On Monday, we enter the fall equinox, that time when the measure of daylight and the measure dark night achieve a momentary balance. Autumn arrives, with it's traditions of harvest, brilliantly colored foliage, and crisp air--at least, in our collective memory, even if temperature soar. This idea of the mid-point, a balanced seasonal scale, has me reflecting on the balance of our immediate cultural emotions: love and hate. It's difficult to collectively enter into the freshness of a new season, when modern culture is split. It's even more difficult, when religious/political traditions are used to drive a further wedge between neighboring countries, or local "districts", communities, and even families. Imagine a moment, as the balance of the equinox tips, that it can only tip to a collective feeling of being loved and cherished (the receiving end), counterbalanced by a collective showering of love and acceptance (the giving end). It's a utopian fantasy, of course, given the vast variations of this world, but still, tipping the scales toward more love and less hate is possible. Your measure resides in you.
So I am offering a few thoughts on hate as fear, and love as the antidote. Hate and love, as words, are polar opposites. Yet human emotions are seldom that polarized, or even clearly defined. Some days we hate 'things' and whatever/whoever we feel are responsible (including ourselves), and the next day, or later in the same day, we can lighten up, gain perspective, or move on to something else to preoccupy our thoughts. The same shifting awareness is true for that which we love. Human emotions come and go. Sometimes, we get entrenched in the mud of repetitive negativity and pain. We may learn how to change our thinking, but our emotional nature, which includes the physical body, may lag behind. Here, the key is to consider hatred as a response to fear; we grow to hate what we fear.
Spiritually, the antidote to fear is Love. To be clear, you cannot make yourself love what you hate, nor what you fear. Suppressing hated, like suppressing fear, may aid you in the moment of overwhelming tension or anxiety, but sooner or later, suppressed emotions erupt again. Instead, you learn to accept this emotion we call Love, when and where you actually find it. Realize love when you actually do feel it. Cultivate it by your attention and acceptance; harvest it. It may have nothing whatsoever to do with the things and experiences and people and events you fear, or you outright hate. You feel what you feel. But you give the weight, the balance tip, to cherishing Love, as you actually feel it. Savor it. Rehearse it, rather than rehearsing hate and fear. Remember in this equinox metaphor, there are two forms, or movements, of love, giving Love and receiving Love. When we cannot give, we can receive. Either way, we live in Love. Ultimately, our Source is a Cosmos that delights in you, or you simply would not be here. (The same is true for your "enemies".) Ultimately, all love is Divine Love. (Susan Nettleton)
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King, Jr.
for poetry: https://poets.org/poem/autumn-8
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/A/AngelouMaya/TouchedbyanA/index.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/B/BahuSultan/IknewGodwell/index.html