Compassion and self-worth
Where does self-worth come from?
Conventional wisdom says that it's unproductive to look outside yourself for your sense of self-worth, because they will all eventually let you down. External indicators -- praise, criticism, material rewards, career success, the way you look in the mirror -- can fluctuate wildly, can let you down when you need them most. Without a strong internal sense of self-worth, we are at the mercy of a fickle and unfair external universe.
So I'm supposed to have an internal sense of my own worth to buffer myself against the vagaries of reality. But if I didn't somehow magically obtain it as a child, then what? How do I grow my own? How do I decide I'm worthy of love and care?
Buddhists talk about compassion as the highest value. We should aim to develop compassion for all living beings, to be kind, to do as little harm as possible, to care and be thoughtful.
Maybe the path to self-worth and self-love is compassion. If I recognise and honour the value in every living being, this necessarily includes recognising and honouring my own intrinsic value as a self-aware entity.
"We believe that the Universe itself is conscious in a way we can never truly understand. It is engaged in a search for meaning, so it breaks itself apart, investing its own consciousness in every form of life. We are the Universe, trying to explain itself." - Delenn, Babylon 5
Conventional wisdom says that it's unproductive to look outside yourself for your sense of self-worth, because they will all eventually let you down. External indicators -- praise, criticism, material rewards, career success, the way you look in the mirror -- can fluctuate wildly, can let you down when you need them most. Without a strong internal sense of self-worth, we are at the mercy of a fickle and unfair external universe.
So I'm supposed to have an internal sense of my own worth to buffer myself against the vagaries of reality. But if I didn't somehow magically obtain it as a child, then what? How do I grow my own? How do I decide I'm worthy of love and care?
Buddhists talk about compassion as the highest value. We should aim to develop compassion for all living beings, to be kind, to do as little harm as possible, to care and be thoughtful.
Maybe the path to self-worth and self-love is compassion. If I recognise and honour the value in every living being, this necessarily includes recognising and honouring my own intrinsic value as a self-aware entity.
"We believe that the Universe itself is conscious in a way we can never truly understand. It is engaged in a search for meaning, so it breaks itself apart, investing its own consciousness in every form of life. We are the Universe, trying to explain itself." - Delenn, Babylon 5