Being Love - 1 - Turning hate into love

(For Podcast, TBD.  For ITunes version, click here)

Today we start a series of talks based on the book by Thich Nhat Hanh entitled, Teachings on Love.  We each have within us an innate, unlimited reservoir of love that can be cultivated and radiated out, that can transform our life and the lives of those around us, without expectation from others in return.  I’m struggling this morning to put into context another terrorist bombing attack—just a few hours ago—at the Mahabodhi Temple, the place where Buddha attained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, India.  Several people were injured and some damage done.  First reports were that nothing major was destroyed, except perhaps the further deterioration of our faith in human beings’ ability to live peacefully together.  There have been Buddhists in Burma that have been using violence against Muslims, and the initial thinking is that this is a retaliation for that violence.

Where does this violence start?  I would offer that it starts in each of our hearts. When we hate another human being or group of human beings simply for who they are or even what they have done.  What if there wasn’t one atrocity, no matter how awful, worth hating someone or somebodies for?  Does hating someone improve the situation?  Buddhism is often thought to be a philosophy of non-violence, which it most certainly is at its core, but I often tell the story of the Buddhist on the pirate ship—the Buddhist who has the capability to kill the pirate and save 200 people’s lives—and the Buddhist does so in an act of kindness to create the most good.  But does the Buddhist hate the pirate?  Do you hate those who have hurt you?  Does your hate relieve your suffering?  Does your hate create the most good?

It seems that these bombings are perhaps an excellent example forcing us to look inside ourselves, examining what we are doing to transform ourselves and the world.  In his book, Thich Nhat Hanh describes what happened to Buddha under the Bodhi tree as the realization that each of us has the capacity to love, to accept, to understand and to transform.  It is up to us to decide what we do with whatever is given to us.  We sometimes do not get a choice.  I think about the two monks that were hurt during the blasts. What will they do with this destruction and pain thrust upon them? What have you done with whatever destruction and pain has been thrust upon you? 

Can we find a way to transform whatever is received into love, acceptance, understanding?  AND, acceptance doesn’t mean being a doormat.  There is a wrathful aspect that is taught in Buddhism, like the martial arts.  Using defenses with laser-like precision can also be an act of love, understanding and transformation.  So, what is hate?  I was going to start this morning talking about how we can generate more love, but I realized that first we must also deal with the hate that is being created, within us and around us.  What is its source?  How to do we transform hate? Starting from a place of love is much easier than starting from exactly where we are—which might be a mixture of hate and love.  I am reflecting on what arises within me, when I hear of the violence in the world.

I guess this first lesson is that wherever we go with the exploration of love, we must each first begin with ourselves.  How am I responding to the world around me?  What am I thinking, saying, doing that is relieving suffering or creating good?  How can I transform ANY hate within me into love, and create a love that is so powerful that it dissolves the hate not only in myself, but perhaps in others as well.

Lama Surya Das posted a comment on Facebook this week about what he calls “radical non-violence”, and mentions Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Aung Sung Suu Kyi as examples of the power of peaceful transformation.  Now, there were many dissenting opinions about whether these four people had been “pure” enough in their practice of radical non-violence, even a question about whether radical non-violence was really the way to go.  Some say that Aung Sung Suu Kyi, a leading Buddhist in Burma, has not spoken loudly ENOUGH against the violence of Buddhists against Muslims in her country.

I work hard to keep the Temple Buddhist Center politics-free, so I leave that discussion for another time and another place, but what we can work on today is our own response to whatever suffering we created or is created around us.  How do you respond?  How do you transform that which is causing suffering, to you or to others?  What shall we think? What shall we say? What shall we do? 

This series of talks will be about the power of loving-kindness to transform  ourselves and the world around us.  As we can see from the events of this day, simply generating loving-kindness may not be as easy of a solution as we might want to think.  There are complex, challenging issues today, just as there were in the Buddha’s time as well, and if we are to be a beneficial presence in this world, we cannot simply ignore what is happening all around us, and we can definitely no ignore what is happening within us.  What shall we think?  What shall we say?  What shall we do?  How can our our thoughts, our words and our actions make a positive difference in the world?

How can we transform any hate in our hearts into this powerful energy of love and compassion?  This is the task I ask each of you to reflect upon and decide if you want to explore this issue with me, but not only just think about it, but also do something about it, with your words and your actions.  I challenge us all to be the change we want to see.  This will be our topic for the next few weeks.  Alone we can do a little good, together we can change the world.