sujatin has a lovely post on self-metta:

The practice of metta (lovingkindness), uncovering the force of love that can uproot fear, anger, and guilt, begins with befriending ourselves. The foundation of metta practice is to know how to be our own friend. According to the Buddha,

“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

How few of us embrace ourselves in this way! With metta practice we uncover the possibility of truly respecting ourselves. We discover, as Walt Whitman put it,

“I am larger and better than I thought. I did not think I held so much goodness.”

~ Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness

2 Responses to “A valentine’s day thought on loving ourselves”

Mike Short says:

February 15, 2009 at 1:37 pm

I like this, especially with practising the Metta Bhavana meditation that I bought from Wildmind. We often neglect our own needs in this stressful society that we live in and focus too much on what’s going on around, instead of looking at what’s happening within us.

p.s. Love the book on vegetarianism that you did. I was looking for a book on ethical aspects of vegetarianism and this was great. Also following some buddhist principles, it made sense to me.

Take care – Mike Short.
- bodhipaksa says:
  
  February 15, 2009 at 2:41 pm
  
  Hi Mike,
  
  Thanks for the kind comments. I just heard that Windhorse is bringing out a new edition of the Vegetarianism book (this time with a better title). I’ll be reworking a couple of sections that I think need to be updated.
  
  All the best,
  Bodhipaksa