Love Thy Neighbor?

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Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I never paid much attention, but now I see why this bible quote has a very important meaning. First of all, It is very common that we do not like and especially love most of our neighbors. I just smile or fake laugh then move on.

Some of us just as I practice favoritism; this comes from being judgmental and critical.

If I judge and criticize myself, then I would simply do it to others who don’t fit my ideas of what is acceptable. This is only because of cultures and religious backgrounds. We are programmed to identify everything, put a label on it and be very suspicious!

My personality is not my true identity; I got so caught up in proving that I am this personality, fighting and arguing to see myself as right. My false identity is insecure; I must protect it even if I may be wrong. When I was wrong I told myself that I was right.

My neighbors are loud; sometimes they create odd smells in the air. I really cannot stand them, I sometimes think of the worst things. I was trying to figure out how to be at peace inside of myself for my neighbors. God did say love our neighbors, why and how?

Why because I am not higher or better than other’s regardless of my opinions and personal feelings. Just because I do not like or agree with them, doesn’t mean I have the right to label them as bad or worthless. When we love, accept and respect others for who they are then this is loving others with no conditions.

See the problem is most do not pay attention to the word like and the word love. They do not mean the same thing. I don’t have to like anybody, and everybody does not have to like me. I am completely comfortable with that because I like me first. But In order to live in peace, I must love others unconditionally.

When we pick who we love, this is loving on certain conditions. This is why most get into fights because once we don’t like someone, we somehow think we don’t have to show them love and respect either.

This was a problem for me because once I disliked someone I would be mean or rude if I felt so. So then arguments and fights start. Through self-reflection, I noticed that I was very self-critical, I was always hard on myself for my choices. I should have done it this way, I am mean, that was a bad thing I did, and I am so stupid.

A dislike for myself was the issue, shame was causing me to look for flaws in others so that I feel like a good person.

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I was hard on myself because I needed to have a perfect image. Shame was causing me to be overly self-critical. I looked deeper into my thoughts, where are my thoughts coming from, is this really me acting out? I saw that my thoughts were also coming from self-judgment. I judged myself so much that I felt uncool.

I allowed my shoes, clothes, possessions, money, how much friends I had, and my popularity put judgment on my worthiness.

Because I am not wearing name brand shoes I am not cool, because I don’t have an expensive car I don’t matter, because I don’t have many likes I am a nobody, because I don’t have a house yet I am not important. Because my girlfriend doesn’t look like a model I suck. Shame kept me in the third-dimensional mindset.

The third Chakra is the solar plexus, shame blocks this energy center. When it has not been matured we get stuck on competition. I used to ask myself, who am I competing with, my life shouldn’t be so serious.

When we criticize others it’s usually because of shame, we need to look better than others, we need to feel more good or accepted by others. When we judge others because they are completely different or not accepted as good by society, this is because deep down inside we feel bad for something that we have done, maybe our parents kept calling us bad.

Not feeling good enough causes us to judge others, so that we feel like good people.

If we are truly good people, and we accept ourselves and validate our own being, then we lose the desire to gossip or hate others, because we see the good and bad within ourselves, we know we have done wrong many times, so why put our internal anger for our mistakes and flaws on others?

So in closing, we do not have to like anybody, but we must show love and respect as best as we can to our annoying neighbors. Just be cordial, once I started smiling and being polite when I walk past, I stopped caring about my neighbor’s lifestyle, they somehow calmed down.

My negative judgmental views made my experience worse. Love and let be, and keep your distance if you don’t like a person. Peace