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As I continue my personal journey into the depths of myself through better understanding of the various precepts of the Eastern traditions, I often get hit by truths which leave me short of breath. Most recently this happened while reading more about ahimsa in Deborah Adele’s book “The Yamas & Niyamas.”
This is the first time I’ve actually used the terms yama and niyama so I’ll explain briefly before getting to the quote. All of the Eastern traditions with roots to India have a code of behavior (or precepts) one must follow to attain enlightenment and reduce suffering, often expressed in terms of things we should and/or shouldn’t do. I pointed out a reference to the Zen precepts in Ahimsa: Peace is Not Non-Violence, but I’ve mostly been talking about ahimsa, which is actually part of the Vedic precepts found in the yamas and niyamas of the yogic tradition.
Whether Vedic, Buddhist, or Zen, the precepts always start with non-violence because that precept must be fully understood and applied before any of the other precepts can be appropriately understood and followed. So ahimsa is the first and fundamental precept of the yamas and niyamas, which are themselves the first two limbs of the 8-Fold Path of Astanga Yoga. The yamas are a set of five restraints – non-violence, non-lying, non-stealing, non-excess, and non-possessiveness, some of which we may discuss later – which result in freeing the compassion required to deepen our personal journeys and make possible the path into the niyamas: purity, contentment, self-discipline, self-study, and surrender.
Ahimsa (non-violence) is critical, though, for without it everything else comes undone. Think, for example, of the second yama of satya (non-lying or truthfulness): without a commitment to non-violence in action and thought, we might wield truthfulness as a weapon, causing suffering instead of preventing or relieving it. When we are committed to ahimsa, however, we learn how to use satya appropriately, telling truth where it needs be told in ways which reflect the compassion of the universe. That is why ahimsa is so critical, it pervades all else we do and we must often be very attentive to catch its subtle tones. Adele hit me with just such a subtle aspect of ahimsa with this quote from page 35:
Worry is [a] way violence gets masked as caring. Worry is a lack of faith in the other and cannot exist simultaneously with love. Either we have faith in the other person to do their best, or we don’t. Worry says I don’t trust you to do your life right. Worry comes from a place of arrogance that I know better what should be happening in your life. Worry says I don’t trust your journey, or your answers, or your timing. Worry is fear that hasn’t grown up yet; it is a misuse of our imagination. We both devalue and insult others when we worry about them.
I can hear your protests from here, but just think about it for a second and you will see what she means. First, I would edit her quote to be more appropriate by saying instead that worry cannot exist within a loving relationship. Now, think of a person you know who worries constantly about you. You probably are confident that person loves you, otherwise that worry would be a waste of everyone’s energy. Despite knowing they love you, you probably avoid contacting them in many situations because you don’t want to hear that person go on about how worried they are for you (that is, how you’ve done things wrong and will continue doing them wrong for the foreseeable future). When you are having a crisis you probably don’t go to them immediately because you don’t want to hear “I told you so.” Essentially, you cannot commit completely to a loving, trusting, sharing relationship with that person because you cannot abide their worrying.
So friends, as we embrace ahimsa let’s stop our worrying. That doesn’t mean we stop caring, or that we stop helping (where help is asked for, not forcing it as that is an action of a worried mind): it simply means that we learn to trust the ones we love, and that we recognize that their paths are not our own.
Om Shanti
It’s easy to lose faith in people.
When all our information comes from the news media we begin to think that the world is always burning with hatred and danger. When we focus on our expectations of people, particularly in relation to what we feel as our due, we always come out feeling wronged and short-changed.
But sometimes, when we are attentive and committed to staying present, we find that people are good.
On the 10th I went down to Smithville, TX – an area just southeast of Bastrop, TX where the majority of the Texas wildfires hit and where over 1500 homes were destroyed – and volunteered at the Bastrop Central Distribution Center managed by the Smithville Ministerial Alliance . Hundreds of other people were there helping out, some driving 2-3 hours to come out. Since then the number of people volunteering their time, material and fiscal resources, and energy has only increased.
That is not to say that they have all the support they need. More than 1500 families lost everything, and we all know federal aid will never replace that loss.
I’ve talked a lot about the yogic yama ahimsa, but an equally important precept (this one again from the Zen tradition) is the commitment to take only those things which are offered freely and to give freely of all that we can. The first part of that precept is held in the yogic yama of asteya (non-stealing), while the second half of it pushes us to follow the yogic yama of brahmacharya (non-excess) because when we give of all we can we never hold on to excess. The victims of the Bastrop fires were forcibly taught what the yama aparigraha (non-possessiveness) is all about, but those of us who were not so drastically affected have the ability to learn that wonderful lesson by choice.
Some people lost everything
Last weekend, while tooling around Austin with my friend Courtney, I picked up a children’s book from World Spirit Books called “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” by Carol McCloud and illustrated by David Messing. This gem of a book talks all about how we each carry our individual buckets of happiness and love everywhere we go, and how we fill or deplete the buckets. The critical lesson of the book is that there is a reciprocal, positively correlated action with regard to our own buckets when we fill those of other people. That is, when we fill other people’s buckets ours is also filled, and when we deplete others’ ours is also depleted. I love this principle! So if I follow the Zen principle above, I do not only fill other people’s buckets: I also fill my own. It’s wonderful!
