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Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich,

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 and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.

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

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After my last monthly email, which I also published as the previous podcast episode,

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I hosted a Live video Q&A, so Buddhist Boot Camp readers and podcast listeners 

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can tune-in from all over the world to ask questions and further discuss the topic 

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

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confront the hatred that is within each of us.

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Problem is: our ego disguises our own hatred and justifies it as us simply being "right,"

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while anyone with an opposing opinion or belief is "Wrong."

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Israelis hate Palestinians who hate them in return, the people on the left hate the guy

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in the Oval Office, while the people on the right want him re-elected,

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Racists hate blacks, and homophobes hate gays, who hate them in return for so doing.

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

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One listener used the perfect example of peace activists fighting to prove

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 they are peace activists. The thing is we weren't born hateful. Our parents, teachers,

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preachers, friends, society, and the media, have trained us to segregate over the years,

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ultimately leading to a huge divide between Us and Them, making segregation the root

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of hatred, though, it is subtly disguised as merely convenient or even necessary.

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

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who said, "It's hard when you perceive that others are filled with hate, but now I see

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"they may feel the same about me." And that's when another listener admitted that

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talking about conflict between other people is a lot easier than facing the conflict

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within herself. "But change comes from within," someone else said,

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"and you can't change someone else, anyway; what you feed becomes stronger."

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So one solution to overcoming the impulse to hate or reject that which we don't understand

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is to respond to it by saying, "That's interesting." Not just to other people's 

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comments and remarks about what they believe, but to our own thoughts.

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One listener said that when he sees something as unacceptable in someone else,

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it actually mirrors for him what is unacceptable in himself. 

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It helps him on his journey from conditional love to unconditional love.

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So whenever he feels defensive, he uses that feeling as a flag that his fear and ego 

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is defending itself because it has been triggered to fight.

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One listener's solution was to stay away from those who think they are right.

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I just don't know how that's possible. I'm surrounded by people who think they're right,

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I just listen to them and think to myself, "That's interesting," without feeding

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the ego's desire to correct or educate them, because that would imply that they are wrong

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and I am right, and it's my job to "fix it," so everyone agrees with me.

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But when it came to the big question of the hour, of whether there is a difference 

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between the hatred a Neo-Nazi feels towards the black, gay man, or the hatred he feels

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towards the Neo-Nazi, there's absolutely no difference. Both sides are scared that their 

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rights, freedoms, values, and everything they hold dear, will be compromised by the other.

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And both sides will go to extreme lengths to defend their beliefs, even violence.

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My friend Marianne, who recently moved from a conservative state to a liberal one 

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with such different beliefs, said the move has been very interesting as she recognizes 

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hatred on both sides. The key, therefore, is to recognize hatred as what it is: a defense

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against something that is threatening our egos. In the same way we often confuse 

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a bruised ego with a broken heart, we also defend ourselves when the ego perceives

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other people's general opinion as a personal attack when it isn't. If we want peace, 

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it has to start with us being peaceful.

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Someone may say something against my race and I don't need to take it personally,

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attack back, or even defend it. I walk away from that experience reminded that people

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will always hate what they don't understand. But that doesn't mean I have to act hatefully

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towards anyone regardless of how I try to justify it. Because my beliefs don't make me

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a better person, my behavior does. To be a kind, peaceful people, we must actually 

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BE kind and peaceful, not just toward those who agree with us, but toward everyone.

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What they believe or do says everything we need to know about them,

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how we respond says everything about us. 

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At the monastery, we used to chant, "GREED, HATRED, and IGNORANCE rise endlessly,

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"I vow to abandon them." We acknowledge that the battle with greed, hatred,

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and ignorance isn't a battle that we're going to win once and for all, it is a battle

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that we're going to win time and time again.

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If you want to know when the next Live Q&A will be, sign up to receive just one email

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a month from me on the first of each month at BuddhistBootCamp.com

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by clicking on the Contact Tab. And while you're on the site, remember that each time

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you get an autographed copy of Buddhist Boot Camp or Faithfully Religionless, 

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another copy is donated to the Prison Library Project on your behalf.

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You can also watch plant-based recipe videos, get stickers, shirts, even Popsockets,

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proceeds from which also support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Mercy for Animals.

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These podcast episodes, the Live Q&A videos, monthly emails, daily posts, 

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and in-person events, are all made possible because listeners just like you donate 

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just one dollar a month through Patreon.com/BuddhistBootCamp. 

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That's Patreon.com/BuddhistBootCamp. YOU are making the message available

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to people all over the world without even knowing it. Every time you share a link 

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on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or forward my emails to your friends, family,

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or post them online. The book isn't mine, it's ours. So thank you for walking beside me 

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on this journey, I appreciate you.

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Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless 

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and Buddhist Boot Camp.

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For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com,

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where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project,

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watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list.

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We hope you have enjoyed this episode

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 and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions.

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Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏🏼