In the first
article on Non-violence[1]
I have explained that if one aspires to attain ultimate happiness and
liberation it is imperative to adopt Non-violence as a guiding principle for
life. This knowledge is not new, it is as old as mankind. So, if we know for
ages how to attain the ultimate happiness that everyone is longing for, why is
it that most humans act in such a way that they move away from that goal?
Why is it that
we act so often contrary to the fulfillment of our deepest wish? This article
is an attempt to deal with this essential question. What are the obstacles that
keep us from applying consequently Non-violence in our lives, since
Non-violence is the key to liberation? If we want to integrate Ahimsa[2]
or Non-violence as our guiding principle it is important to understand how Himsa[3]
or violence arises and what can be
done about it. If we know why things go wrong, we are able to correct them and
take the right path.
During the
course of evolution our human consciousness has been shaped into the form and
function it has today. We have the capacity to be conscious of our senses, we
can see, hear, smell, taste and feel. We are able to be conscious of our
thoughts (or get lost in our thoughts). Above all we humans are conscious of
ourselves. This is what differentiates us humans from lower forms of
consciousness. We have this idea to be somebody living in a world to which we
belong but from which we feel separated.
After we left
the womb of our mother our consciousness started to emerge from the
unconscious. We began to realize that we are a being, separate from our mother
and from the rest of the universe. We got conscious of our Self. At that moment
we started our lonely trip through a life full of suffering and unconsciously
longing to get re-united with the Divine Universe from which we came.
The Self
If we bother to
count how many times a day we use the pronoun “I” or “Me” or speak in about
“Mine” or “My”, we very soon find out that it is almost uncountable. Who is
this person we call “I”, who is the owner of “Mine”? The main lesson Sri Ramana
Maharshi[4]
taught his disciples in the last century was to search for the source of this
“I” in order to find the source of the entire creation. Every time “I” or
“Mine” is pronounced it is the Self that speaks. Who is this Self?
For most people
the Self consists of the so-called body-mind complex: I am my body and my mind, and have a name, an identity. But when
we do some serious introspection we find out that this is all our thought, a
product of our mind.
The Self is
nothing more and nothing less than a thought of who we are.
Our mind divides
the world into me and others, inside and outside, in what is mine and what is
not mine. Our mind draws a borderline between the Self and the world. This
borderline is not fixed but changes in the course of our life due to the
working of the psychological forces[5].
Our Self has the habit of constantly judging the world in which we live and
also ourselves. The Self divides the world and ourselves into what we like and
what we dislike. The Self gets attached to what it likes and develops revulsion
of what it dislikes. Life does not always take into account our likes and
dislikes; often we get what we do not want and cannot get what we desire. We
loose that what we are attached to and cannot get rid of what we hate.
Our likes and dislikes and the
emotions emerging from them are the prime source of suffering!
We don’t like to
get sick or to loose our possessions when we have them, we do not like to be
separated from our loved ones. We do not appreciate criticism. Nobody wants to
die but all of us do. And even when we get what we desire the happiness that
springs from it does not last. Once that good feeling is over we start desiring
something else to satisfy the needs of the Self. When we are cured from illness
our happiness of being healthy again does not last and often we return to our
unhealthy habits that cause illness. When we receive the attention or love we
were longing for, the happy feeling that comes from it does not continue
forever so we go on to search for attention and love from others.
When through our
sense consciousness we perceive something that we want, an emotion of desire
arises. If we cannot get that object of our desire the emotion will grow
stronger and stronger. Consciously or unconsciously we will seek to satisfy
that desire until it is fulfilled. Equally if we notice a potential or a real
threat an emotion of fear, anger or even hatred arises. We will do anything to
avoid a painful confrontation or to run away from it once we are involved in
one. Strangely enough we often meet in our lives what we fear most and do not
attain what we are most longing for.
Emotions
Once the Self
has perceived and judged an object of desire or revulsion an emotion arises in
our mind. The emotions have a tendency to take control over us. What started as
the observation of a dislike can become a raging fire of hatred and equally an object
we like can provoke a raging fire of passionate desire. Our thoughts, words and
actions are driven by those emotions. Our emotions turn us into selfish beings.
If we let our emotions be our master, we want to satisfy our own needs at any
cost even if it this implies that we bring directly or indirectly harm to other
beings.
One does not
need to be a genius to understand that selfish behavior of others and ourselves
is the prime cause of suffering in our world. We harm and even kill people
whose beliefs or behavior we do not approve, although in their opinion they are
right. We kill animals because we desire to fill our belly with their meat and
ignore that also animals want to live and be happy. Or we strip their skin of
while they are still alive because we want to be admired by others wearing
their fur. We kill animals just for fun and call it sports. Plants and animals
that populate our world go extinct every day because we use them for our
personal needs, or we take their space for us or just because we don’t like
them. We gossip about others or criticize them in the hope to aggrandize our
self.
Some years ago I
went with a friend to a shop in France
to purchase a stove. We went to see the lady in charge of the sales of stoves.
She was on the phone and ignored us completely, made even some more calls. I
became angry with the woman and after a while even outraged. I went to find the
manager of the store but fortunately for him and me he was not in. After a
while I got this astonishing insight that my emotion was not in proportion with
the behavior of the saleslady, but that it was my ego that was severely hurt. I
praise that day because it was the day I became aware of the whims and fancies
of the Self.
