Can someone learn to love one's enemy and what does it really mean loving your enemy?

Isn’t the saying: Love your neighbor like you love yourself?

I’m not sure I can or want to love my enemy in the traditional sense of the word. However, I find that when I can let go of my anger and resentment I have for these people, I feel better. So, in a selfish way I choose to not allow my anger and hatred for people do damage to my physical and emotional health. Is this “love”? Probably not. Is it the best I can do? Right now, yes.

Loved? Meh,no,not really.
I just don’t wish them harm and rarely give them any thought.
I’d rather be happy ;))

A spiritual/philosophy teacher I love, Eckhart Tolle’, says that ’ love your enemies’ means to have NO enemies. @lucillelucillelucille says it well.

I have only 2 grudges of “hate” I know I will never let go of….my old friend who ratted me out to the Feds and my old A$$hole neighbor.

An “enemy”, in this sense, I take to be someone who wishes me harm or otherwise has ill-will toward me. “Love”, in this sense, I take to be wishing for their well-being or happiness. If you look at it that way, I think you’ll see that it’s not such an outrageous proposition.

I see hatred as a sickness, one that poisons the bearer’s life and is an obstacle to his peace of mind. If someone bears some form of hatred toward me, I think that person has this sickness and I wish for them that they find some relief from it. I try not to take it personally and make it my problem as well. Maybe there’s something I can do to expedite the healing without losing my integrity. Maybe just avoidance would be the best approach, and hope time will take care of things.

@Coloma -Thanks:) That attitude keeps me out of jail. XD

I think “love” means more to forgive and forget. Basically, the longer you hold onto the grudge and hatred towards an enemy the more damage you do to yourself. So I reckon it’s more of forgiving them what they did to you so YOU can move on with your life.

I remember once I was really pissed at someone and asked a really close friend of mine whether I should take revenge and he said it would destroy me more than anything else. That was a wake up call for me. I let go of my anger and bitterness towards that person. Working on letting it go against someone else now. It’s hard.

Enemies, A love story?

It’s difficult to address these notions without a firm definition of what love actually is. Hard to accept that we’re all speaking on the same level without a definition to confine our comments.

For Dr. Wayne Dyer, “Love is the ability and willingness to let those that you care for do what they want without any insistence that they satisfy you”.
Erroneous Zones

I used to agree with that. I don’t agree with the good doctor any longer.

The Greeks have five different types of love. Which are you speaking of?

Hindu Sanskrit has over seventy different types of love. Which are you speaking of?

English is a butcher, expecting us to pack the baggage of an enormous concept into the space of one little word case we call “love”. We sling it about with such disingenuous ignorance that it’s nearly impossible to have an intelligent discussion on the matter.

For me, Love is defined as selfless giving. I love my car by maintaining it, even though I’d rather be at the ballgame. I love my children by spending quality time with them, even though I’d have more fun out at the strip club or pool hall with the hooligans. I love little chocolate donuts, not because they give themselves to me, but because I give myself completely over to them. They consume me, not the other way around. I love my art because I allow it to consume me. But we typically define love as that which we consume for ourselves. This is wrong. That’s not love. That’s possessiveness.

I love my SO by demonstrably forsaking physical passion with all others, and in our moments of passion, give my body, mind, and spirit completely to her and her alone.

How do I love my enemy? I give myself to them. I offer myself to them for discussion on the issue in question. Sometimes that is met with violent rejection. Noting that, it must be acknowledged that love doesn’t need to be accepted in order to be manifest. I can give myself to the enemy completely, but that doesn’t mean we will ever find resolve. My love is not dependent upon your acceptance of it. It’s there for the receiving, if and only if, I decide to express it. Most often I’ll just turn my back and leave you in the dust, unless of course you’ve demonstrated the willingness to accept my love. If not, no problem. Goodbye!

I’m pretty sure loving your enemy means you’re batshit insane. I don’t know about anyone else, but if someone makes my enemy list, they damn well deserve it.

@incendiary_dan I so agree. I don’t get this love everybody crap.

Certainly, they can. Gotquestions does a sufficiently good job of explaining.
A lot of it comes back to you being loved by God even when you’re being a despicable wretch of a person.

It was many years before I could forgive those who spitefullly used me, and then to learn to love them in spite of my earlier feelings. What helped me was learning to let God love them through me, since I didn’t have the strength sometimes to do it on my own.

I like a saying I once heard….

” If YOU had that persons backgorund, and present level of consciousness, YOU would be the exact same way.”

For me that helps a lot when I am getting my ego in a lather over someones crappy behaviors or communication.
I don’t ‘hate’ anybody, not even my jerky ex husband, but, I do steer clear of those that are not a good blend. I can have compassion, forgive, and I am not a grudge holder, but, when I’m done, I’m done, take care. The end.

Yes, first off my best friend is also my greatest enemy, and to me that whole love factor is that I’m willing to throw away my life for them.

For me, it means to pray that God help the ‘enemy’ find the happiness they seek. It means nothing about the relationship between me and them, it’s a matter of taking my hatred towards them out of my mind so that I can find peace with them.

This is not easy. But remember, either we’re all God’s children, or none of us are.

Of course. There are really no enemies, just in your mind. If you stop playing mind games, you have no enemies. All disputes are resolvable.

I don’t love my enemies nor do I hate them. They are there for a good reason.
My enemies help me to grow a thicker skin, be more brave, be more patient and be more loving. I don’t think I can be this resilience without the people who want to see me fail…sometimes I become so loving ang forgiving just to piss them off!

@dannyc

That is simply not true, except in some few cases where there has been misinterpretation of speech or behavior. Other enemies will shoot you dead while you’re clearing your mind.

@CaptainHarley. Respectfully, I have no enemies. Perhaps my government has, but they are their enemies, not mine, thus created. 99.9% of the people are in the same boat as me, thus it’s time to change the system. If they kill me it is the government’s fault, not mine.

@dannyc

Ah! I see now. : )