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From: adobe!asanders@decwrl.dec.com
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Love vrs Hate in Buddhist meditation
Message-ID: <2004@adobe.UUCP>
Date: 20 Mar 90 01:48:32 GMT
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. 
                                                            -Steve Price 
							    

Perhaps the first thing to remember is that "the problem of evil" is a 
very weighty issue, not likely to be fathomed by our off-the-cuff efforts 
to understand the mysteries of the Universe. But we can certainly try. 
 
The Buddhist point of view asserts that we live in a world of duality --
that is, in a state of ignorance. As a result, all our concepts are based
on pairs of opposites: we cannot define "love" without reference to "not-love".
Thus our efforts to paint an ideal picture of a world "without hate" are
bound to fail. But it is not that the world is "worse" for all that, but that
our state of consciousness needs to be "better". Of course these are relative
concepts also: "better" and "worse" are simply different flavors of "good"
and "bad", or "love" and "hate". But fortunately, our consciousness is
relative also: our state of mind can fluctuate. Sometimes we understand more,
sometimes less. Sometimes we may even catch a glimpse of a world in which
pairs of opposites DO NOT EXIST. In Eastern thought, this state is sometimes
called "not this, not that" -- hinting at the nature of Reality. The practical aim
of Buddhist meditation could be expressed as the realization of this truth.

As we are, we still have to make decisions -- notwithstanding the illusory
nature of the distinctions we perceive. We do not really know that love is
the guiding principle of the Universe; but we DO know, in our limited way,
that compassion is preferable to cruelty. Similarly, we cannot have
compassion for "all sentient beings"; but we CAN try to be compassionate
toward those close to us. We have to start where we are.

The story is told that a man was walking in the forest when robbers attacked
him and stole his money. Several people soon came to his aid and tried to
take him to the hospital for treatment of his wounds. But the man refused,
insisting to know the names of the robbers, where their families were from,
and so on before he would consent to be treated. And while he lay there
arguing, he died.

Regards,

Alan