LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

It is reported that Jesus said
"Love your enemies, even as you love your self."
What is not clear to me, over the passage of time,
Is whether he uttered that as a commandment,
Or an observation of What-Is.
Maybe it is both.

It is a given of being human that,
Whatever we see in others
Must exist in us,
Otherwise we could not recognise it.
Do you get that?
Until you do, you're stuck in an illusion
Of separation;
You think the person that you see before you is "different" from you.
Well, that's OK.
I still make the same mistake
And have to keep re-minding myself.

How we feel about what we see in another
Is pretty much how we feel about the same stuff
In our self.
Isn't that handy?
We can look at the vitriol we're pouring on someone we don't like,
And begin to get a handle on what we're doing to ourselves.
It's handy because the other may be utterly unaware of what you're doing to him,
Or he may not give a hoot what you think about him,
But, whether you are aware of it or not,
You are copping to it,
And suffering very much at you own hands.
Our judgments, of self or of others,
Are killing us.

To the extent (in quantity and quality)
To which we allow and love another,
We also allow and love our self.
And vice versa.
We cannot reject any part of our self
And simoultaneously, authentically accept and relate with another;
That is just not possible.

So people with lousy self-esteem
Who try to love their neighbours
Are headed for certain failure,
And doomed to become "saviours" and busybodies.

We cannot give away what we don't have.

If Truth be known,
We would not want those we don't like
To be any other way
Than exactly as they are.
Otherwise we'd have to pin our "don't like" costumes on someone else,
Or, God forbid, wear them ourselves
(And we'd rather die than do that!)
We want our enemies to be right where they are,
So that we don't have to go responsible for our own self-loathing.
And we get mightily bitter and twisted if they don't hold still for that.
We LOVE our enemies;
They give some of us a reason to get up in the mornings.

But how long is it since we acknowledged the love we have
For those same enemies within?
Those "enemies"
That our enemies reflect back to us?

Love thine enemy,

For he is thyself.