DEFY HATE

What is going on in my country?  I hardly even recognize it anymore.  I've known this hatred existed, I've seen it firsthand as a gay man. However, in the past, these dark, misguided, disillusioned people were relegated to attacking others in the dark, when the victims were alone.

These days there is an air of acceptability around hate, intolerance and ignorance.  In this climate, intelligence, grace and dignity are shunned, at best, scorned and attacked, at worst, with an open air of disgust and a stated intention to do real harm.

How is it that someone can feel it is their right to beat and kill another person, to openly deny the rights of others, based on an irrational hatred of a person's skin color, the inferiority of a person's sex, or disapproval of perceived sexual orientation?  How does someone get so removed from reason and logical, rational thought?

Hate is mental illness, purposely introduced to it's host by another person infected with distorted perception.  Hate is something which needs to be agreed with for it to be sustained and propagated.  I believe it's an illness because the host has almost no control over spreading it or expressing it, even to the detriment of himself, his own children and to those close to him.

I cannot comprehend how those who hate, will profess such a profound belief in God.  One never hears of an atheist going on a murder spree or beating someone unconscious because the victim was exercising his right to live the life he feels is appropriate for him.


Those infected with hate seem to believe their state is caused by the existence of a particular group or some particular behavior, but it isn't.  If the people or behavior he so detested were suddenly gone, would his anger evaporate?  Would his desire to beat another human being senseless, go away?

No, it wouldn't. Hate invokes intolerance which is transformed into anger, producing fear and desperation mixed with a lack of control and feelings of unimportance.  It expresses as violence and  awarded with feelings of self-righteousness.  The hater is so self-absorbed, he cannot fathom his behavior would be considered anything but correct to those he considers to be like him.  He is distorted in his thinking, expecting to be praised, even congratulated for his actions.

Sadly, once infected, a person rarely is cured of it.  He will hold onto it as a badge of honor, rejecting any and all logic, that might dislodge or dissipate the beliefs which are crippling him. Religion is the perfect setting for this illness to be nurtured, encouraged, justified.  

Monotheism is founded in this dynamic.  Each monotheistic religion teaches all other beliefs are incorrect and blasphemous to the 'true' faith.  It validates violence toward non-believers, telling the infected person there is no consequence in harming those with different beliefs, as their souls are lost.  It not only encourages the behavior of hate, but rewards the hater with invisibility and often, an escape route.

What can we as a society, do about it?  Love is the only effective response ever!  Yes, I know this is hard to hear, do and feel at times, but all of the great spiritual leaders throughout time, endorse love as the appropriate response to hate.  Once we respond to hate with hate, we are now on the Wheel of Suffering and will remain on it until one decides to step off, breaking the cycle.

It takes great courage to defy hate in it's presence, for it is filled with the darkness of fear, to the extent there appears to be no light.  It feels like an injustice to not return a stronger, more fierce hate in the form of vengeance, but we must be confident, trusting in the power of love.

Loving someone who is actively trying to make you hate him, is to steal his thunder.  He only gets validated if he can turn you away from who and what you are, convincing you to act against yourself.  If he can cause you to believe you are separated from your Divine Nature, the part of you which is eternal, he ignites your fear and has succeeded in dragging you into the dust of the illusion.  This is where all of the struggle, the fighting amongst ourselves, exists. We cannot see into the distance, but only what is around us.  We lose our vision of the larger reality, becoming a tool for the ego to aggrandize itself.

Love is powerful.  Love trumps everything else. It draws power to itself exponentially as it is expressed.  This power will transform situations, circumstances, even people, when we exercise it with confidence.  Since everything and everyone is connected, when we deprive hate from getting a foothold within us, we diminish it's power to affect us and deny it of its goal to control the Collective Consciousness.

The reason we are seeing the hostility, violence and uncontrollable rage present in our culture today, is because enough energy of hate has built up in the Collective to cause a tear in the fabric of humanity.  War historically breaks out where this fabric is weakest.

If we react to hate with hate, we become a hater.  If we choose to remain aligned with what we know we are, allowing love to prevail, we are living as the solution.  I don't know about you, but I've decided I'm a lover.  I love because it feels better, even though sometimes more difficult.  It has more lasting power because it's deliberate.  It's healing and expansive because it's an active choice, instead of a default reaction.  Ultimately, I love because it is my nature to do so.

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