Hatred is indeed a slippery slope.
Consider how often friendship, love, or even a mere acquaintance can devolve into dislike. Or even hatred. And how rare it is for us to stop our dislike—and hatred—once we have begun.
Hatred is like the proverbial slippery slope: easy to slide down but incredibly difficult to climb back up.
As we begin to hate, we justify our feelings and become convinced we are right to feel as we do. The other person has done something terrible—they have wronged us. I have done nothing—just an innocent party. The hatred swells, and over time we become attached to it. To stop this hating, we will need to let go of our attachment to it
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Admit that our hate is unwarranted. Period! And even if, in most people's eyes, it is warranted, we would be wrong to give in to hate. As ordinary beings, we neither like giving up attachments nor admitting we are wrong.
Isn’t it just more practical not to reinforce such self-destructive habits in the first place?
Article originally appeared on a buddhist perspective (http://www.abuddhistperspective.org/).
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