Notice I never said that we should be completely selfless, or that people in general are selfless. On the contrary, I suggest we become very selfish when it comes to our happiness. If we were to truly focus on becoming happy, we would engage in all sorts of acts of love and kindness which mutually fill the buckets of other people and ourselves. Thus, selfish behaviors, which are completely natural and normal, can be harnessed to create a better world, one where we don’t have to wait for tragic events to show again our “indomitable spirit.”
However, if you want to start practicing selfish, loving, kindness and immediately fill your bucket and those of hundreds of fire victims please feel free to go to my CrowdRise project for the Bastrop fire victims benefitting the American Red Cross Central Texas Chapter, one of the many organizations providing relief to the victims. You can also make donations to the Smithville Ministerial Alliance by following the instructions here .
But don’t stop there. Most of us know the old maxim to “be the change you want to see.” Let us all begin today.
Alright, now that I have your attention (if not go back to the last post), let’s actually start talking about what non-violence is and why calling for ahimsa is not the same as the calling for peace or “making love not war.”
In most any dictionary you will find “peace” defined not as a condition wherein violence and military aggression do not exist, but rather as the cessation of violence, normally due to political expediencies defined in a “treaty.” Committing to peace does not mean a person or state commits to non-violence, it means they only commit to not attacking another person/state at that moment. In such a posture, they maintain the right to build up arms and prepare for war, just not to engage in it just yet. The truth of this definition is best exemplified in the oxymoron which Tracy Chapman points out in the song “Why”, singing, ”Why are all the missiles called peacekeepers when they’re aimed to kill?” Because peace is another state of war, it is not a condition of non-war.
Ahimsa, on the other hand, focuses on the complete cessation of violence. It is the Christian Commandment “thou shalt not kill” and Golden Rule. It is the Muslim directive to not hurt “the smallest ant.” It is a dedication to non-violence: meaning the complete eradication of violent actions, words, and even thoughts. We don’t practice ahimsa while preparing for war. We don’t commit to non-violence for now, we commit to it forever. Calling for peace simply isn’t enough. We must beg tirelessly for people to give up aggression, give up fighting, and promise to seek only the betterment of the human condition. The goal of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions is to end suffering, and one of the most important ways we can do that is to stop creating new suffering.
In Zen Buddhism a person makes such a commitment by dedication to precepts. While the wording of the precepts (usually the “grave” or “clear mind” precepts) can differ from one practice to another, they all contain essentially the same elements. There are also differences between the practices in the ordering of the precepts, but in many of them the first one is the precept to “not kill” or to “take up the way of supporting life.” This is the base of all things ahimsa. We commit to not taking life or doing anything which doesn’t support life. All of the other precepts really just feed into this, so we will call the commitment to the precepts a personal promise to do only those things which are life-affirming. That is, we will try our very best to support other living beings, no matter the species or other distinguishing factor, and avoid causing suffering to any (including ourselves).
Can you imagine a world where governments refused to kill or support any form of killing? What if we were able to convince every person in the world to not hurt another person or any other living being, not even with their thoughts? Wouldn’t that be an amazing place to live? I would move to that world.
At this point the common reaction is to point out the impossibility of it all, how that could never happen. I hate that argument: not because it isn’t true, but because it is used to back up the argument that we shouldn’t even try. I promise you all we will never see the end of suffering in the entire world, no matter how much we do. That does not mean that we can’t end as much suffering as possible and commit to not bringing new suffering into the world. We do have a very real chance at creating a truly happy life for ourselves, bringing light and happiness to the lives of others in the process.
So where do we start? Most of us do not even feel like it’s our place to do anything. Non-violence begins with compassion. We cannot end suffering without understanding suffering, and we don’t understand suffering without experiencing it. Through the experience of suffering we learn empathy, which grows into compassion. It is only compassion that takes a good deed and turns it into the passion it takes to change the world.
Thus, we start with our own suffering, and we end it. We take ownership of our lives, we stop blaming others for our situation or expecting others to change/maintain it. For me, I had to stop smoking, start sleeping, and let loose the feelings I had bottled for years. Once I ended my own suffering I was able to look beyond my suffering to that of others, truly feel the love for them it would take for me to do anything, and then I could act. I am not saying that I have become pure, completely free from suffering. I am simply saying that understanding and mastery over my own suffering is what enables me to address the suffering of others. It is only when I stop being violent to myself that I am able to see the violence around me, particularly the violence to which I am contributing.
So my challenge to everyone is this: take just one precept, whichever one most touches your heart or is easiest to understand, and commit to it. Everyday Zen has them listed with a little explanation. If you would like to explore them a little deeper, I recommend the book “Waking up to what you do” by Diane Eshin Rizzetto. As you commit to these precepts you will find yourself committing to eradicating the suffering in your own life as well as those around you. You don’t have to become “Buddhist”: whatever religion you are most likely already ascribes to these same principles. We can all commit to non-violence, and tell our governments to give up fighting for peace.
