Love Thy Enemy

My love note to you:

I was raised to love mankind and accept it with all its flaws. Amidst my Anglican family, “Love thy enemy” is what the big man with the pretty dress would say. Being a kid, that was pretty easy for me, though life’s harsh realities seem to have made it harder.

Enemies…These creatures prey on you as though you were their very last option. I am no innocent victim, trust me, I’m very sure I have inflicted my fair share of torment upon others, but this seems to be the conspiracy theory when enemies are concerned. Unconsciously, they appear to grow on us and have some sort of control over us. From the girl who stole your lunch in kindergarten, to the woman who is now not afraid to show you that she hates your guts and would kill to see you down. Comforting to some, yet tormenting for others. Depends on how you see the situation.

I hate to admit it, but we can be the very cause of our own destruction, and  probably 95% of the time we are!!  Take that as you will, but the enemy depends on us for survival and we depend on it just as much. Why? Because they boost your self-esteem, and you give them a sense of power. An old friend once told me, in arrogance, “If you have no enemies, then you must be doing something wrong”. That definitely fed my ego!! Yet it also made me realise that I was under the enemy’s control.

It is said the ego lives on identification and so as it struggles to survive, as we all do, it tries to protect and enlarge itself. What better way than by criticizing my fellow brother? By reacting to the ego of another in such a manner as my dear friend and I, you only strengthen it, and become dependant on that person for your sense of self worth. This is where letting go becomes a powerful tool, allowing you to bask in the freedom of peace instead of having to defend your being at every turn.

If you can understand that ‘Enemies’ are merely an illusion, a state of mind, perhaps you won’t let them get under your skin. Consider this: at times, the fault you are so quick to point out in someone else isn’t even there. “..it is a total misinterpretation, a projection by a mind conditioned to see enemies and to make itself right or superior”, says Eckhart Tolle, the author of A New Earth (a psychological read that focuses on our common dysfunction- the ego).

Jesus asks, “ Why do you see the speck in your brothers eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” We are all in the wrong here, so I kindly warn you not to become the very thing that may destroy you. Love yourself and others enough as to NOT  lose yourself to a burden such as hate. “By the plan of my destruction, you only master your own death”.