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From: aloise@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Jim Aloise)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Love vrs Hate in Buddhist meditation
Message-ID: <14675@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 19 Mar 90 14:38:29 GMT
References: <14591@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Sender: mukund@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
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Approved: mukund@phoenix.Princeton.EDU

>"...those who hold that love is the guiding principle of life must remember
>that love, like any other principle, would be meaningless without its opposite"

>Is love NOT the guiding principle of the universe?
>What is he implying about HATE?  that it is "necessary"? inevitable? useful?

>How does this assertion balance with the assertion that "Compassion" for all
>must be the goal of walking the Path?  I thought that Buddhism says that love
>for all must be the purpose behind every pilgrim journey.

Take this definition of love:

	"Love is the willigness to see from the others viewpoint"

Let's write it as +love+ so when we see the word we'll know it's this
definition that is under discussion and we wont get the concepts mixed up with
other thoughts that the word love evokes. 

(forgive some repitition below from another newsgroup)
How willing are you to see things from the others perspective. See their wants,
needs, joys, fears, desires. Understand their background, conditioning, goals,
interests, etc.. Someone you hate, you wouldn't begin to try to see things from
their point of view. If you +love+ your plants you're gladly willing to try to
understand how much water and sun they want and what kind of earth is best and
what temperatures do they freak out in. If you hate a bug the last thing you're
going to do is try to understand that they might be hungry and are just trying
to find a home and reproduce after their own kind, and so forth. The essence of
the +love+ is not so much on the degree of understanding but the willingness to
increase the understanding. A teacher +loves+ a student to the degree that he
is willing to try and see the students misunderstanding and confusion and
what's lacking in the student's approach. You +love+ a stranger to the degree
that you're willing to see that they have a problem and in what little way you
could now assist them or eliviate their concerns. You +love+ a subject matter to
the degree that you're willing to understand what an author is saying, how it
is all consistent from his point of view. You +love+ somebody to the degree that
you want to share their experiences and perceive the world more and more as 
they do. You +love+ yourself to the degree that you become willing to observe 
and understand your own action and thoughts and motivations. 

This +love+ has little to do with being non-judgemental or supportive or 
accepting. You +love+ the criminal to the extent that you're willing to
understand the frustration and emotion that they may have experienced in the
committing of the crime and their hatred and resentment of the society that may
have predisposed them, without in any way accepting or supporting their action
and judge their punishment appropriate in a society of perishable bodies. The
willingness to see the viewpoint has no relation to your accepting it or not
judging it. This +love+ is really the same as compassion.

To carry the +love+ further and further you ultimately reach the point where 
you ARE the other person, and to speak of +love+ is meaningless because there 
is no other. To practice +love+ less and less, you reach a point where the
other is just an object and is not even capable of having a viewpoint. (In our
society is sometimes seems like love is bodies exchanging fluids and taking
actions to the extent that the other body remains willing to exchange with
you.)

So to respond directly, +love+ can be said to be the guiding principle of the 
universe and -hate- of course is the absence of +love+, and inevitable, until 
finally the +love+ is complete and, as mentioned above, becomes meaningless 
as the dichotomy vanishes.