In this world, Hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law ‘Ancient and inexhaustible’
What is the law? That hate never dispels
hate – darkness cannot dispel darkness – that only love dispels hate.
Only light can dispel darkness: love is light, the light of your being,
and hate is the darkness of your being. If you are dark inside, you go
on throwing hate all around you. If you are light within, luminous, and
then you go on radiating light around you.
Aes dhammo sanantano… ‘This is the law,
ancient and inexhaustible’ – Buddha repeats this again and again that
this is the eternal law. What is the eternal law? Only love dispels
hate, only light dispels darkness. Why? Because darkness in itself is
only a negative state; it has no positive existence of its own.
It does not exist really – how can you dispel it?
You cannot do anything directly to
darkness. If you want to do anything to darkness, you will have to do
something with light. Bring light in and darkness is gone, take light
out and darkness comes in. But you cannot bring darkness in or out
directly – you cannot do anything with darkness. Remember, you cannot do
anything with hate either.
Morals Vs Mystics
And that’s the difference between moral
teachers and religious mystics: moral teachers go on offering the false
law. They go on offering, “Fight with darkness – fight with hate, fight
with anger, fight with sex, fight with this, fight with that!” Their
whole approach is, “Fight the negative,” while the real, true Master
teaches you the positive law: aes dhammo sanantano – the eternal law,
“Do not fight with darkness.” And hate is darkness, and sex is darkness,
and jealousy is darkness, and greed is darkness and anger is darkness.
Bring the light in.
How is the light to be brought in? Become
silent, thoughtless, conscious, alert, aware, and awake – this is how
light is brought in. And the moment you are alert and aware, hate will
not be found. Try to hate somebody with awareness. These are experiments
to be done, not just words to be understood.
It’s Impossible ‘to Hate’
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. Consciousness and hate can’t exist together.
There is no co-existence possible: light and darkness cannot exist
together – because darkness is nothing but the absence of light.
Buddha says: Remember, if you depend on the senses you will remain very fragile — because senses cannot give you strength…they cannot give you a constant foundation. They are constantly in flux; everything is changing. Where can you have a shelter? Where can you make a foundation?
One moment this woman looks beautiful,
and another moment, another woman looks beautiful. If you just decide by
the senses, you will be in constant turmoil – you cannot decide because
senses go on changing their opinions. One moment, something seems so
incredible, and another moment, it is just ugly. And we depend on these
senses.
Depend On Awareness
Buddha says: Don’t depend on senses – depend on awareness. Awareness is something hidden behind the senses. It is not the eye that sees. If you go to the eye specialist, he will say it is the eye that sees, but that is not true. The eye is only a mechanism through which somebody else sees. The eye is only a window; the window cannot see. When you stand at the window, you can look outside. Somebody passing in the street may think, “The window is seeing me.”
The eye is only an aperture. Who is behind the eye?
Meditation will make you awake, strong
and humble. Meditation will make you awake because it will give you the
first experience of yourself. You are not the body, you are not the mind
– you are the pure witnessing consciousness.
