Last week for me, was a week of hate, a week of constant anger. No, it was not me, but someone very close to me. I couldn’t blame him/her though it was after all my fault. I just held on as long as i could before insanity gets hold of my mind. But, i am no stranger to hate, i have hated, i have been hated and have learned much from hate. And what I have learned form hate is what i wish to share to you.
I see hate as constant anger, an emotion that consumes you , blinds you of everything and makes your world(and perhaps others, but not always the person/thing you hate) a living nightmare. Of course everyone has seem to have felt anger but to feel hate, to feel that hate in your heart are only for those who choosen to do so. Hate is able to grow and prosper only if you do not let go of that hate.
As I have said before, I am no stranger to hate. I am almost 23 and in my 23 years living in this world i have seen hate consume my closest people. I know what hate will do to people if not dealt with. It is for me, rather odd to see people to choose to hold on to that hate, rather than let got of it. The problem of hate itself is that when you hate the person that suffers the most is you yourself. The person you hate either doesn’t know or just doesn’t care. I have found that people who choose to hold on to that hate are actually those who seek for revenge. Yes, revenge is satisfying, i know the feeling, the rush of adrenalin that puts a smile on your face while doing it, but it is only satisfying momentarily. It will not properly heal the wounds that has been created.
I understand, to talk of letting go that hate is easier said than done. But i have learned to do that, i am still able to feel anger but to take that anger and fill your mind and heart with that anger and letting it evolve into hate is something i am no longer able to do. Because in my mind i am constantly aware to hate is to suffer and i have suffered enough. And that is why i adore love, for it can bring happiness and peace. All of us ask the grand question, “when will there be peace in this world?” and i tell them, to find peace in the world, we must first find peace in ourselves. I am not at all a religious individual, but i have a thirst for knowledge which includes the knowledge and wisdom of our Gods and prophets and all of their teachings. They all have a common similarity, to spread love and thus bring peace to this world.
When we talk of love, our society tends to look down upon it and scold it for being to abstract and irrelevant towards solving the worlds problems. Most of us see love no more than an emotion between two or more individuals, though this is not wrong. Love is too vast to be toned down to such a minor thing. This is because our society has forgotten to teach of love. Love as the basis for peace. Our religions, where its core teachings are actually about love, focuses too much on technical matters than of love itself. Our religions reminds us of this but we do not listen.
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a clanging gong. And if i have the gift of prophecy and know all knowledge and if i have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13 : 1-2
“And we have not sent you (O Muhammad) except as an act of love (rahmah) to all the worlds”
Al-Qur’an 21:107
other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism are just littered with universal love. especially Buddhism.
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
Siddharta Gautama
“vasudhaiva kutumbakam, the world is a family”
Hinduism
these are only very minor examples of the universal love that are taught in the religions, so if the religious teachings emphasizes on love. why do we dwell too much on technical matters?
One Comment
Like previous posts you deal again with an interesting, serious, almost philosophical question. Just for the sake of argument I enjoy putting some scrabbles in the margin.
When you write: “I see hate as constant anger, an emotion that consumes you” I think it describes a pathological state of mind. No rage, no adrenaline involved, but an abstract, fanatical drive to destroy – like Adolf Hitler’s . Because the average anger or rage gradually fade away as the cause of it looses impact or disappears over time. But, at least that is my perception, the hate you mean has no cause outside the personality and will last and last.
I don’t think revenge will give any satisfaction to this kind of hater. Revenge is satisfactorily if it hurts the object of anger. But “your” hater is angry in that way, he is beyond that. Without any rational explanation. Destructive in itself.
Probably the effective opposite of “hate” is tolerance rather than love. Love, at least unconditional love, is I presume, usually possible only towards an inner circle of family and perhaps some dear friends. Those who are able to really love mankind unconditionally are saints, which, I guess, indicates a ( blessed) pathological personality also.
But the concept of tolerance on the other hand is not inherent to the psychological make up of a personality, but a rational concept one may (or should I say: should) intellectually acquire. It allows one to make the sensible choice of giving others their place under the sun on a basis of equality. It reigns in anger and hate. And excludes any kind of pathological hate.
(Btw: Alas, I’m not so sure all religions – or worldly ideologies for that matter- leave much space for tolerance)