How to React to Hatred and Violence

First of all, we must remember that we are all the same. Don’t get me wrong, there exists morals and ethics, and we should feel some type of way when someone acts with hatred or violence. Hear me out —

Hatred and violence are forms of Avidya, or misunderstanding. Avidya is our mind’s primary source of suffering and our main obstacle in the journey toward freedom. In my studies of Buddhism, my teachers often talk about how we must react to suffering and its causes (Avidya) with compassion, with a literal or metaphorical smile.

I do wish we could all respond to every “fuck you” with “I love you” and be done with it. But things are more complicated than that. Sometimes a punch deserves to be thrown, and often a punch is an unnecessary act of violence. And may we never forget that fighting hatred with hatred rarely creates love; fighting violence with violence rarely creates peace.

I’m tired of us judging people based on what they post online instead of how they treat the unhoused person living down the block. I’m tired of us forming opinions of the world based on the news cycles instead of by the water that flows down the river deep in the forest.

I watch people with full bellies, supportive families, and well-paying jobs wake up angry and go to bed angry. I see people who don’t have a pot to piss in that wake up smiling and go to sleep with gratitude. I truly believe we’re all the same; that our only difference is circumstance. I wish we could all walk in each other’s shoes.

At the end of the day, the only one who can fully understand your own experience as a human is you. And just because someone doesn’t feel what you feel doesn’t mean they’re a bad person. It just means they have different circumstances, realities, and subjective truths. It just means their mind as Avidya (misunderstanding), but don’t worry, so does yours (and mine).

I hope that one day, we can all realize that the only objective truth is love. And that it’s not worth it to hate someone, or a group of people, just because of Avidya. In the end, I think anything not rooted in love or peace is misunderstanding. And so I will make it my lifelong goal to understand.