Transcript
A (0:00)
You know, there's this verse in the Gita. It's one of my favorite books that says something around, take love and hate in the same light, take it in the same way. And it's one of those. It's one of those teachings that sounds simple, but the more I experience life and its deep polarities, it's like the more profound it becomes. You know, love and hate, they seem like opposites, right? Like, one lifts you up, the other tears you down. One is warm while the other is cold and hurt. So, of course, like, we're always going to be like, yeah, we want love. We want love, we want love. One feels like expansion and the other feels like destruction. But I think if we look closer, some of the love that we experience and hate come from a similar place of attachment. Not all of it, but some of it, yes. When we love something or someone deeply, I believe we often form an attachment to them. We get used to how they make us feel, how they align with us, how they bring us comfort or inspiration, or maybe they fill the void of loneliness that we feel. But what happens when that person or thing no longer aligns with us? When they challenge us, when they disappoint us? The same attachment that once made us feel love? Yeah, that can turn into bitterness or hate. Like, real quick, the person who loves you today, truth is, they can hate you tomorrow. And I'm sure you've experienced this. The person who hates you today, they might love you in the future. You may have had some haters in the past, some haters in high school that turned out to be some of your biggest friends. It happens. Neither is as permanent as they seem. Both are fleeting, shifting with perception, with experience, with expectation. And if we attach ourselves too much to two either, we begin to lose ourselves. You know, I think human affection these days seems so fragile, especially online. Especially online. You know, I see it all the time. You may see a comment under. I was actually listening to a podcast today, and I saw a comment under the podcast, and this person said, I've been listening to this podcast for 10 years, but I can't believe this person said this. I'm done. I'm never listening again. I was like, damn, you've been listening to this guy for 10 years and you're just done like that? A decade of connection just dissolves over one disagreement. And this, like, would shake me about the Internet. The idea that one disagreement could undo years of understanding, that one sentence could turn admiration into resentment. And I've experienced it myself too many times to take it personally, it's actually freed me once I leaned into that verse, you know, take the love and the hate in the same way. I've had people tell me they love me. Oh, you've changed my life to sending me pretty much death threats and crashing out on. And crashing out on me simply over misunderstanding or misinformation. Seen it happen to musicians, thinkers, artists, friends, family members. The way people can adore someone until they say something that challenges their worldview and suddenly they're cast aside or they're forgotten. We see it in our families, too. Maybe one drifts away from the family's political stance and now gets excommunicated from the whole WhatsApp group. You see it in the Jehovah Witness community. If a family member falls out of the faith, the family no longer communicates with them. Now they say it's a form of discipline, right? They're. They're loving them through discipline to get them back. So they just X them out, which is wild to me. But regardless, that love can turn to something else real quick. And when it comes to people, online especially, it's not often it's not the person who changes, but it's our perception of them. We like to put people into boxes so it feels comfortable for us. I remember one time someone attacking me in my DMs because I was eating sushi in Japan, and they mentioned how shocked they were. How could you? And I was like, how could I? Maybe your perception of me is broken because you assumed I don't eat sushi, But I've always said, I eat sushi. I love sushi. This was a vegan, by the way. But I can't take that personal, right? Even though they were like. They were sending a lot of messages that were like, I was like, yo, you're. You're quite angry for. Don't be. You're. It's kind of wild. But you got to take hate and love in the same light sometimes. Don't cling to neither. Just know they're both experiences. Of course we want more love in our life. Of course we want to receive love and feel it more than the hate. But a lot of the love we do experience, unfortunately, will be conditional in life. And that's just the reality. If we cannot provide the same feeling for that person that they are used to, that love can change. We've seen it. Lovers turn into enemies, friends, best friends into enemies in the blink of an eye. And if people can love so deeply, only to turn on them in an instant, like a flick of a switch. What does that say about the nature of love itself? I truly believe love is the most beautiful force, you know, especially when it's unconditional. But sometimes it is. It is conditional. Have you ever been around someone who's, like, very affectionate and it seems loving, but like, you feel, it has nothing to do with you. They just require touch? I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I've felt that before. That this love you're giving is more about you feeling wanted than me actually receiving your warmth. And if you don't respond in the way they want you to, let's say they get sour right away because the love was more conditional. They weren't trying to give love. They were trying to give love to get something back. Energy can truly just transmute so quick. As a creator, reality is, I love seeing your positive messages, and it motivates me. It gets me going. But in the back of my mind, I always know I'm one sentence away from a percentage of you turning on me. I hate to say it, I know some of you wouldn't. Some of you will. Or I'm one lie away that someone says about me from receiving death threats. And because of that, it has taught me to seek God first, truly in everything that I do. You know, in the Bible, I think it's like James 4. 