When I studied Psychology starting around 1970 I began to see this. All the judgmental stuff in Christianity towards self and others is just useless in staying alive another day. So, I began to see that being compassionate and non-judgmental towards all beings and yourself was the key to a long and happy life here on earth.
Self Hatred is suicidal And
Hatred of others is Homicidal in the end.
So, doing either will tend to eliminate people doing either from the earth by various means which is basically called "natural Karma".
So, how does one develop compassion for oneself and others?
I found it easiest to first develop compassion towards myself because I was dealing in my early 20s with suicidal thoughts a lot and self destructive thoughts at that time.
As I developed compassion for myself through various methods like joining "Operation Share" in college and tutoring children and taking courses in college learning suicide prevention in myself and others and volunteering for a suicide hot line. All these things moved me away from my own suicide just by facing these things in myself and helping others to face these things too so they stayed alive.
Then later in my late 20s and early 30s I realized that Buddhist Compassion was extremely efficient from a psychological perspective of staying alive to help others and allowing others to help you too. By taking responsibility for my own life and helping others take responsibility for their staying alive too I entered a truly noble state of being of learning to both help myself and all other beings into enlightenment 24 hours a day.
By God's Grace
Note. In 1980 I had my very first Tibetan Buddhist initiation in Ashland, Oregon above what is now the Green Leaf restaurant there. This then led to many other initiations between 1980 and 1990 in the U.S. and India and studying in Nepal as well with many different Tibetan Lamas and Tibetan Buddhist monks.
By God's Grace
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