Edward’s Diary Entry 57 – Virtue 10. Non-Violence / What to do about injuring others?

Inflicting violence, hurting, harming, aggression, wronging, injuring, retaliation, vengeance…

The exceedingly difficult solution to violence is none other than… right thinking. Right thinking requires right attitude. Right attitude means being in tune with the Universe. Tuning into the Universe requires Intelligence. We humans do not have enough of this capacity. We have not conquered ignorance fully, and so we are violent to a greater or lesser degree, depending on our level of connectedness with the Universe through Intelligence.

“Non-violence” is tripartite: 1) physical, 2) verbal and 3) mental. Abstaining from actually hitting, knifing or shooting someone may be socially conditioned, but the root cause of violence has not been conquered. When we are verbally abused we may react by using verbal abuse or violence, practising verbal tit-for-tat or eye-for-eye. We are still Old Testament, and here, there’s nothing new under the sun. Mental violence is rampant, and this is the cause of violence as expressed in the outside world. The constant production of violent thoughts (even if suppressed) results in the Reality of Violence in the so-called “external” world. The mind projects it. Violence is not hidden to the “outside”. Our concept of “inside” and “outside” is fictitious. We think we can come clean or get away with it by not showing violent thoughts. We are kidding ourselves. What goes on “inside” the mind is exteriorised to “outside the mind”, even if we think no one is watching…  

But whatever happens in the lower states of conditioned or normal waking consciousness just happens. It is what we can call a “non-self-aware occurrence”, an “automatic reaction”. It takes a degree of Self-Awareness, alertness and perceived sensitivity to NOT REACT according to one’s conditioning. With millennia of warring, witch-hunting, rape, killing, pillaging and conquest behind us, our collective unconscious and present-day influences fuel more of the same, couched in many different forms, from malignant to reasonably benign. So if we really want to do something about it, we have to sit down and reconstruct our minds in order to become less violent.

Reconstruction is an arduous process. The ideal would be to incorporate this in education from childhood on, viz, Dalai Lama, [16 May, 11:30]: “Modern education with its focus on material goals and a disregard for inner values is incomplete. There is a need to know about the workings of our minds and emotions. [my underlining] If we start today and make an effort to educate those who are young now in inner values, they will see a different, peaceful, more compassionate world in the future.”

So, lacking proper education when we were young, it is our responsibility as adults to reconstruct our minds now, today, not wait for tomorrow, nor leave it to others! We already mentioned one mind-cleaning exercise that can be done. And it needs to be constantly reviewed. Where do I, as an aspiring Self-Aware individual, draw the line between wanton evil (violence) and sainthood (non-violence, Ahimsa)?

Well, the Saint does this: Perceiving all Life as one, all action and non-action coincides with the Good. Thus, the body is maintained by doing the least harm to Life: fruits, vegetables, pulses, grains, and only those animals farthest down the evolutionary chain are used as food, as these are healthier and more suited to such a non-violent character. The feelings have been trained to only express the positive, integrating and compassionate emotions; there is no negativity. This is because the mind has been cleansed of impurities and only accepts the influences of virtuous conduct and thought. This in turn is a result of the activities of the witness of the mind, the True Self, which watches over the compendium of mental processes and is, or strives to be, in tune with the Goodness of the whole Universe. When in tune and conscious of this attunement, violence, as an impulse, is no longer accepted.

It is not the fault of the stars or the Earth that “violence” became corrupted. We have met the enemy and he is us! Etymology says violence comes from “vis” (strength) and  -olentus (full of, abounding in). This is related to Vedantic “Vir” itself, “Virtue”, or strength from the gods, energy and vigour (Tejas, Virtue 21). We need to be “abounding in strength”, alright, but we also need to be “abounding in grace” so that we use this strength correctly.

So, succinctly:

Stop thinking that others are responsible for their violence. They’re not. Only you can be responsible for your non-violence.

Stop feeling indignant about the violence of others. They can’t help it. Only you can help it if you choose to.

Stop acting and reacting violently. Practise non-attachment and objectivity, from which further understanding can be gained to combat violence.

Regularly review the violence level of your thought processes. Where is your dividing line? How far can you extend this line from total unconscious ferocity against others and circumstances (1, below) to absolute lovingness for the entire Universe (8, below)?

Remember, until violence is fully conquered in thought – only possible in the presence of continuous and constant Self-Awareness – lower nature can pull us down into unconscious behaviour levels 1-2-3-4 at any time [see chart below]. From levels 5 and 6 as well. All that is required is a hiatus or momentary interruption of Self-Awareness, a fall into a “buffer zone” where we are not fully conscious of our thoughts and feelings, which can then explode into violence by contagion. Only by full Self-Awareness on level 7, and constant practise in thought-control and self-observation, can we walk the narrow mountain pathway of non-violence without falling into the abyss of fury. Until this is truly seen, and Enlightenment is realised, slipping into violence is always possible. So watch, wait and pray; or breathe, count and stay present in your Now; or observe, control and don’t react. It’s a long way around the mountain of fury. Be careful where you step.

VIOLENCE WORKCHART (from darkness to light)

Unconscious (non-self-aware) behaviour				à
1	2	3	4
Free reign to violence	Unsuccessful restraints on violence	Successful partial restraint on violence	Suppression of violent deeds
Fury	Rage	Anger	Irritation
Severe unconscious violent reactions	Unconscious violent reactions	Sporadic unconscious violent reactions	Social adaptation to “good” behaviour
Violence exists in uncontrolled state that explodes whenever triggered, always justified later	Violent uncontrolled outbursts, some of which may be apologized for later	Violence often controlled, and apologized for later, but still regularly elicited with specific trigger	Violent actions mostly controlled, but violent thoughts and emotions still exist

à	Partially conscious (self-aware) behaviour			Sainthood
	5	6	7	8
	Partial control of violent words	Conquest of violent thoughts	Practical non-violence	Total non-violence
	Annoyance	Composure	Calmness	Compassion
	Non-expression of violence	Incipient calmness usually present	Deed, thought and emotion integrated	Maximum lovingness
	Violence still exists but is sometimes checked before it explodes	Violence still exists but is mostly checked before it explodes	Violence mostly rejected at root level (thought) or detected in early stage (emotions) and nullified	Violence totally conquered