Do any among us not hate someone? Indeed, it is a rare find. Listen to our conversations and thoughts and we discover how easily we slip into accusations of judgment, negativism and hatred toward another or others. Indeed, hatred has been an essential element of most organized religions. Why is there so much hatred in our world? How can we rid ourselves of it and work toward a deeper love and appreciation for all?

I think of hatred as beginning within us, within our minds. We hate others for what they have done to us or to others. We feel unjustly treated and see others who have received similar or worse treatment. If we could find a way of letting go this anger and hatred, and discover a way toward forgiveness, perhaps we could find a deep and broader love in our hearts and minds.

Most of our lives we considered others to be the causes of our angers and hatreds. We could begin with parents and analyze all the ways they messed up our lives. We could discuss teachers or authority figures and how they hurt us, deprived us, abusing us mentally and physically. We could point to political figures who seem to be the easiest for us to hate. Historically, we hated monarchs so much they were overthrown and we established republics and democracies, which seem now to have given us even more choices of whom to hate.

In honesty, we hate because underneath, we hate God for sending us here into such a crazy world. We hate God for parents, for our “disfigured bodies,” our limited incomes, jobs, opportunities, illnesses, accidents, losses, and failures. Why else do we quickly tend to think or say “God damn” as our first expression of anger? How could God make such a crazy, violent place, full of wars, accidents, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts and floods? Surely there are enough causes to give everyone a good reason to hate God and be angry. The list is endless.

So what or who is to blame? Where does the cause of hatred originate? It’s within us, within our own choices to come here in the first place. This world is our choice, our choice to come and take on bodies and forms rather than remain in Eternal Oneness. Heaven seemed too boring. God is One, God is Love, God is Spirit, but such Oneness and lack of individuality was too limited. So we dreamed of being our own little God, of having our own little world and universe set in time and space. This journey into time and space was our “attack on God. This world is what we got!

Scientists for centuries have angered “believers” for questioning their world views, from Copernicus to Einstein and the so-called quantum physicists of our age. Recently Discover Magazine had an article on the “Biocentric Universe,” writing of the inability of the universe to even exist without human consciousness. Interesting. (The Biocentric Universe Theory: Life Creates Time, Space, and the Cosmos Itself by Robert Lanza and Bob Berman, May 1, 2009) We now realize time itself to be relative and mathematically, proven to be an illusion.

So what if we then chose to come here, choosing our parents and places to live? What if we chose to leave our Creator and Oneness to come here and be “independent?” God would not then be the cause of the mess we have made, but ourselves. We could no longer blame God but accept our own responsibility for life as we have it in our awake, conscious moments. Parents, governments, and God could no longer be blamed; we would be forced to accept full responsibility.

Where then does anger come from, then? From but from our unwillingness to accept responsibility and guilt, thus blaming everyone else but ourselves for the mess we made. The anger comes from the deep guilt we carry for “offending God” by leaving Home and becoming our own little gods. How then could release and freedom be discovered again? How could we return Home.

Well, if God by definition is Eternal Spirit, and our True Self is one with this Spirit, then we actually never left home! We are just walking around here in a dream. In acknowledging our failures as “masters of our fates,” we learn to forgive ourselves for our choice to come as a mortal, imperfect body in a universe which hasn’t worked very well and never will. We admit we were arrogant and in forgiveness we begin to experience the release of anger, the acceptance of the imperfect reality around us, and the ability to live in constant forgiveness to and with others.

In times of remembrance and in the practice of being still, we can gain an experience of our going home. As ET in the classic movie, we remember to “phone home” to the Source. People who practice this remembrance begin to experience a similar calming and nudging peace.

Yes in forgiveness, we find the Eternal peace, and the hatred we projected so long on others begins to dissipate. Natives, politicians, neighbors, parents, family, teachers, abusers, other religions, and whomever we hated begin to transform themselves toward us as brothers and sisters. We begin living lives of random acts of compassion and kindness toward all. And if misunderstood or hated, we can learn to let it go.

Remember the words of Jesus as the story goes, dying on a cross but speaking forgiveness toward his accusers and executioners. I remember the story of the Dalia Lama disciple who in 1988 or 1989 escaped prison in Tibet and reaching India, stayed with the Dalai Lama. Once he was asked, “What was the hardest part of your imprisonment” and he replied, “Trying to never hate my guards!”

To create a more loving and kind world in our time of passage, learn who you truly are, a part of the Oneness of Creator God. And in time, the benefits of peace will far outweigh the apparent losses in fame, wealth, health, bodies and hurt. Blessings on those who seek to understand and follow.

Where does hatred come from? From within our minds, but just as sure, through change of minds and thinking, repentance, we begin the journey back Home. Let us choose to be on our way each day.