Ahimsaa "Non-violence"

Ahimsaa - “Non violence”

“All you need is Love,” sang the Beatles. And it is true. “Love is our essence” is also true. “Love lies at the core of our being” is a true saying.

The problem is that “Love” is a messy word. There is brotherly love, motherly love, romantic love, sexual love, Platonic love, sentimental love, manipulative love and many other kinds of love. “Love” is very lovely, but it is a confusing, ambiguous word.

Instead of using the word “Love,” Patanjali, the codifier of Classical Yoga established the first principle of yoga as Ahimsaa, “Non-violence.” It is definition by negation. You don’t say what it is, but there is no error. There is no vague entanglement with alternative meanings. Just cease being violent in its many forms. Classical Yoga starts there.

Most people do not see themselves as “violent.” It doesn’t fit in with their good self image of themselves. Ask most people if they are violent and they are probably going to adamantly reply “I am not a violent person.”

Stop what violence? We are conditioned to think of violence as an outer activity. There is violence outside our bodies and there is violence inside our minds. Violence happens on many levels. It is not just outward acts of hurting each other. All outward acts of aggression begin from a painful suffering thoughts. Before any outward hostility starts, the mind has to generate a lot of violent thoughts beforehand.

The subtler type of violence include self rejection, self loathing, gossip, slander, cynicism, sarcasm, (guilty) complaining, blaming, making excuses and passing judgment on another person are all different forms of subtler violence. At some point in our lives, we all have done some of these. They all involve defending the ego.

What causes the violence? The separative and territorial principle known as “Ahamkara,” the ego. The ego is interested in its own survival. Its first directive is to survive and most of all, it fears its inevitable death. Non-violence involves dissolving, transcending or going beyond the ego, which is possible for everyone, even if it is just temporary.

Human beings, especially men, are violent by design. The history of homo sapiens has a long legacy of continuous wars and humans doing horrible things to other humans, animals and nature. Being encased in this ego, this fundamental ignorance separates us from “the world out there,” In the year 2020, we stand at the threshold of our collective annihilation, turning our Garden of Eden into a toxic wasteland of destruction. Stupidity, greed and war have a good chance of wiping out homo sapiens once and for all.

The english word “kindness” does work better. It is a good positive word. It is where most people like to hang their hat. We simple people people need simple directions and “kindness” is a helpful creed to live by. It is easy to remember the word kindness. This is a much longer discussion, but there still is the potential problem stating things in the positive form of “kindness.” It too can fall into Hallmark sentimentality, ambivalence and a fuzzy focus, a feel good generalization that makes everyone dull and happy. “Killing me with Kindness” “Competitive Kindness,” “Disingenuous Kindness” “Kindness that has something to prove” are all very real things done by humans to protect the ego or make it look good. We humans have an infinite capacity to fool ourselves. Patanjali chose the instructive “practice non-violence.” The starting place of Classical Yoga is to withdraw from violence in its many forms.

Affirmation: Today I release all sarcasm, cynicism and judgment of others. No exceptions.