LOVE STARTS WITH SELF-LOVE... ~OSHO~

Photo from Adalaj Step Well(Ahmedabad, India)

JUST THE OTHER NIGHT, Ashoka was asking me 'You talk, Osho, about love, you talk of offering your love. But what I have got to give to anybody?' He asked 'What have I got to offer to my beloved?'

THIS IS THE SECRET IDEA OF EVERYBODY: 'I have got nothing.' What have you not got? But nobody has told you that you have all the beauties of all the flowers -- because man is the greatest flower on this earth, the highest evolved being. No bird can sing the song that you can sing. The birds' songs are just noises -- still they are beautiful because they come out of innocence. You can sing far better songs, of greater significance, of much more meaning. But Ashoka says, 'What have I got?'

The trees are green, beautiful, the stars are beautiful, and the rivers are beautiful. But have you ever seen anything more beautiful than a human face? HAVE YOU EVER COME ACROSS ANYTHING MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN HUMAN EYES? On the whole earth, there is nothing more delicate than the human eyes: no rose can compete, no lotus can compete. And what depth! But Ashoka asks me, 'What have I got to offer in love?' He must have lived a self-condemning life; he must have been putting himself down, burdening himself with guilt.

In fact, WHEN SOMEBODY LOVES YOU, YOU ARE A LITTLE BIT SURPRISED. 'What - me? And the person loves me?' The idea arises in your mind: 'Because he does not know me -- that's why. If he comes to know about me, if he comes to see through me, he will never love me.' So lovers start hiding themselves from each other. They keep many things private; they don't open their secrets -- because they are afraid that the moment they open their heart, the love is bound to disappear. Because they cannot love themselves, how they can conceive of anybody else loving them?

LOVE STARTS WITH SELF-LOVE. Don't be selfish but be self-full -- and they are two different things. Don't be a Narcissus, don't be obsessed with yourself. But a natural self-love is a must, a basic phenomenon. Only then out of it, you can you love somebody else.

ACCEPT YOURSELF, LOVE YOURSELF; you are God's creation. God's signature is on you; and you are special, unique. Nobody else has ever been like you, and nobody else will ever be like you. You are simply unique, incomparable. Accept this, love this, celebrate this. And in that very celebration you will start seeing the uniqueness of the others, the incomparable beauty of the others. Love is possible only when there is a deep acceptance of oneself, the other, the world. ACCEPTANCE CREATES THE MILIEU IN WHICH LOVE GROWS, the soil in which love blooms.

OSHO
The Revolution
Ch #4: Come forth from your caves
am in Buddha Hall