There is a deep connection between self-love, love for others and, ultimately, love for all existence. The more you love yourself, the more you can love others. To love oneself does not mean that because you love yourself, you need to prove it by spoiling and pampering yourself. The opposite is the case. We need to spoil, pamper and treat ourselves because, deep down, we lack self-esteem, self-respect and self-love. We are then trying to buy what is lacking by means of consumption, which makes us briefly forget our shortcomings and deep emptiness. True self- love, however, means to enter into a state of deep communion with the Divine. That is so because the Divine is our deep self. From the deep self, you can access an infinite reservoir of love for all beings. Then we abide in authentic being, and giving from this essence will fulfil both us and others.
Do not accept self-limiting thoughts because you are limitless and infinite. You are so because God has created you this way, and you are not powerful enough to change it. God did not create the multiverse by rolling up Her sleeves but simply by contemplating ‘multiverse’ into the divine creative force (prakrti, shakti, shekinah). Since God has created us in Her image, we have been given this same ability, which is to create reality through contemplation and to co-create together with the Divine.
If you think of yourself in terms of guilt, fault, shame or negative karma that you have to live through, then so will it be. If, on the other hand, you want to co-create with the Divine, then think of yourself as an infinite, eternal, stainless and sacred child of It. Your purpose is to be a canal, a conduit of and for divine love, creativity and intelligence. Practice this contemplation daily. Slowly, images and avenues will develop how this will express itself through you. Trust in this process because the power that will express itself through you is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. You don’t have to worry at all how exactly this expression will happen. The Divine will do that.
Although we need to employ science, politics, technology, social and economic reform, no amount of it can save us from the destruction of the biosphere brought on by our own confusion. What will save us is realizing that there is one cosmic intelligence that expresses itself as humans, animals, plants, microbes, rivers, mountains, forests and oceans. What we call human rights has to be extended to all of these entities. This amounts to no less than a spiritual revolution. After having made this realization, we need to then place ourselves into the service of this intelligence by serving the entirety of the biosphere. This means that in all situations, our actions must be life-affirmative, i.e., creating more life, especially non-human life. In devotional language, this means to lead a life of divine love.
This passage is the epilogue of my recent book How To Find Your Life’s Divine Purpose – Brain Software For a New Civilization.