Recently my husband and I watched the movie "Ikiur" or "To Live" by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. It is a story about a man who has been informed that he has a terminal illness and his awakening to a new awareness of life. As the film progresses the protagonist finds a deeper meaning to his seemingly mundane and predictable life. During one scene he is descending a staircase after an unsuccessful meeting with a city bureaucrat in which his specific requests have been denied, with him is another official who is livid that they have been turned down.
As they walk down the staircase the official asks, "Don't you hate him?" Our hero turns looking up the steps and matter-of-factly answers. "I don't have time for hate."
During the following week those words echoed in my head. "I don't have time for hate." I began to think about all the wasted time spent hating. All the wasted energy and emotion wrapped up in the action of hate. Hate takes effort and time. Hate takes a lot of physical energy as well. Think about it. When we hate our heart beats faster, our blood pressure rises, we feel our chest constrict and our bellies churn.
Hate can isolate us but it also bonds. Hate is a powerful and masterful motivator. People connect through mutually shared hatred and through that connection form whole societal communities based on hate. We can see hate in action in all levels of society from the bully on the playground demanding others follow his actions to a leader of a nation ordering the "ethnic cleansing" of a certain tribe or type of people.
When someone tells me that I should feel a certain way I am usually resistant. As most people who know me realize I do not like to be told what to do. And I like it it a lot less when someone tells me what to think. When a person suggests to me that I embrace a belief based on fear translated into hate I stop and examine what they are really asking me. What the message often is commanding is this. "Think like me, hate like me."
Thinking about hate naturally lead me to think about love. Looking at the life around me I see so much love and caring. I see people doing good things and trying to make their part of the world better. My clients and friends are all reaching to create more love in their worlds. I want to not only make time for love in my life but I seek to be the action of love in life. Sometimes it is a very tall order as my ego and inner child rebel and cry out for different agendas. But the intention to be the energy of love in action remains. My question is: Will you join me? Join me in making love the focus of your intentions. Next time you are speaking in a manner that kills love and grows hate stop and think. Next time you are judging without consciousness stop and be silent. Think twice and three times before you join the band wagon of hate and haters in this world. Think with an intellect and a heart turned toward peace and healing not destruction and violence. It may seem to some of us that we have little influence over events in our lives but we do have one extremely powerful influence—over our thoughts and our choices. We can choose to think small, scared and hating or we can choose to think infinite, empowering and loving.
My heart leads me to create thought energy that envelopes my world with love. I disappear fear by choosing the thoughts and actions of love. Love is my core. Love is my essence.
