Ahimsa as practice

(Inspired by and elaborated from the Jivamukt Yoga Focus of the Month, which you can read in full here:
https://jivamuktiyoga.com/fotm/the-realness-of-our-experience/)

Pratistayam - means ‘being well established in’ - it means to be practiced and grounded. Ahimsa means non-harming. What does it mean to be well established in the practice of non-harming? To me it means that we are steady in our committment to practicing non-harming even when confusion, conflict, or even harm or injustice comes our way.

“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”

― Jiddu Krishnamurti

Be careful when you listen to this quote it might be tempting to think he’s saying that identities aren’t real or valid. They certainly are real and they certainly are valid. What are the ways in which understanding another person’s identity and history and experiences are leading me to a more thorough understanding of others and widening my circle of compassion. Here Krisnamurti emphasizes the divisiveness that comes from identifying too closely with labels and beliefs, whether religious, national, or ideological. He points out that this separation can lead to violence, not necessarily in the form of physical aggression, but by creating psychological barriers between individuals. Krishnamurti's message is not that we must abandon all forms of identity; rather, it’s about recognizing the danger of becoming overly attached to them, of defining ourselves solely by these external labels. When we allow such attachments to isolate us from the rest of humanity, we lose sight of our shared existence and interconnectedness. To the extent that we cling to identities in order to create more division, more separation between “us” and “them” , that’s what creates harm. Ahimsa is a committment, a steadfastness, to reduce or eliminate harm through our thoughts, words, and actions.

Even when one becomes overly attached to a certain motto or ethos we must be aware of becoming so myopic that we lose touch with the orientation around ahimsa. If you know the book animal farm, the ideal of equality for all animals starts as a noble thing and then it gets distorted over time. Or to take a more ‘real world’ example; the activists that thought they were saving children but end up coming to a pizza parlour with guns and ammunition! We should also guard and protect our minds from those distortions, even the most elevated and correct ethical principle can get distorted by our minds if we let it. How do we balance our values and our ethos with the necessary perspective? 

One obstacle to ahimsa is this very human attribute of projecting a ‘just universe’ - we innately want things to be fair, we innately want good things to happen to good people, we innately want to see those who have harmed others come to justice. Here’s where we need to be careful. I’ve observed in the last months more and more sentiment of entire parts of the world ‘deserving’ what they get. For example, I was dissapointed to see some comments about how the southern states deserve the destruction of the hurricane because they vote for people who don’t believe in climate change. While it might seem on some level as if justice is being served, we must investigate these moments for ourselves even more deeply. Even those of us that consider ourselves social activists, we must examine what to we mean when we say that safety, shelter, water are human rights? Only for the humans that agree with us?

“I have found one thing to be universally true. The kindest person in the room is often the smartest. the best way to spot an idiot is look for the person who is cruel. Let me explain; When we see someone who doesn't look like us or sound like us or act like us or love like us or live, like us, the first thought that cross is almost everyone's brain is rooted in either fear or judgment or both. That's Evolution. We survived as a species by being suspicious of things that we aren't familiar with. In order to be kind, we have to shut down that animal instinct and force our brain to travel a different pathway. Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being They require the mental capacity to step past our most primal urges. This may be a surprising assessment because somewhere along the way in the last few years, our society has come to believe that weaponized cruelty is part of some well thought out master plan. Cruelty is seen by some as an adrent cudgel to gain power, empathy and kindness are considered weak. Many important people. Look at the vulnerable, only as rungs on a ladder to the top. I'm here to tell you that when someone's path through this world is marked with acts of cruelty they have failed the first test of an advanced Society. They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first instinct. They never forged new mental pathways to overcome their own instinctual fears. And so, they're thinking, and problem solving will lack the imagination and creativity that the kindest people have in spades.” - JB Pritzker, Governor of Illinois