Description

Description

Why aren’t people happy? Is there a critical underlying reason? Can we live happier lives? Would the world be a better place if we did?

The Lost Commandment proposes the clue to answering these questions is hidden in the Ten Commandments. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus interprets the Ten Commandments as: “love the Lord with all your heart” (which summarizes the first four Commandments) and “love your neighbor as yourself” (which summarizes the last six). The words “as yourself” imply an unstated teaching essential to understanding Jesus’ interpretation of the Commandments: love yourself.

The Lost Commandment shows how self-love is the key to happiness. The love we seek outside ourselves actually begins within us. We are worthy of love just for being who we are. Our resistance to self-love shows up primarily in the form of fear and judgment. However, practices such as forgiveness and changing our self-talk free us to love ourselves.

As we embrace who we are, we become capable of developing our unique gifts and pursuing our dreams. Loving ourselves, we become able to truly love others. Indeed, self-love may be crucial to whether humanity’s future is characterized by abundance or conflict and competition.

The Lost Commandment takes a progressive spiritual and humanist approach to its topic, and includes reflections from the author’s own story of discovering self-love and, from this new basis, rebuilding a happy, fulfilled life.

Barry Thalden

Praise for The Lost Commandment

“Not only is it difficult to love oneself, it is equally difficult to receive love from others. Having both of these difficulties insures a miserable life. You can’t have one without the other. Barry Thalden’s The Lost Commandment provides deep insights on how to live a life full of love.”

- Harville Hendrix, Ph. D. and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph. D. co-authors of Receiving Love: Transform Your Relationship By Letting Yourself Be Loved

”In a plainspoken — and higher plane-spoken — style, this book takes a simple concept and makes it simpler: LOVE THYSELF. So simple, even an ADULT can understand it.”

– Swami Beyondananda

“Barry Thalden’s The Lost Commandment is a clearly written guide to self-love. It shows us how to remove the unconscious blocks to loving ourselves and others, and to claim the truth of who and what we really are.”

-Robert Brumet, author of Living Originally