{"id":117,"date":"2020-06-30T03:30:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T03:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dhammapada.outside-looking-in.com.au\/?p=117"},"modified":"2020-10-10T06:43:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-10T06:43:11","slug":"love-as-strong-as-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/?p=117","title":{"rendered":"004. Love as Strong as Hate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-default is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cHe abused me, he struck me, he overpowered me, he robbed me.\u201d Those who do not harbor such thoughts still their hatred.<\/p><cite>Dh Chapter VII verse 4. Trans. Acharya Buddharakkhita<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"728\" height=\"538\" src=\"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/tiger-india-wildlife-bengal-preview.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-118\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/tiger-india-wildlife-bengal-preview.jpg 728w, https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/tiger-india-wildlife-bengal-preview-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When I&#8217;m doing the <a href=\"https:\/\/thebuddhistcentre.com\/text\/loving-kindness-meditation\">Metta Bhavana<\/a>, the feelings of loving kindness, of metta, can feel a bit vague. If I&#8217;m totally honest the feeling of metta can feel vague to the point of insipid. It doesn&#8217;t feel like a powerful state of mind. It feels nice sometimes, it feels a bit warm and perhaps fluffy. It isn&#8217;t vigorous or fierce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I do know strong emotions. Anger feels full of energy, an energy that is misdirected, frustrated or blocked in some way but it pushes and demands to be expressed. Ill-will feels sharp and bright and dominating. Anxiety circles round and round, gathering power on each circuit across my consciousness. These are strong vigorous states of mind that I know all too well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What of metta? Can it feel the same? <a href=\"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/09\/i-read-somewhere\/\">I read somewhere<\/a> that it can and perhaps should. Metta isn&#8217;t really a timid kitten of a state of mind. It is a tiger. It roars. It roars with compassion and connection and care for all living beings. It doesn&#8217;t halfheartedly wish for the benefit of all beings. It demands it. It means it. It is a powerful state of being. Can be as strong or perhaps stronger than hatred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHe abused me, he struck me, he overpowered me, he robbed me.\u201d Those who do not harbor such thoughts still their hatred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-01-twin-verses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}