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If you’re like most of us, your immediate response was probably hate; but let’s consider this more deeply?  Our world is made up of dualities.  You cannot have light if there is no contrasting darkness, these are simply two sides of the same coin.  They have to co-exist or neither exists.

I submit that the same is true of love and hate, out of necessity they co-exist.  The real opposite of love I think is fear.  Now this may seem like semantics to you, our language is imperfect.  For the sake of this exercise let’s skip the language, and look at what happens on the physical level.

If you have no involvement, no intimacy with someone, what you feel for them cannot be hate.  You might dislike them, or disapprove of what they do, but you can only really hate someone that you also love.  This is not contradictory.  The range of human intimacy is bounded by love and hate, they only exist together.

Fear on the other hand prevents love from flowing.  It is like a cork in a bottle, or a dam on a stream.  When anything (especially love) stagnates, it becomes foul and decay begins to rule.  When I am fearful, it prevents me from loving because I’m too busy reacting, making sure that I protect what I think is mine.

Fear is corrosive.  If a fearful state persists too long, the outcome is always violence and frustration.  It’s contrasting force is faith, but it’s opposite is love.  Take a look at your life, and see if this holds true.  I am as always willing to be wrong, but this is how it looks to me.

If we understand them, we can borrow the laws of nature to do all sorts of wonderful things.  To illustrate this point, let’s consider the simple but joyful act of flying a kite.

If you understand the wind, and how the shape and size of your kite interacts with it, you can send it soaring high in the skies.   If you’re really skilled, you can make it perform all sorts of complex and fascinating tricks.

In order to become expert at this, you have to practice.  As you do so, you’ll begin to understand the interaction between the wind, the kite, and your controls.  You can’t however change the wind, it is part of nature’s law, and cannot be controlled.

Consider that Love may the the greatest of the natural laws, how can we make Love soar?  I suggest that our Principles are in fact the shape, size, and controls of our kite.  Unlike the wind, which some days blows too hard or not at all, Love is always present.  You can practice any day you choose.

As usual, I suggest that you watch the children to learn how this is done.  They don’t study aerodynamics, or have great debates about the properties of the kite material…they just go and do.  As they feel the pull of the wind, and begin to learn to steer and control the kite, they’ll shriek with delight.  As they get more proficient, they may in fact start to experiment and try different shapes or materials…but they do so from the joy of the flying, not for an intellectual pursuit.

Kites come in all different shapes and colors, but they all operate by borrowing the power of the wind.  People will practice the Principles differently, but each must borrow energy from the greatest law…Love.

In the beginning of my spiritual journey, I was elated when I didn’t physically act out my many imperfections.  When the line was long at the market, I no longer protested and demand that a new cashier be engaged. 

When someone cut me off in traffic, I no longer followed them (too closely) past my exit; I thought that I had arrived as a spiritual giant.

What didn’t occur to me much later, is that although I’d improved my behavior marginally, I still seethed on the inside, and wished all manner of plague on those whom I considered had wronged me.  What I didn’t realize then, was who was really suffering?

Any time that my mind is engaged in resentment, envy, impatience or any of the principle’s opposites- I am cut off from the sunlight of the spirit.  My actions are like the part of an iceberg that is visible, while my thoughts represent the far larger body of ice underneath the water.

There is an old country song whose refrain is “ It’s not what I did..it’s what I didn’t do”…think about it?

Each of us come into puberty with some principles learned from our families and communities.  Part of the maturing process is to examine these principles, and see if they have an inherent value in our lives.  Some do and are kept, others don’t and are rejected.  What is the function of principles in our lives?

Principles help to put order in our lives.  In their absence, each choice we face would be like a brand new essay question that needs investigation.  When we have principles that we live by, and strive for, they act as a very effective primary filter for all of our choices.  Is this choice consistent with my basic principles?

If it doesn’t meet that first criteria, no further examination is necessary and that choice can be rejected.  If it is consistent with our principles, then we are free to choose it…or not.  Either way the worst that can happen is that we make a poor choice, but it will never be an injurious one.

The nine principles which we discuss here are not meant to be the final word.  They are not the house, but rather the foundation which guides and supports the greater structure.  If you build your personal set of principles on top of this foundation, I can promise that yours will be a sound and solid house.

Principles don’t confine you, but rather liberate you to choose among the many options which life presents.  If they pass the first test of consistency, you will never go far wrong.

The last few days, I’ve been visited by an old friend…restlessness.  No matter where I’ve been, or what I’ve been doing; being somewhere else doing something else seemed better somehow.  The result of course, is that I completely missed the value of the moment as I chased my tail in a circle.

Thankfully my old friend has not been around much lately, but when I get that feeling now, I realize how subtle it can be.  We live in an age where multi-tasking has become something to strive for and admire…but I suspect that this is another folly we impose on ourselves.

Perhaps what is needed is enough patience to see the present moment through to it’s natural end, and realize that whatever it is that we think is better over there also exists in abundance right where we are.