We know what we want to receive for ourselves. That should be the same as what we want to give to others.
We should thus remember that loving others first and foremost means treating others as we treat ourselves.
Of course, since our nature is egoistic—prioritizing self-benefit over benefiting others, and also often at their expense—then thinking and acting to the same extent toward others goes against our nature and seems impossible.
If we have an initial spark of a desire to love others as ourselves, we should seek regular learning that guides us on how to rise above our inborn egoistic connection and enter into an opposite altruistic one. Also, we should seek a supportive environment, i.e. people with a similar inclination who would provide us with encouragement, reminders and examples to help us make that shift from loving ourselves (egoism) to loving others (altruism) time and again.
Moreover, by engaging ourselves in such learning and a supportive environment, we start attracting to ourselves the positive force of love, giving and connection that dwells in nature. It is specifically this force that grants us the ability to love others as ourselves. We gain such an ability by adapting ourselves to that force by growing our desire to positively and altruistically connect to each other through learning the wisdom of such connection and mutual support.
Based on KabTV’s “The Last Generation” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on June 6, 2018. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Featured in Quora