Did you know that there are three gates you need to pass to reach enlightenment? These three gates lead from one to the other. Would you like to know what they are?

1. Love yourself.
Loving yourself is the most basic thing, though many of us are focusing on the world around us so much that we forget to give ourselves the love that we need. When we love ourselves, loneliness disappears. People who are not able to love themselves cannot love others, either. And people who are not happy are unable to give happiness to others. People who have no peace inside are not able to share peace. All of these things are not things that you learn. But so many people have lost or forgotten these basic things in their lives.

There are many self-help books and techniques available that teach us how to love ourselves; but really we can do it by simply feeling our body. Why don’t you try it? If you think about it, whenever we want to know something better, we first reach out with our hands. With your hands, touch your body—your arms, your legs, your shoulders, your feet. Focus on the sensations in your body. The moment that you really feel your body, all extraneous thought is put on hold. While you have all these scattered thoughts, you cannot fully feel your body. By being attentive to your body, you can really get to know your body as a first step to getting to know yourself.

Another way of saying, “Feel your body,” is, “Feel your life.” Feel the life that flows inside you by quieting your thoughts and focusing on your real physical presence. If you feel yourself, from there you can feel peace, happiness, and gratitude. Meeting yourself this way is a really great and true method of meditation. Try doing it twice a day, every day, for at least five minutes, and take the time to express love for yourself.

2. Value yourself.
Your value is not based on a grade you get in school or how you are evaluated by the world around you. Your value is the worth you recognize inside yourself. If you cannot acknowledge your own worth, and always rely on other people’s evaluation, you tend to be nervous and anxious, and you may feel very small. But before you can value yourself, you need to love, acknowledge, and accept yourself. That is why it’s the second gate. Tell yourself, “I am me. I am me,” and know that you are precious. Once you discover your own value, you’ll want to put it into practice, and that’s when it’s time to go through the third gate.

3. Trust yourself.
Once you recognize and accept your own value, you can develop trust in yourself, and then you’ll always have something called hope. And that’s what enables you to concentrate and develop creative power. If you can’t trust yourself, if you can’t believe in yourself, and you can’t respect yourself, how would you be able to concentrate on what you’re doing? But if you trust yourself, you can focus on what you do with joy and excitement. Then naturally you will be successful and you can create the life you want. You can generate peace, abundance, and caring in your life and in the world. But it all starts with the kind of relationship you build with yourself. When you love yourself, and value yourself, and trust yourself, you can design a new future for your own life. And that’s when you can say, “My life is mine.” That’s when you can be the master of your life. And that is enlightenment.

You probably remember the news about the atrocious massacre committed by a religious fanatic in Norway. This right-wing extremist himself declared that he was not a person but a huge monster. Dogmatic conviction gone wrong made him lose his humanity and turned a human being into a slave of information.

Norway is the country that awards the Nobel Peace Prize; there are no religious or social disputes, the happiness quotient of its people is among the highest in the world, and it is praised as the model of an exemplary advanced welfare nation. However, through this incident, we can see how incomplete and precarious welfare can be when it has not fully restored a sense of humanity.

Welfare that doesn’t restore a sense of humanity is incomplete and does not have the potential to last. Even the welfare of northern Europe, envied by people around the world, stays in material limitations and the pursuit of equality. With welfare that cannot restore a sense of humanity, the happiness of all people cannot be achieved, and an era of spiritual civilization and true peace cannot come about.

Restoring a sense of humanity requires three factors:

1. Finding self-esteem,
2. Restoring and maintaining your conscience,
3. Being healthy and hard-working.

True welfare actualizes all of these things.

People who are hard-working and live healthy lives with strong self-esteem and conscientiousness are able to accomplish anything and tend to be liked by everyone. They can live with confidence and self-assurance, and aim for unshakeable happiness.

Sometimes self-esteem can be confused with arrogance. But self-esteem comes from the essential being (True Self), while arrogance comes from emotion. Self-esteem comes from being centered in your higher self, and arrogance comes from being centered in others. People who have good self-esteem are not swayed or hurt by what others say, but those who are arrogant are easily influenced and hurt, and are always self-conscious. Positive self-esteem comes from self-assurance and comes with a philosophy.

Self-esteem allows you to live with conscience. If you have a strong conscience and strong self-esteem, rather than accepting the value given to you by the world, you can discover your own value, an absolute value independent of outside variables.

Self-esteem and conscience are the LifeParticle Sun, the source of the life energy of the universe. Self-esteem, conscience, and a healthy and hard-working lifestyle—with just these three factors, anyone can be happy. That happiness has the potential to last. It’s a happiness that is complete.

Know how to praise and comfort yourself. Find every possible strength that you have, and admire your infinite potential. One of the best gifts you can give yourself is an honest compliment.

Because everything you say is an expression of your mind. To create a beautiful mind, give yourself beautiful messages. When your mind faces moments of doubt, make fists and shout to yourself three times, “I can do anything!” You are the one who needs to tell yourself, “I love you!”

For those who know how to comfort themselves can comfort others, and their heart is big enough to comfort the world.