HATE
Hate exists in the past and the future. You cannot hate in the present – try, and you will be utterly impotent. Try it today: sit silently and hate somebody in the present, with no reference to the past or the future… You cannot do it. It cannot be done; in the very nature of things it is impossible.
Hate can exist only if you remember the past: this man did something to you yesterday – then hate is possible. Or this man is going to do something to you tomorrow – then too hate is possible. But if you don’t have any reference to the past or the future – this man has not done anything to you and he is not going to do anything to you, this man is just sitting there – how can you hate? But you can love.
Love needs no reference – that’s the beauty of love and the freedom of love. Hate is a bondage. Hate is imprisonment – imposed by you upon yourself. And hate creates hate, hate provokes hate. If you hate somebody you are creating hate in that person’s heart for yourself. And the whole world exists in hate, in destructiveness, in violence, in jealousy, in competitiveness. People are at each other’s throats either in reality, actuality, in action, or at least in their minds; in their thoughts, everybody is murdering, killing. That’s why we have created a hell out of this beautiful earth – which could have become a paradise.
Love comes from you for no reason at all. It is your outpouring bliss, it is your sharing of your heart. Sharing for sharing’s sake, for no other motive.
Your love is nothing but the other side of hate. Hence, your love has reference: somebody has been beautiful to you yesterday, he was so nice that you feel great love for him. This is not love; this is the other side of hate – the reference proves it. Or somebody is going to be nice to you tomorrow: the way he smiled at you, the way he talked to you, the way he invited you to his house tomorrow – he is going to be loving to you. And great love arises.
This is not the love buddhas talk about. This is hate disguised as love – that’s why your love can turn into hate any moment. Scratch a person just a little bit, and the love disappears and hate arises. It is not even skin-deep. Even so-called great lovers are continuously fighting, continuously at each other’s throats – nagging, destructive.
Become silent, thoughtless, conscious, alert, aware, awake – this is how light is brought in. And the moment you are alert, aware, hate will not be found. Try to hate somebody consciously and you will find it impossible. Either consciousness disappears, then you can hate; or if you are conscious, hate disappears. They can’t exist together. There is no coexistence possible: light and darkness cannot exist together – because darkness is nothing but the absence of light.
If you are MEDITATING then it becomes more and more difficult to hate. You cannot hate even your enemies; you will feel a deep compassion. So everything else is going perfectly right – just drop this idea that love may turn into hate.
Love while love is there. And when the hate comes, if you cannot manage to avoid it, then hate! But hate totally and intensely and you will still be following me, because my teaching is for totality and intensity.
My message of love is of that love which is capable of absorbing hate and transforming it. What is important is that if you hate, hate with awareness. If you love, love with awareness.
If hate arises for someone or against someone, or love arises for someone, what do we do? We project it on the person. If you feel hate toward me, you forget yourself completely in your hate; only I become your object. If you feel love toward me, you forget yourself completely; only I become the object.
You project your love or hate or whatsoever upon me. You forget completely the inner center of your being; the other becomes the center.
When hate arises or love arises, or any mood for or against anyone, do not project it on the person in question. Remember, you are the source of it.
~ Osho