2023-10-23-Gil-Non-Violence (1 of 5) Non-Harming is the Essences of the Dharma

12:07AM Nov 2, 2023

Speakers:

Gil Fronsdal

Keywords:

non violence

buddhism

conflict

practice

dedicated

years

violence

conscientious objector

teachings

harming

phenomenal

dharma

non violent

prepared

meditation

ways

fear

address

feel

dedication

So

so that meditation we just did, I feel is phenomenally important to learn. And maybe it's not something that people who are beginners to meditation would focus on. But sooner or later, if we really want to be free, we have to be free even when we're uncomfortable, even when things are not whatever you prefer them to be. And if we want to be able to care for the world well, wisely. We need to learn how to be comfortable with the discomforts of the world so that we don't, we're not reactive, our reactivity doesn't override our ability to see clearly, to think clearly, to care carefully, clearly. And the it's a phenomenal skill to learn. And so maybe this week, that can be the focus, I know some of you may be have a deep need for relief, for relaxation for some kind of calm in the middle of your storm. And you're welcome always to practice as you see fit. But I'd like to this week, and help us kind of explore the you know, the full benefit of this practice that comes when we understand when we know how to practice with what's difficult. And so, part of the reason for this is that I want to talk about the central Buddhist, to teaching on non violence and non harming an ancient teaching in Buddhism is that the primary characteristic of the dharma is non harming. And, and non harming is very challenging state. And in order to be able to live wisely, with a dedication to non violence, it's important to be able to be wise about the challenges that our life brings us challenges of living this life in the world where there is so much violence. And and it begins by knowing how to be present for tremendous difficulties, and not being pulled into our reactivity pulled into our fear, or anger, or distress, our alarm or all kinds of things that we get caught in. And then if we get caught in those things and act from them, then we're probably not going to act with much wisdom, we're probably not going to act in ways that lead to everyone's long term benefit. So in the teachings of the Buddha, there's a phenomenal emphasis on non harming, and you see it scattered throughout the importance of it. And it's so fundamental that it's what brought me to the dharma, I came to the dharma during the Vietnam War time. And I was of the draft age. And it was possible that I would when I turned 18, that I would, they had a lottery for the draft. And it was possible that I would get a number that low enough number that I would be, you know, called into, to the military. And then maybe sent to Vietnam to fight. And I was a dedicated pacifist. And it was I was certainly incapable of picking up a rifle and fighting and killing other people. So I assumed that I would figure out some way to be a conscientious objector or find some way to avoid going to fight. But it was still very active among those of us in the first year of college, who most of us we're in, you know, a draft age. And, and one of the things that we had a lot of conversations about this, and a lot of conversations about war and violence. And, and as those conversations went, I was a person on the kind of the most to the street as history, they're going to the one end of the spectrum that was dedicated to non violence, finding nonviolent ways of dealing with conflict. And so then, you know, I had to defend it, I had to stand up for it in some ways. And, as I looked at myself with this dedication, this way that I was, I could see that there was a problem that I had to between there was a gap between the deep kind of beliefs that came out of kind of felt like I came out of who I am, rather than came out of just a belief, but his deep belief I had about non violence. And there was not a belief that you should be passive and do nothing. It was a belief that that when there is conflict, when there is war, that a person who is dedicated to non violence is a nonviolent warrior, would respond and deal directly, in some way with the violence in order to stop the violence. And there's lots of phenomenal examples in the 20th century of people who've done this, and examples where it didn't work. But I was inspired by the examples that didn't work. But the problem I had was, I was afraid of dying. And I could feel that, whereas my beliefs were that that I should be able to be a nonviolent warrior. I felt that my fear of death fear of the harm that I could receive, because of that, it gotten gotten in the way, and I didn't feel good about this gap. And I felt I had to address it. And, and my first interest in Buddhism was, somehow I picked up in my teenage years, this idea, that Buddhist practice, address this fear, Buddhist practice, which somehow address this concern, I had that so that if the time came for me to be involved in nonviolent civil disobedience, nonviolent action, that I would be prepared, be ready for it. So that was kind of the beginning of my interest in Buddhism, and it didn't really get me practicing regularly. It took a few more years before I started practicing regularly. But what it has meant is that I was very attracted then to the teachings and Buddhism, the non violent teachings emphasis in in that and, and I knew that just, you know, being dedicated to that was not enough that there had to be wisdom about how to do that. And I came across a book by a scholar, academic named Gene Sharp, it's a three volume book called non violence. And he was a scholar of non violence around the world and had studied it. And it's different manifestations and its techniques and its ways. And it was that. And, you know, it's not enough just to be dedicated to it. It's a sophisticated strategy to address the world this way. And, and so I studied his book, and I was interested in more of this and, but as I got involved in Buddhism, I got pulled into this world of, of practice, and feeling very confident that this practice would make people better able to live in the world in a non violent way to some degree. And, and, but I always wanted to address it more. And I did some workshops on this topic of non Buddhism and non violence, the Buddhist teachings on non violence. And then it's always been a strong current that I've wanted to address and talk about then. So I'm going to take this week to talk about it a bit. And I want to say first, that peace is not is not the absence of conflict. That conflict is an inevitable part of human life. However, a piece is knowing how to work with conflict, work with differences, works with disagreements in such a way that we try to benefit both sides. have a conflict. And this might sound naive, it might sound like it's ridiculous. And

