Do you love yourself?

Do you love yourself? You have not even asked the question. People hate themselves.

People condemn themselves -- they go on condemning; they go on thinking that they are

rotten. How can the other love you? such a rotten person. No, nobody can love you really.

The other must be befooling, cheating; there must be some other reason. She must be

after something else; he must be after something else.

I have heard:

A dirty, smelly, filthy-looking old Jewish bum, sat down on a park bench next to a sweet

young girl. The girl took one look at the bum and looked away in revulsion. Pretty soon

she heard a noise and turned her head to see what was happening. She watched in horror

as the Jewish bum took a sandwich from a brown bag and took a big bite of it. The meat

was rancid, the lettuce was brown, and the bread mouldy.

Sensing the girl's eyes on him, the Jewish bum turned towards her and said, "Pardon me,

miss, would you like a bite of my sandwich? I suppose to make love would be out of the question."

This is what goes on happening. You know about yourself -- love seems to be out of the

question. You know your rottenness, worthlessness -- love seems to be out of the

question. And when some woman comes and says she adores you, you cannot trust.

When you go to a woman and you say you adore her, and she hates herself, how can she

believe you? It is self-hatred that is creating the anxiety.

There is no way to be certain about the other -- first be certain about yourself. And a

person who is certain about himself is certain about the whole world. A certainty

achieved at your innermost core becomes a certainty about everything that you do and

everything that happens to you. Settled, centered, grounded, in yourself, you never worry

about such things. You accept.! 

If somebody loves you, you accept it because you love yourself. You are happy with

yourself; somebody else is happy -- good! It does not get in your head; it does not make

you madly egoistic. You simply enjoy yourself; somebody else also finds you enjoyable -

- good!

Source:  A Sudden Clash of Thunder: Osho