You
May Be Practicing Ahimsa (and not even know it!)
(The 3-Minute Weekly Insight from Spirituality U.)
If you have made a commitment to not harming people
(and other animate beings) and you spend a good bit of your time working to
make the world a better place, you may be practicing Ahimsa (pronounced “ah-heem’-sah.”)
It is a word from the ancient Sanskrit language that means “non-violence” or,
more accurately, “non-injury.”
In English we have no positive word to
express what Ahimsa actually represents. We are forced to express Ahimsa as the
absence of violence—a negative—when Ahimsa actually requires positive action. Ahimsa
doesn’t only mean that you don’t shoot, stab, or hit someone. It signifies that
you are also careful not to use words to harm someone, and that you are careful
to do things that are designed to make the world more fair and enjoyable for
everyone.
Ahimsa is associated with at least three different
religions from the Indian subcontinent: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Many
of us are familiar with Hinduism (and its many gods) and Buddhism (with its
goal of ending suffering for all beings). But not as many of us know about
Jainism. This third religion places an extreme emphasis on “non-injury,”
extending Ahimsa to all living creatures. Jainism, in fact, makes Ahimsa its
central ethical practice. Jains avoid killing anything that moves, even
annoying bugs and deadly snakes. Jains are often seen walking down the street
wearing surgical masks and carrying brooms to sweep ants and other bugs out of
their way so that they don’t inadvertently breathe in gnats or squash bugs with
their feet.
The word Ahimsa entered common usage in the West via
the life and example of Mahatma Gandhi. For the Mahatma, Ahimsa was a key tool
in his non-violent campaigns for equal rights and for Indian independence. All
of Gandhi’s campaigns were undertaken with what he termed Satyagraha (pronounced
saht-yah’-grah-ha”), or ‘truth power;” Ahimsa was the vital force within that
power.
Prior to Gandhi’s use of the word Ahimsa, the word usually
meant the absence of violence. Gandhi, however, took Ahimsa to a new level that
was more demanding of those who sought to practice it. In Gandhi’s
understanding, “Ahimsa precludes not only the act of inflicting a physical
injury, but also mental states like evil thoughts and hatred, unkind behavior
such as harsh words, dishonesty and lying, all of which he saw as
manifestations of violence.” Moreover, Gandhi believed that Ahimsa carries a
positive energy, compelling people to work for justice, feed the hungry, house
the homeless, and free the wrongfully imprisoned.
Gandhi’s thoughts on Ahimsa informed the work of the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other leaders of the US Civil Rights
movement. It also led the great physician, Albert Schweitzer, to his “reverence
for life” philosophy.
But not everyone embraced Gandhi’s expanded view of Ahimsa.
Some Indian leaders raised questions about whether one could unreservedly
embrace Ahimsa when faced with situations that seemed to demand self-defense or
require a “just war.” Others thought it inadvertently led to the partitioning
of India.
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