So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete

The philosopher Alan Watts, seeker of unity between East and West, proclaimed with piercing clarity: “So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself.” In these words lies the wisdom of the ancients: that the boundary between self and other is but an illusion, a veil that hides the truth of our oneness. To love oneself truly is to embrace the world, for the self cannot exist apart from the whole.

The ancients of many lands taught this same law. The sages of India spoke of Atman and Brahman, the self and the universal, as not two but one. The philosophers of Greece declared that man is a fragment of the cosmos, shaped of the same substance as stars and earth. To honor the other is to honor the self, for both are threads of the same great tapestry. Those who seek to love themselves while despising the world are like those who would nourish the hand while starving the body—it cannot endure.

Watts reveals that love is not confined, but expansive. To love oneself without extending that love outward is a hollow act, for the self is defined only in relation to the vast web of life. Every breath, every thought, every heartbeat is tied to sun, soil, air, and to the presence of others. Thus, true self-love is not selfishness, but reverence for the totality of existence, the recognition that one’s own joy cannot be torn away from the joy of the universe.

The relationship of self to other is not one of separation, but of reflection. The friend, the stranger, even the enemy—each is a mirror in which the self is revealed. To despise the other is to fracture the mirror and blind oneself. To embrace the other is to behold the self more clearly, in wholeness and in truth. This is the wisdom hidden in the simple act of compassion: in healing another, one heals oneself.

Let future generations remember: loving yourself is not a fortress against the world, but a bridge to it. The self and the other are bound in eternal union, like the sea and its waves, like the flame and its light. To realize this is to awaken, to break the illusion of separation, and to stand at last in the fullness of life—where love flows without limit, and the self is no longer alone, but one with all that is.