Poison

[thelerner]

Your hatred poisons you. 

 

It makes your heart race.  It throws your memory into the past, remembering insults, and into the future, projecting darkness. 

 

I don't know what enlightenment is, but I get the feeling hate is its opposite. 

 

I am not free of hate, don't think I want to be.  But I keep it locked up, knowing how bad it is for me.  Sometimes it breaks lose, sometimes I open up the chest to look at it.  Not healthy, but its where I'm at right now.  A few times a year, hopefully less as I get older. 

 

Replacing it with understanding, compassion and action. 

[C T]

Hate is a very expensive emotion.

Resentment could be more reasonably priced. 

Cheapest of all - Love as affirmative action (aka compassion) is free!! 

 

At the point where you lose your self in the act of genuine giving, sharing and/or helping, that is the point of enlightenment. 

 

As the saying goes... no one gets enlightened; there is only the activity of enlightenment. 

If not for this, of what use is enlightenment? 

 

In Buddhism, its often said that enlightenment needs 2 wings to take flight: One is wisdom, the other... compassion. 

Understanding dependent origination is the wind beneath the wings. 

[daimai]

Hatred is a passion. It is like the flip-side of love. Only this time it is a love of destruction. One wants something eliminated.  The object of hatred creates a sense of irritation in the hater, and the hater wants to relieve his pain by eliminating it's projection.  Slashing at smoke. What else are you going to go after when the object is destroyed?

 

It is a monster indeed. Carefully cultivated, and artistically exteriorized, I think it can also be a constructive force. Anger, the diminished form, is a very constructive force, but it can produce excellence as well.

[mvingon]

"It is a monster indeed. Carefully cultivated, and artistically exteriorized, I think it can also be a constructive force. Anger, the diminished form, is a very constructive force, but it can produce excellence as well."

 

I don't know. Anger can can be constructive. Hatred? Do you mean hatred, or how people use it to express not their personal taste?

 

Here's something: when I was able to have egg fowl, I shot certain predators, rather than try to outsmart them. These predators carry diseases communicable to humans, other than rabies. I didn't like them or the idea that I could get sick from eating eggs; but I don't hate them. If I see evidence of mice, I'll use a mousetrap. Even their droppings can make humans really sick. But I don't hate them. I realize they were here, first, and that my living space was once theirs. I just don't want to get sick.

 

On the other hand, people "hate this show/color/food." They don't literally feel hatred, they just prefer something else.

 

Please explain how hatred can be constructive, and I'll entertain the idea. I may not agree with it, in the end, but I can consider it, anyway. Thank you.

[C T]

In Buddhist tantra one can train/learn to transform passions into enlightened energies. 

This is a simplified representation of how it is taught: 

 

http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Five_buddha_families

[daimai]

I was mostly referring to anger.   I'm also left scratching my head at how hatred could be constructive because by it's nature it is polarized and doesn't have a neutral aspect..

 

 

"It is a monster indeed. Carefully cultivated, and artistically exteriorized, I think it can also be a constructive force. Anger, the diminished form, is a very constructive force, but it can produce excellence as well."

I don't know. Anger can can be constructive. Hatred? Do you mean hatred, or how people use it to express not their personal taste?

Here's something: when I was able to have egg fowl, I shot certain predators, rather than try to outsmart them. These predators carry diseases communicable to humans, other than rabies. I didn't like them or the idea that I could get sick from eating eggs; but I don't hate them. If I see evidence of mice, I'll use a mousetrap. Even their droppings can make humans really sick. But I don't hate them. I realize they were here, first, and that my living space was once theirs. I just don't want to get sick.

On the other hand, people "hate this show/color/food." They don't literally feel hatred, they just prefer something else.

Please explain how hatred can be constructive, and I'll entertain the idea. I may not agree with it, in the end, but I can consider it, anyway. Thank you.

[mvingon]

I am not saying hated can not be constructive, rather that I am not able to see how, if it is.