A Revolution of Forgiveness and Love

Loving everything will change everything.

Our very existence is in peril. It is an easy time to dispense blame, and harbour resentment. We hate this person and that person - they are "part of the problem." Any plan or movement based on hate is doomed to produce more of the same, rather than the changes we need.

Some say, "People are destroying the world, and these people have addresses." Is the plan to go out in pitch fork mobs, round 'em up, and make 'em pay? In this scenario hating them is just punishment for their evil doing, and once they are collected up and punished to the full extent of the law, everything will be fine.

It is difficult not to hate perceived wrong doers. It almost feels automatic, which says a lot about our culture. It feels like you are doing something. And you are.

What we do by harbouring hate, and allowing resentment to reside in the heart, is hurt ourselves. It is eating poison and expecting your enemy to die. And if you want to reform your adversary, hate is hardly the tool to get that done.

Author Madame de Stael wrote, “To understand everything makes one tolerant, and to feel deeply inspires great kindness.” In other words, the more we know, the easier we forgive, and the kinder we are toward others. This is because the more we understand, the more we can see that the objects of our hate are mostly just like we are.

In their place, with their experience, would we do anything differently? We think we would, because they are "bad" and we are "good". But sit down with them, and find out they are actually quite human, maybe even nice. The neat boundaries of good vs bad start to get blurry.

If accusation and hate are the problems, then forgiveness and love are the solutions. That does not mean we can't dislike certain situations, but let's propose solutions that come from a different place, and maybe we will get different, more positive results.

We can only do that through practicing forgiveness and love until it becomes our natural default reaction to all situations and people.

Overcoming Resentment and Hate

• visualize the object of your hate. Send them love.
• think about the futility and harm that results from taking the poison of hate.
• real victories come from being understanding, even tempered and loving.
• don't like someone? Ponder their good points, something you admire about them.
• develop your patience, quick to listen, slow to judge.
• forgiveness allows us to enjoy a more pleasant world with less conflict and a more fulfilling experience of those around us.

If your revolution is a "fight" or "war" against someone or something, count me out. If your revolution does not include joyful playing, dancing and singing, count me out.

If your revolution is not coming from a place of forgiveness and love, again, I'm out.