Happiness in the Midst of Hate

Description

What is happiness when there’s so much hate and misery? Hate as in hate, but also hate as in anger, irritation, disparagement, aversion? And misery as in desperation? 

And what if these states are contagious? If my response to external hate is to volley right back, aren’t I just perpetuating sorrow? If my response to my own tight heart is to hate myself (or even to quietly chastise, or despair), same question.

But then what’s the “happiness” shift? It has to be to care about those in misery, and to love those who hate. Including ourselves. The more misery and hate I see, the more I think Dr. King and Mother Teresa and Gandhi and Siddhartha were right: hate never ceases by hate, but by love alone is healed – and they must have meant love, full stop, not just for the good guys.