First love yourself, then you can
Love someone else
If you can change someone else
Then you have saved someone else
But you must
First love yourself, then you can
Love someone else
If you can change someone else
Then you have saved someone else
But you must first
The spiritual goal of mankind is to know yourself and to know God. We are also to be happy. If we can't love the animals then how can we love man? if we dont love mankind or ourselves then how can we love the God whom we can not see. God's soul is also part of our soul but yet does have a distinction- we are not God. But also when we know ourselves we learn about God at the same time because God created all out of Him or Herself. This means we do not need to go somewhere to get God, nobody dispenses God and we cant buy God somewhere. God is not a sky-God looking down on us waiting to punish or reward us. God is not a person. Likewize we do not need to get permission to have access to God: we only have ourselves to blame for being denied. This does not mean there is no need for priests or Gurus, they go for 8 to 10 years to be educated in the sacred sciences and they can give valuable advise as well as sacraments and mantras and prayers that most do not have knowledge about. Some Gurus are self realized-- they are born with the knowledge and they have many spiritual powers. Amma( see Amma.org) is an example of this among other Indian gurus. Padre Pio may be an example of a Catholic one. God has Her people in all religions and faiths. If we know God we know ourselves ourselves and we will love both when we have the knowledge. We will then realize God is present in other people and even the animals and trees- God is everywhere. there are 2 forms of reality- the supersoul of God or the highest spiritual form-- our souls are made from this and then there is the lower forms of creation which is the material world which includes our thoughts, physical matter and our attachements. We can peel away these lower forms of creation away from the truly devine portion of our souls and become God realized.
We do not change others by converting them or talking them into a change-- we change ourselves and then they see that we are happy and they become like us because they do not want to miss out on happiness. If we love others then we will change them or rather they will change themselves through the love we show them. Unconditional love is the most effective, if we need to be compensated or see results then it is not unconditional. this is how the world will be saved, not by trying to spread one denomination or another to some foreign nation. All that is is political manipulation in the name of God which is wrong. I have a discussion on missionaries at http://theyuha.blogspot.com/p/4-missionaries.html
