Robert Thurman: Love Your Enemy | Big Think

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Robert Thurman: Love Your Enemy Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lovingkindness, Thurman says, is not an abstract idea but rater a practice that allows us to appreciate that everyone, including our enemies, want to be happy. And so instead of reflexively categorizing people as bad and wasting our energy by fighting them, we can elevate kindness and compassion “as the strengths they really are.” Thurman explains how the concept of “love your enemies” is sometimes difficult to understand in a modern setting. “People get nervous about it because they think if you love your enemies it means you’re going to cave to them, you’re going to be a martyr, you’re going to invite them to come and destroy you and just be a masochist and so forth,” he says. However, that is not what love means. “You can have fierce compassion,” Thurman says, pointing to the example of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who told his followers during a Civil Rights march in Birmingham that hatred was “a ridiculous waste of our energy.” “If you go around nursing hatred and vindictiveness” and how to get back at your enemy, Thurman says, “you’re hurting yourself.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Thurman : Robert Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Depa

Published 2013-12-25 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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