Dearest of All Is the Self Within
This Self is dearer than a child, dearer than wealth, dearer than all else — and more inward than them all.
Guarding only the precious things outside, have I failed to tend the self that loves them all?
📝Reflection
This verse says the Self lies more inward than all we love — child, wealth, the cherished person. This is not a defense of selfishness. Rather it wakes us to the fact that we can love the outer things only because there is an inner place from which that love flows, as a lamp must burn to light anything else. We often exhaust the very self that loves by guarding the precious things outside. To tend oneself is not selfishness but keeping the root that lets us keep loving. When the lamp goes out, it can light nothing.
🌱Apply It Today
If tending others has worn you out today, give yourself one small care too, 'so this lamp does not go out.'
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
