There is no such thing as a “little hatred” or a “little love.” Hatred is the last stop on the train—one needs to monitor one’s spiritual health to prevent hatred from slipping in and taking root, and this means acknowledging one’s negative emotions such as fear and anger, and dispelling them through acceptance and alchemy. Remember the words of Master Yoda: “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hatred, hatred leads to suffering.” One may use a campfire to stay warm on a cold night, but if one allows it to spread unnoticed through one’s negligence it is far more difficult to set the forest right again once it is completely ablaze. As a Light Jedi, I have no place for hatred in my vocabulary, my interior reflections, and in my external life. It was Luke’s compassion and self sacrifice that healed the hatred of his father and overthrew the evil Galactic Empire: only through patience, knowledge and compassion can the world’s problems be solved…never through hatred which does lead to the Dark Side of the Force.
I can agree with the validity of certain kinds of hatred such as in the case when one experiences a natural, passionate aversion to transgressions of the moral law. Hatred is a passionate aversion to a person, idea, aspect of oneself, or external object that is precipitated by having a standard or rule violated to such a degree as to illicit powerful feelings of loathing. One who is moral cannot help but hate a variety of behaviors or ideas that are contrary to physical, spiritual, and emotional health and well being. What word is most appropriate when faced with the catalogue of horror perpetrated throughout human history. One who is of upright principal does not merely “dislike” Fascism. How does one feel about Hurricane Katrina when one has lost one’s family, home, city, and financial stability at her hands? This is a healthy type of natural hatred and it is a lesson to Light Jedi such as myself to reconcile these natural forces by tempering them with observation and rational thought.
Where I diverge is that even when I experience hatred, I am quick to unmask it and find out what exists beneath the surface of this inflammatory emotion. As long as one remains honest, humane, and rational—hatred in this initial manifestation need not be an impediment to healthy spiritual growth. It is when hatred is allowed to become a self sustaining, self perpetuating force that it invariably leads to self immolation. One must be mindful.
In my Catholic faith there are two types of hatred and one of them is far worse than the other.
One (odium abominationis, or loathing) is that in which the intense dislike is concentrated primarily on the qualities or attributes of a person, and only secondarily, and as it were derivatively, upon the person himself. This type of hatred allows for the possibility of hope and upward mobility of the spirit as it is the proactive hatred of that which violates the moral law that I spoke of earlier. This is a hatred of a quality and it is based on a moral standard that is fixed—primarily a standard of mirroring the love of God toward others. This is hatred with the door left open to faith, hope and charity.
The second sort (odium inimicitiae, or hostility) aims directly at the person, indulges a propensity to see what is evil and unlovable in him, feels a fierce satisfaction at anything tending to his discredit, and is keenly desirous that his lot may be an unmixedly hard one, either in general or in this or that specified way. We now arrive at “the real stuff” as it were, this is the tool of the Sith in the Star Wars movies and is the antithesis of Light Training. When I speak of never allowing hatred into my vocabulary, my interior life, and my external relations this is the strain of hatred that I speak of. This is a violation of charity in that it sets oneself up as the prime mover, indulging this form of hatred is indulging one’s pride and cut’s oneself off from the unconditional Light emanating from the heavens to the human heart.
The problem I see facing those that study the Force is that by over indulging the first, it invariably leads to the birth of the second.
Hatred, in my humble opinion, should not be used as a means to an end because it is a dirty fuel. It may provide initial motivation but it ultimately suffocates the ability to reason and think clearly which brings about suffering and failure. Feelings are never wrong when they arise, even hatred. However it does not make sense to encourage, cultivate, and feel an emotional outlook or mood that ultimately culminates in behavior that is careless, selfish, and hurtful to the self and other. It is the flash in the pan, it is the fireworks, it is the quick solution, it is the fascist line, it is not caring for others, it is not caring for yourself, it serves nothing and cares only for itself, and - to be fair - it is powerful in the short term. In the end, one is alone to reap its “rewards.” It promotes a cycle of violence that self perpetuates. In a universe with so much unconditional love pouring out to those that seek it, it is not necessary and is impractical.