In The Dark Knight, the superhero, Batman, symbolizes love and the supervillain, The Joker, symbolizes hatred.
Love is the active willingness to help others without attachment to reward. Hatred is the active willingness to hurt others.
The final scene of “Batman Begins” depicted Batman as a symbol of love. James Gordon said to Batman, “I forgot to thank you.” Batman replied, “And you’ll never have to.” Batman protected Gotham City without any expectation of gratitude.
“The Dark Knight” continues this by depicting Batman as an ardent defender of Gotham, even when its citizens turn against him. Early in the film, The Joker says that he will continue to kill people unless Batman reveals his identity. When Bruce Wayne asks Alfred what he should do, Alfred tells him that he should continue to bear the brunt of Gotham's anger because Batman must endure even if he is hated.
The Joker is so easily able to take control of the gangs of the mob bosses because he is a symbol of pure hatred. The gang members repressed their hatred of society in order to function in the heirarchy of the criminal organizations they worked for. The Joker offered the gang members what they really wanted: to be able to fully give in to their hatred. They willingly chose to follow the Joker en masse even though they made little to no money doing so.
The Joker as a symbol of hatred is further developed in the scene in which Alfred tells Bruce Wayne the story of a bandit who stole jewels only to throw them away. He says of people like The Joker, "Some men just want to watch the world burn."
What the Joker wants is for society to lose hope and abandon their morality. He attempts to do this in two ways:
Get either average citizens trapped on a ferry to kill criminals on another ferry or vice versaTurn Harvey Dent, Gotham's district attorney, into a criminalThe Joker's first strategy fails when both the citizens and the criminals refuse to kill each other. Although The Joker is able to turn Dent into his criminal, Batman takes the fall for his crimes and Dent is remembered as a hero.
When James Gordon asks Batman why he would take responsibility for Dent's crimes, Batman says that he is whatever Gotham needs him to be. Batman loves Gotham so much that he is willing to sacrifice his heroic image so that Gotham's citizens may continue to have hope. By sacrificing his heroic image, Batman defeats The Joker.
In this meditation, you imagine visual representations of how other people see you to be spotlights shown on the night sky. You imagine these spotlights being destroyed, just like the Batsignal was destroyed by police officers at the end of the film, which symbolized the destruction of society’s view of Batman as a savior of Gotham.
When you are attached to how other people see you, you seek to reaffirm how other people see you through your actions. You are not able serve others authentically because your actions are intended to mainly benefit yourself. By dissolving visual representations of how other people see you, you are able to serve without attachment to reward.
Upon completing this meditation, you attain the spiritual superpower of love. While making use of the spiritual superpower of love, you will be feel happy and confident while serving other people.