the maybe, if you if we don't educate ourselves, if we don't prepare for it, it's not something we jump into if we get out of bed, and today we're going to address the violence in the world non violently. Maybe it takes years of dedication and practice and learning. When I was, I'm originally from Norway, and then Norway, there's a mandatory military service for a year. And there is an option for being a conscientious objector. And in which case, a person has to serve two years, doing some kind of community service, maybe working in a hospital and as a hospital aide or something. So everyone in Norway has to do back then it was all the men all the men had to do some kind of service for the country, whether it was military or conscientious objector some other way. And some of the conscientious objectors objected to this. Because at that time, there was a feeling that Russia was a threat. And there could be, you know, World War Two was not so far not so long before. And Russia, the Cold War was happening. And some of the non violent, some of the the conscientious objectors wanted to have training, equivalent to military training, in non violent strategies, so that they could and to develop themselves, so they could be prepared for engaging very actively in non violent ways. If the country was invaded, Martin Luther King, when he did his phenomenal civil rights movement that was dedicated to non violence, they just didn't wake up in the morning and just practice non violence. They prepared the nonviolent protesters, there was preparation and training to be ready for what they did. And I think in the long run, there was, some of those protesters died, some of them were severely hurt, but probably less people got hurt that way, than if there been a violent attempt to try to rectify this unjust injustice that existed then somehow we justify violence, almost like it's okay to die for fighting. But it's not okay to die for non violence. So, peace being learning how to be with conflict. So that supports both people. So I will talk more about this in the course of the day of the week. And I hope you stay for this week. I hope that, that your desire for pleasure for the lightful meditations for deep states of calm, to learn inspiring teachings for you know about joy and love or something, don't cause you to be disinterested in learning how to be with conflict and how to be wise about it. Being with our discomforts in life. This is a phenomenally important part of dharma practice, to do this. And so I want to read Finally, there's many, many quotes from the Buddha about this kind of thing. But I'll read some of them in the course of the week. But I want to read this one as we end today. The strong that those people who are strong, seek the best for themselves and for others. Understanding and other other people's anger, they cultivate calm and stillness. And thus they heal both themselves and others. Those who call this weakness do not understand the dharma. So that's in chapter 11, of the connected discourses. So so I'll talk more about this in the course of the week. And in a sense, this is also a response to the horrendous violence that's going on in the world. right now and, and violence that's a continuation of what's been going on in the world for 1000s of years, one one place or another. And so, thank you for being part of this is a very important part of who I am and what I want to teach and so I appreciate the chance to do it. Thank you