Thursday's Thoughts - July 26th, 2012

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."
-Gautama Buddha

It is hard to find joy when your soul is filled with hate, and even harder when you are filled with self-righteous angst. How can you embrace the varied aspects of beauty in your life when you are constantly seething with uncontrollable anger?

Of all concepts, this is the Taoist and Zen Buddhist precept that I struggle the most with. In everyday life we are confronted with people who hate a variety of people, for varied reasons. Hate has become these individuals' constant companion, intoxicating their thoughts and views with its malignancy.

It is one matter to favor one thing over another, or even dislike a certain aspect in regards to an individual's character, but hate itself is an all-consuming emotion. It creates tension in one's mind and body and fuels the fires of never-ending self-created stress.

In many ways hate is not unlike a self-imposed cancer. Its malignancy eats away at both the positive and negative aspects of the person wielding it. It absorbs the surrounding thoughts and ideals, twisting them for its own dark purpose.

After a time, a person's self identity becomes inveigled in the emotion of hate in a way that it becomes the person. When this happens the soul is lost, and you are left with nothing but the vessel. Your hate becomes you, and unlike the weapon you anticipated it being, it becomes an unquenchable fire that willingly accepts the sacrifice of your dreams, thoughts, and soul.