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①
Practice Non-Violence |
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Practice non-violence − physical, mental and verbal) within yourself and
your own life.
To be truly non-violent,
it is necessary to cultivate the spirit of non-judgment and
forgiveness.
Non-violence requires a continual refinement and awareness of your own inner
process. It requires the reduction and eventual elimination of judgment,
criticisms, and projections onto others. True non-violence is the
development of a positive dynamic quality of universal
love
and not a mere attitude of negative harm to others.
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To win 100 victories in 100
battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without
fighting is the acme of skill. |
Sun Tzu
The Art of
War |
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②
Express Truthfulness |
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Express truthfulness by aligning thoughts, words and actions.
Being truthful has many
facets including following through with our
commitments, not saying one
thing and doing another. It is also not saying one thing to one person and
making a contradictory statement to another. It is also not saying another.
Truthfulness constructs rather than destroys; it is not a state of angrily
hurling our opinions or judgments to others, thinking them to be fact.
It is
taking responsibility for our own judgments of others by looking to the
source of our projections within our own selves. It is the direct expression
to another, free of the anger that arises out of our own unfilled
expectations and desires. Truthfulness is the gift of non-criticism. It
expresses the thoughts and words that heal rather than wound the hearts of
others. There is great power in truthfulness. When truthfulness is
achieved, your words will acquire the power of fruition and manifestation. |
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We win justice quickest by rendering
justice to the other party. |
Mahatma Gandhi |
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③
Develop Non-Covetousness (Non Envy) |
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When we give up "wanting"
many things will be given onto us and manifest in a variety of unexpected
ways. Non-covetousness creates a feeling of unattachment. We only want or
"covet" what we feel we lack, whether it is material possessions or
qualities we admire in others. If we envy the possessions and qualities of
others that we feel we lack within ourselves, it can create territorialness,
competition, envy and, in turn, the "downplaying" of others in order to
boast our low self esteem. When we are fulfilled within ourselves there is
no need to compete, criticize, or gossip about others to make ourselves feel
superior. When there is no envy or wanting what others have (possessions or
qualities) we can delight in their joys and successes as we would our own. |
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Can you
love or guide
someone without any kind of expectation? |
Lao Tzu |
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④
Assume
an Attitude of Non-Possessiveness |
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Assume an attitude of
non-possessiveness – physical and emotional) avoiding over accumulation of
possessions that causes us to protect and defend.
This mainly refers to our
emotional
storehouse of memories of anger, resentment, projections and aggressive
thoughts towards others. As we develop a feeling of
giving in all areas of
our lives, it contributes to a sense of
trust and non-defensiveness. When we are bound by the ordinary desire of
a variety of needs for security, the walls we build to keep something in
also are the walls that keep something out. We become possessed by our own
need for security which can also take the form of attachment to personal,
ideological, socio-political, religious and spiritual
beliefs. When desire
to possess and accumulate is absent, we seek nothing for our separated and
individual self. Non-possessiveness is a stage where we find that "more is
not always better", and that "if only things could be different", then we
would be happy. It is the realization that little is required for a
loving
and true experience of
happiness. |
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Conquer the angry man by love. |
Buddha |
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⑤
Regulate the Senses |
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Regulate the senses − avoid physical and emotional self-indulgence.
Sensual regulation is not
repression of sensual needs for gratification but sublimation of our desires
into the sacred act of giving of oneself. For instance, it is meeting one's
sexual partner as a manifestation of the divine. It is moving from
self-gratification to understanding the roots of the needs of the human
soul. Regulating the senses is not just of food, drink or the sexual drive,
it also includes self pity. When our eyes are filled with our own tears,
they cannot see the suffering of others. When we indulge in our own
emotional pains, we cannot extend our hands to another. Self pity is the
mirror of our ego turned in on ourselves. It creates separation rather than
unification. When we are absorbed with our little self, we cannot serve the
greater whole. |
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If you want to see the
brave, look to those who can return
love for hatred.
If you wan to see heroic, look to those who can
forgive. |
Bhagavad
Gitta |
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