Viewing the true nature
of others
It is not because
they are bad that people harm others and me, they do so because they are
equally ignorant like me. As much as I believe that my view is right they
believe in theirs. Their Self has the same relative view of the world and the
same self-centered mode of operation as mine. Mostly we blame others and their
behavior when harm is done to us and we do not see that the real cause of our
suffering is because of our mind that created the idea of the Self with its
likes and dislikes. So instead of waiting for others to change their pattern of
behavior we should look into the behavior of our Self. Once we understand the
functioning of our Self we have found the
golden key to liberate our selves.
Normally we do
not perceive others as they really are but only as a projection of our Self. We
see them filtered through the glasses of the likes and dislikes of our Self. It
is our relative view of others blinded by our emotions that hinder us so much
to see the true nature of the our selves and others.
For the wellbeing
of others and myself it is important to develop understanding of the true
nature of others and to understand the cause of their behavior. To this end it
is required that we develop respect and understanding for the differences and
suffering of the other. I do not mean that one should tolerate intolerable
behavior. But it is quite different if I react with understanding for the
blindness or erroneous view of someone or I react blinded by my own emotions.
In other words it is important that I learn to react out of compassion and not
directed by selfish emotions.
During my quest
I have learned to appreciate other people and animals as my teachers. When they
irritate me or make me angry, I know that my Self is generating these emotions.
They teach me that I have to develop understanding for the limitations of other
beings, rather than let my emotions reign my acts.
The law of cause
and effect (Karma) teaches us that if we harm other beings sooner or later we
will have to face the consequences Our negative acts will cause our own
suffering in the future. This is not so much to punish us, but more to give us
an opportunity to change our ignorant negative behavior for an intelligent
behavior that will cause lasting happiness for others and for me. In a separate
article I will deal with the law of cause and effect which is so important to
understand.
The Nature of the Self
There are many
theories on the nature and origin of the Self and the body-mind complex from
prominent biologists, neuro-scientists, psychologists, philosophers and others.
There is quite some interesting literature available and even more literature
that exposes the ignorance of scientists and others regarding the true nature
of the Self.
Why is there so
much ignorance about the real identity of the Self? That is because the Self is
a product of the mind, it is no more than the thought of who we are. This
thought springs from the mind like all other thoughts one can have. When we
want to see where the thought of “I“ originates we have to look at the mind
itself, the mother of all thoughts. But looking at the mind by reflection is as
impossible as it is to see your eye with your eye. You can try but will soon
find out that you need a mirror to do that, and in a mirror we see only a
projection of the eye, not the eye itself. Equally, thoughts are only a
projection of the mind. So people who try to understand the true nature of the
mind by reflection will never discover its true nature.
It is with a
combination of continuous study, contemplation and meditation that we can
realize the absolute selfless nature of the mind as we can learn in Buddhism or
the supreme Self of pure awareness as it is taught in Vedanta Joga.
The authentic
nature of every one of us is a nature of non-violence, love and compassion. It
is through the obscurations of the emotional Self that we lose sight of this
true nature and become selfish. This is the result of our Karma, the
consequence of our negative actions in the past in this life and in previous
lives. When we follow the path of Dharma we can purify our Karma and take off
the layers that obscure our true nature. It is this path that brings joy and
happiness to others and us.
Non-violence as guiding
principle
The day I
discovered the tremendous negative impact of the Self on my wellbeing and that
of others, I decided to do something about it and started my quest to find the
right means to heal myself. My experience until today taught me that there are
two parallel approaches that reinforce each other.
The first is gaining
insight in the working of the mind, the nature of the Self and its emotions and
train ourselves in controlling our emotions. We can learn to intercept our
emotions at an early stage when they arise before they are amplified by an
uncontrolled mind and get out of hand. Once we recognize our emerging emotions
in the beginning we can tame them and think, speak and act with a clear mind.
The second
approach is adopting non-violence as a guiding principle. This means to develop
the firm aspiration to live without harming other beings. Everything we do,
every word we speak and even every thought that arises in our mind we have to
check to see if we harm other living creatures.
Once we become
aware that we deviate from the path of non-violence and instead behave
selfishly, we can correct ourselves. In this way we train our minds to become
more open to the needs of others and we implement the value of non-violence in
our daily lives. Some may say that this is a very idealistic approach and even
masochistic. Such a reflection is
understandable but arises from ignorance. The reality is that our true nature
is altruistic. And that when we develop an altruistic way of life we approach
more our very nature. By doing so will experience more joy and happiness and less
suffering in life. Try it, nobody suffers from not harming sentient beings.
Living a life
guided by the value of non-violence requires faith and courage. Faith that this
is the genuine path that leads to liberation and ultimate happiness. Courage to
overcome the obstacles we will meet on our path and to subdue our Self. The
Self will react with gross and subtle trick in order to survive your efforts to
take over control.
You have nothing
to loose by not harming, only your suffering and that of others.
[1] Non-violence – The Heart of
Dharma, Joep Ingen Housz, April 2007
[2] Ahimsa – Not harming
life, other sentient beings, through thought, speech or act.
[3] Himsa – Harming life,
other sentient beings, through thought,
speech or act
[4] The collected works of Sri
Ramana Maharshi (1889 – 1950); Ed. Sri Ramanasramam (December 1, 2002)
[5] No Boundary - Ken Wilber;
Shambala 1981
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