By: Yehuda Berg
November 9 — 15
If we are going to have any shot at achieving the miracle of treating everyone we meet with at least a strain of human dignity, we've got to start by treating ourselves with human dignity.
After all, how we treat ourselves is how we treat others.
The month of Scorpio is the perfect time to be reminded of this. We tend to be extra hard on ourselves under the influence of this energy. But at the same time, there is always a little poison in the vaccine. Meaning, if we can learn to be nice to ourselves, even when we are in the throes of self-hatred, we can inoculate ourselves against that inner critic for the rest of the year.
There is an amazing story of the Baal Shem Tov, the great 18th century Kabbalist who was once traveling through a town in which he was introduced to a wealthy man. The man invited the great sage to stay with him during his visit.
When he arrived at the man's house, the Baal Shem Tov was very surprised to see that the man lived so modestly. Nowhere throughout his house was it evident that the man possessed great wealth. Even the meals he ate consisted of little more than dry bread and water.
The Baal Shem Tov stayed with him for several days and on the third day he woke up and began screaming at the man. "Who do you think you are? Where is all of your wealth? Why do you live like this? Why do you eat stones? Why do you think the Light gave you all of this wealth?"
To this the confused man replied, "Well I'm trying to live modestly. I don't want my ego..."
"Ego? What ego are you talking about," the great Kabbalist interjected. On and on the Baal Shem Tov went, giving him the business about his modesty.
After they departed one of the Kabbalist's students asked him, "Why did you do such a thing? He was trying to tell you he was working on shrinking his ego, working on improving himself."
"If he eats dry bread and water what do you think he's going to give the poor to eat? He's going to give them sticks and stones. If this is the way he treats himself, how is he going to treat others! If he has the means to do so he has to treat himself in a very good way. This way he can treat others in a very good way as well."
Be nice to yourself this week. You have so many gifts from the Creator that were given to you so you could share them with others. The more you are patient and tolerant of your shortcomings and failures, the more your gifts will come out.
And the more your gifts come out, the better you will feel.
Be well. Enjoy your week!
All the best,
Yehuda
72 Name of the Week
I am now switching off the destructive thoughts that emanate from my ego. In the space that I've opened, a gentle radiance of spiritual Light appears.