4, it says, do you know that friendship with the world is like hostility with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself or herself an enemy of God. It didn't say herself, but, you know, I added that in there because the Bible can be super masculine a little bit too much. Now, I don't actually like this verse on the surface because it seems stupid. Like, why wouldn't we want to be friends with the world? But remember, the Bible actually says to love your neighbor and your enemy. So it's not saying to not love people. We have to go deeper than that. The verse is simply emphasizing the importance of prioritizing our relationship with the divine, over seeking approval from the world. As a creator, I experience the highs of positive feedback and the lows of criticism. And this duality is a reminder of the transient nature of worldly validation, you understand? There's another verse, I think, in Matthew 10:22 that says, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but he or she who endures to the end will be saved. If we take that out of a religious sense, because I'm not really a fan of apocalyptic preaching. Did I say that? Right. But end time preaching, you know, it's kind of depressing to me, but living our life being our true selves, we will be met with opposition. Changing, we will be met with opposition. And if we cling to the love and the approval of others, then the moment we face resistance, we will retreat, shaping ourselves back into what they expect instead of stepping into the unknown, embracing our transformation and evolving into something entirely new. New. Someone unrecognizable, yet more true. For me, this is why it's a common practice, especially in the world of what I do, to lean into God, to lean into the most high. Because I know that love is unwavering. Doesn't matter if I slip up, if I say something, even if I fall out of faith. I know that the love is always the same for me. And unfortunately, you just won't find that with all people. Maybe some family members, yes. And some best friends. Yes. But we know even some of those relationships don't last, unfortunately, because some love is attachment. Attachment says, I love you as long as you make me feel good. Love says, I love you when I don't even fully understand you. Attachment says, I support you as long as you don't challenge me. Love says I support you even when you make me think. And a lot of the times people are attached to the version of you that benefits them. And that's why the Gita reminds us to take both love and hate in the same light. Because neither is the best measure of who we are all the time. It's a beautiful thing when we're receiving our praise and you know, people are expressing maybe admiration and love for us and a of lot, I believe we should receive it, feel it, understand, celebrate yourself. But the problem with letting praise in too much is that it makes you vulnerable to the opposite. If you love and desire praise so much, you will fear the opposite so much. If you let the love inflate you, the hate will destroy you as well. But if we define ourselves by our own approval, by our values, then we will be undone by unjust criticism. You understand? Sometimes we just have to take it lightly. Not in a detached way, not in a cynical way, but in a peaceful way, in a way that keeps us centered no matter what comes. Because the moment we put our worth in the hands of people, we start to lose ourselves. And for me, again, this is where faith comes in. This whole journey, experiencing love and hate in ways has brought me closer to God. Because God doesn't switch up. God doesn't say, I loved you yesterday, but today you Disappointed me. So I'm done with you. God's love isn't based on an agreement. It isn't based on performance. It just is. And when we remind ourselves of that, we don't need to chase approval. We don't need to fear rejection. We just need to stay aligned with our truth and just keep showing up as we are. Because if someone truly sees you, they will stay. And if they don't, that is okay. They were never meant to walk this path with you forever. When I meet people, I don't worry about rejection. I don't worry about rejection and opportunities. Because I know as long as I show up with my best intentions, if someone perceives me in a different light, there's nothing I can do about that. I have people sometimes watch my videos and they're like, oh, my God. I get this beautiful, calm presence from you. And then I have people watch my videos and be like, I don't trust this guy. I can't do nothing about that. You know, like, you just don't trust me for some reason. It's like, I can't do nothing about that. You will never be able to control how everybody in the world perceives you, but you are in control of who you are. We don't need to force people to stay. We don't need to convince people to love us. We just need to keep walking in who we are. When someone turns on you, don't resist it. Don't fight for their understanding. Don't try to hold on to something that's already slipped away. Let go with love. Because true love is not about possession. It's not about agreement. True love is about acceptance. And if someone's love for us can disappear over one agreement, then maybe that love was never rooted in a truth. And that's okay. Because our path doesn't change based on how people feel about us. We keep walking. One of the greatest freedoms I have found is I am not here to be loved or to be hated. That's not my purpose. I'm not here to be loved. I'm not here to be hated. I'm here to be me, to be still in my truth, to be unwavering in my purpose. Because love and hate, my friend, they are just waves. They rise and they fall. But beneath the waves, the ocean is steady. And that's where I choose to live. So I leave you with, like, one thought. What would it feel like to take both love and hate in a similar light? Of course we want more love, but not to get too high on the praise or too low on criticism, how free would you feel not chasing for the approval of others, not fearing the rejection, to remain steady no matter what comes to me. That is freedom. That is peace. And that is the kind of love, the kind of presence that I want to embody always. And you done know, in hindsight, everything is going to be more than all right. And I appreciate your love. Thank you.
