Today we ask that you believe that you deserve love.
Intellectually many of you think “Well, naturally, I deserve love.”
But on a deeper level, you do not believe this at all. In fact, most of you believe, deep down, that you do not deserve love.
You were not born this way. There is no baby or small child who believes: “I don’t deserve love.”
This is a toxic and false belief pattern passed down from adults to children. When adults do not believe they deserve love, they automatically teach this to their children.
The idea that humans do not deserve love is intrinsic to many world religions. The concept of “original sin” implies that man has failed God, and no longer deserves God’s love — not unconditionally, at any rate. Man must work for divine love by living a morally pure, virtuous life. This is true in eastern religion, where negative conditions in one’s current life are explained as being causally linked to misdeeds in past lives. Here also, man has failed, and must lead a virtuous, morally pure life in order to escape the wheel of suffering.
All of this is false. This is not to say that the religions do not have merit, but the concept of original sin and karma, as believed by countless people, is extremely destructive.
You don’t have to “work” for divine love.
You don’t have to prove your worth to God.
You don’t have to suffer for your sins.
Many of you have been taught that the idea of divine punishment s the only thing that brings order to the universe. The virtuous are rewarded, and sinners are punished. If such an order did not exist, then reality would be chaotic and meaningless.
But this is not so.
There is no Hell, except the Hell that people carry in their own minds. They project that Hell out on to the Earth.
People behave destructively because they believe they are unworthy of love.
If people believed they deserved unconditional love, they would not behave destructively.
They would no longer have anything to prove.
They would not hate themselves, and so hate others.
They would lose the concepts of hierarchy. It is impossible to make yourself more worthy of love through achievements, status, wealth, fame, or dominance. Therefore, all men are equal.
People who deeply love themselves perceive that every human they meet is equally worthy of love. Knowing this, they do not behave abusively or destructively either to themselves, or others.
Really, this is what you are all here to learn.
All of you, in every moment.
How can you love yourself, and others, more deeply and unconditionally?
Can you believe, deep down, that you are wholly deserving of love, no matter what you have or haven’t done in this lifetime?
If you really understood this down to your core, all your suffering would cease. You might experience pain, but you would not suffer.
wordfromthewell 