The ancient seers had a way of distilling simple emotions into understandable terms, very much like sutras. It it is mind that takes what is there and builds to an often incomprehensible level.
Below is a sutra of love and hate:
"To love is to accept.
To hate is to desire change."
Years ago, a woman came to one of the retreats and announced that she was an embodiment of unconditional love. She wanted to hug everyone. She wore pink. There was a heart design on her shirt.
Later that day she spoke of her son and how she loved him unconditionally. I asked her what she would change about him if she could. She replied that she wished that he was not so lazy, would get better grades and that she would like to take him to get a hair cut and eat better. Sometimes he is rude to her and she would definately like that to change. As for her beloved husband, she wished he was this and this and this. It was quite a list. In any case that is not unconditional love. It is something else.
Take a moment now and look into your heart, find the desire to change. It is there you will find the hatred that you carry. Who is it that you would like to change the most? Is it you? See these things.
Do not try to change anything that is there as that would just be hating the hatred. Of what good would that be to you to be a hater of hatred? Just see what is there.
Look into your heart once again, and see what it is that you accept, what you embrace. What is it that you can just let be as it is? Is there one thing that is there that you would not change if you could?
This practice is a very ancient an effective way of realizing your condition. Of seeing why it is we suffer and cause others to suffer so. This realization of the condition is the very first step of a mystical, God centered path to enlightenment.
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