Buddha’s says: “Who loves oneself will never harm another.” I don’t know if this is true or not, but in Buddhism, the challenge is to find out for yourself. What exactly does it mean to love ourselves. I decided that it was finally time for me to find out what that really means.

Easier said than done, especially in today’s economy while we are still in the throws of a war… and don’t even get started on the high gas prices and unemployment. All of that can make even the sanest person go a little crazy. This is why we need Zen Practices.

Recently, I asked myself, “How can I practice with the parts of myself that don’t want to practice?” I meant the restless part that wants to have fun, and the part that is tired or lazy and just wants to sit down and take a nap in the middle of the afternoon. The path of Zen practice is sometimes referred to as a long iron road … if we make it that way. After a few hours of mulling this over in my mind, I then decided that there is no part of me that doesn’t want to practice this.

I guess it had never occurred to me before that there was no part of me that didn’t want to practice—I thought in order to practice, I had to struggle with the weaker parts and the parts that resisted practice and overcome them. Since then every time I felt like I wanted to sleep in and skip early morning zen yoga, I reminded myself that, “There is no part of myself that doesn’t want to practice,” and it became a kind of koan—a way of examining “What is practice?” If there is no part of myself that doesn’t want to practice, and I’m feeling this way, then what is practice, anyway?

In order to be truly friendly with others, we have to practice on ourselves first with these key phrases:

1. May I be happy.
2. May I be free from suffering.
3. May I be free from anxiety, free from affliction.
4. May I be well.
5. May I dwell in peace.

Then proceed with the phrases:

“As I want to be happy, as I am adverse to suffering, as I want to be well, as I want to dwell in peace, may my teacher or good friend be happy, be free from suffering, be well, may my teacher dwell in peace.”

After you cultivate lovingkindness for the three types of people, then radiate loving kindness to all beings: “As I want to be happy and free from suffering, may all beings be happy and free from suffering.” The ideal is to feel friendliness for all beings at all times. But, again, the instructions emphasize first of all perfecting lovingkindness toward oneself. After perfecting friendliness for all beings, then systematically proceed in the same way with the cultivation of compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

We realize that everyone is not interested in the full Budhism experience, but we hope these Zen Tips will help you on your path to inner peace, happiness and becoming friendly with yourself. They defenitely helped me.

Green-Zen.com