Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.

Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.

After my last monthly email, which I also published as the previous podcast episode. I hosted a live video Q&A so Buddhist boot camp readers and podcast listeners can tune in from all over the

world to ask questions and further discuss the topic of

understanding hatred which is only possible by first being honest enough to

confront the hatred that is within each of us. The problem is our ego disguises our own hatred and justifies it as us simply

being right while anyone with an opposing opinion or belief is wrong. Israelis hate Palestinians who hate them in return.

The people on the left hate the guy in the Oval Office while the people on the

right want him re-elected. Racist hate blacks and homophobes hate gays who hate them in return for so doing.

It's a vicious cycle Gandhi described as an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

One listener used the perfect example of peace activists

fighting to prove they are peace activists. The thing is we weren't born hateful.

Our parents, teachers, preachers, friends, society, and the media

have trained us to segregate over the years,

ultimately leading to a huge divide between us and them,

making segregation the root of hatred, though it is subtly disguised as merely convenient

or even necessary.

Perhaps the most beautiful outcome from the online discussion were comments by listeners who said,

it's hard when you perceive that others are filled with hate,

but now I see they may feel the same about me.

And that's when another listener admitted that talking about conflict between other people is a lot easier than facing the conflict within herself.

But change comes from within, someone else said, and you can't change someone else anyway. What you feed becomes stronger.

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