Do You Believe That Love Trumps Hate?

"Hatred paralyses life: Love releases it. Hatred confuses life; Love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is so much hate in our country at this moment in time. Polarizing camps spewing angry rhetoric and claiming ownership of the truth. The situation is much like the situation during the struggle for civil rights in the 60's. Dr. King knew then what we need to remember now that hate will never win against hate. That only ends in violence and more hate. The only thing that wins against hate is love. Someone once said that "hatred and anger are powerless when met with kindness."

History has proven that to be the case and it is still the case today. It has been proven again and again that positive thought directed at a situation can diffuse the tension. In a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Social Indicators Research reports on one of the most dramatic sociological experiments ever undertaken. Researchers predicted in advance that the calming influence of group meditation practice could reduce violent crime by over 20 percent in Washington, D.C., during an 8-week period in the summer of 1993.

In fact, the findings later showed that the rate of violent crime--which included assaults, murders, and rapes--decreased by 23 percent during the June 7 to July 30 experimental period. The odds of this result occurring by chance are less than 2 in 1 billion.

The demonstration project involved assembling nearly 4,000 practitioners the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs from 81 countries. Participants were housed in hotels and college dormitories throughout the District of Columbia and at the University of Maryland.

Hagelin says previous research had shown that these meditation techniques "create a state of deep relaxation and coherence in the individual and simultaneously appear to produce an effect that spreads into the environment, influencing people who are not practicing the techniques and who have no knowledge of the experiments themselves."

I am proposing that we take this information and use it to diffuse the hate that is bubbling in this kettle of fear and threatening to overflow at any moment. In the study they had 4000 participants. I have over 2000 Facebook friends and another 500+ contacts. How many people do you have on your Facebook page, email list, etc. who would join us for 3 minutes per day to stop Hate? I think we can top the 4000 participants from the gate.

Here is what we will do. At noon everyday for the next 90 days, we will stop for 3 minutes and send Metta, or Loving-Kindness, into the heart of the Hate in this country. Metta is like a prayer that is born from our compassion, from our understanding that at base all human beings are alike in their desire to be safe, happy, healthy and at peace.

Do YOU believe that LOVE trumps HATE as Dr. King did? If so, then join my group People Who Believe That Love Trumps Hate where you will find the instructions for sending Metta and more information on the group. Then add your positive energy to ours everyday a noon by doing 3 timed minutes of meditation focusing on the people who are filled with anger and hatred that we see and hear in the media daily, and sending them our Loving-Kindness. If you are at all uncomfortable with my suggestion you can use a prayer, image, thought or just the intention to send peace for that timed 3 minutes instead. It is all about energy and intention and if that is there, we can't help but make a positive difference.

So, please send this out to all of your friends and family. Let your spiritual leaders know and encourage them to put it out to their congregations, sangha, and groups. Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. Let's really try to blast the cancer of hate with a huge laser beam of Love.