Love and Hate are two sides of the same coin - emotions that arise when a particular consciousness meets a particular situation.
Love and Hate seem clear cut and defined, and each maybe seems too ’strong” a term but they help clarify things.
Practically all emotions fit under one or the other banner. Under the Love banner is all the ”I want, I like, get closer, care (caro), more please, Yes” emotions. Under the hate banner is all the ”dislike it, fear it, change it, avoid it, go away from, No” emotions.
Do you see BKs loving being in a butcher’s shop? No, they will hate being there and will love the idea of leaving.
Do you see a hungry child hating the buttered bread placed before him? No, as soon as he can he will grab it and eat it.
Do you see that hungry child loving being taunted by someone preventing him eating it, snatching it away every time he goes to eat it?
When we see another’s suffering, is not our compassion a form of hate for the condition of suffering which motivates us to help change that condition?
When two people in a difficult relationship stay together, its because there is more love than hate, or if you must, more like than dislike, preferring the known to the unknown.
To glorify Love whilst denying the reality of No, Dislike, Hate, or sublimating these as ”detachment" or suppressing them to pretend you don’t ”hate” (to whatever degree), is delusional, even if socially acceptable.
This dishonesty will eventually show itself somehow, sometimes to others as snobbery.
The ”spiritually” aware, even if they are secularists, recognise the nature of such thoughts and emotions arising as transient responses and can observe both their love and hate rising and falling away with equanimity, allow them to come and go but not be trapped in them, or by them.
Allowing things to be, especially one’s own loves and hates, recognising them for what they are when they arise, is the beginning of self-awareness and gives awareness of what direction to go, what to do, at any time. To dither, unsure of what one feels about a situation, to prevaricate, is a state of ignorance, a kind stupor. We are all stupored (stupid) at different times. When you know you are in a stupor, you are less so than when you don’t.