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Love yourself

TheJourneyTheJourney
edited December 2010 in Buddhism Basics
That is all you must do. Love yourself, and love anything that you can relate to out in the world. Just simply learn about yourself and who you truly are. THIS is the key to nirvana.

Comments

  • compassionate_warriorcompassionate_warrior Veteran
    edited December 2010
    The Beatles said it first: "Love, love, love. All you need is love."

    OK....maybe Jesus said it first: love thy neighbor as thyself". Or something.
  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    Confucius said, "Do unto others as you would want done unto you," which is pretty much what Jesus said, but with a less positive sound to it.
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    edited December 2010
    "Do unto others as they would have you do unto them". That makes it entirely about what they consider appropriate, instead of what you consider appropriate.
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited December 2010
    Radiating love in all directions is the path to heaven (rather than Nirvana)

    :)
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    edited December 2010
    Radiating love in all directions is the path to heaven (rather than Nirvana)
    I used to be of the same opinion, mainly due to suttas like Dn 13 and DN 19, but I'm not so sure anymore. One reason is that Richard Gombrich's work, What the Buddha Thought, which, while mentioning that the idea of love or compassion being salvific goes against Theravada tradition, also mentions that there are other texts extolling kindness and compassion and how they can lead to enlightenment. One is the Metta Sutta (found at Khp 9 and Snp 1.8), which begins with extolling kindness towards the world and climaxing with this passage:
    Towards the whole world one should develop loving thoughts boundless: upwards, downwards, sideways, without restriction, enmity or rivalry. Standing, walking, sitting or lying, one should be as alert as possible and keep one's mind on this. They call this divine living in the world. Not taking up ideas, virtuous with perfect insight, by controlling greed for sensual pleasure one does not return to lie in the womb. (Gombrich's translation)
    He notes that, "This conclusion to the poem surely corroborates that the whole poem is about how one may become enlightened. Moreover, it is natural to interpret 'not returning to lie in the womb' as meaning that one will have escaped altogether from the cycle of rebirth, which is to say that one will have attained nirvana" (87). Of course, he's careful to point out that the poem doesn't state kindness alone will produce salvific results, and that it mentions other qualities of great importance (e.g., insight and self-control), but then he brings up Dhp 368:
    The monk who dwells in kindness, with faith in the Buddha's teachings, may attain the peaceful state, the blissful cessation of conditioning. (Gombrich's tranlsation)
    Gombrich concludes this passage is "saying that kindness is salvific, and it is surely no coincidence that the term for nirvana, 'the peaceful state', is the same as the one used at the opening of the Metta Sutta" (87). So while I guess I still disagree that love alone can lead to nibbana, I'm more inclined to agree with Gombrich that it can be salvific in the proper context. It's one of the ten perfections, after all, which are not only the skillful qualities one develops as one follows the path to nibbana, but the basis of the path to full Buddhahood as well.

  • DazzleDazzle
    edited December 2010
    Personally I think that there can be a very thin dividing line between what we think is love and compassion and the existence of a type of delusional emotional love which can be rooted in attachment. One therefore would have to be quite an advanced practitioner to have totally unconditional love for all sentient beings without any exception.

    Jason - regarding Richard Gombrich, he's written an essay "Kindness and Compassion as a means to Nirvana in Early Buddhism" which is quite interesting if you haven't read it.

    with kind wishes,

    D.


  • SherabDorjeSherabDorje

    Jason - regarding Richard Gombrich, he's written an essay "Kindness and Compassion as a means to Nirvana in Early Buddhism" which is quite interesting if you haven't read it.
    http://www.ocbs.org/images/documents/gonda.pdf

  • TheJourneyTheJourney
    unconditional love for all sentient beings without any exception is a nice goal. it may not be your reality right now. for now, simply love yourself and whatever you find in the world that you love. you should see that love is a great way, and thus you should work towards that, but you are where you are and where you are is perfect.
  • DazzleDazzle
    edited December 2010
    Thanks for posting the link, Sherab.

    :)
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    Jason - regarding Richard Gombrich, he's written an essay "Kindness and Compassion as a means to Nirvana in Early Buddhism" which is quite interesting if you haven't read it.
    No, I haven't. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely check it out.
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    edited December 2010
    http://www.ocbs.org/images/documents/gonda.pdf

    Awesome! Thanks for link, @SherabDorje.
  • CristinaCristina
    "If you sit still long enough, you realize that there is only love."
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