First of all, these things just seem to get longer and longer (and inevitably more and more incoherent. And full of typos....) Sorry!
When people think of religion nowadays, they almost inevitably think of the ridiculous televangelists telling people that if they don’t donate their life-savings, they are going to die a painful death and live for eternity in hell, or of the tragically extremist approach to religion (like 9/11, or the Crusades). I feel like these understandings, while justified because of the complete abuse and exploitation of religion that goes on daily in world culture, are sadly inaccurate.
According to whoever wrote this specific passage in our course packet, “The one message of all saints and prophets of all times and climes, is the message of love, of Ahimsa, of selfless service” (815). I feel like this isn’t entirely true of all religions, but definitely of most. It definitely rings true with the central message and practice of Christianity. Aristotle (maybe it was Plato, I really can’t remember) taught that the purpose of man was to flourish, and that can only happen in a world of peace, love, and truth. You can’t flourish if kill your neighbor in order to steal his life-savings, and you definitely can’t flourish if your neighbor kills you to do the same. Instead, flourishing, in the original Greek sense, requires a sort of self-sacrifice very similar to the one that we see and hear about in Christianity. Mother Theresa is a great example of what it means to live selflessly for the well being of others. This is what my understanding of ahimsa is.
“Nonviolence, according to Gandhi, is the law of the human race and is infinitely greater than and superior to brute force…Nevertheless, ahimsa is the means; truth is the end. Means to be means must always be within our reach, and so ahimsa is our supreme duty. In its positive form, ahimsa means the largest love, greatest charity. According to Gandhi, ‘If I am a follower of ahimsa, I must love my enemy’” (821). So, if ahimsa is a means to truth and understanding (and possibly flourishing), then how can we apply that to all aspects of our lives? Gandhi says that one practical practice (socially) is to love your enemy. Gandhi was known globally for his philosophy of nonviolence when it comes to politics and social issues. Let’s take a quick look at what it means to not practice ahimsa.
If we all lived hedonistic self-serving lives, there can be no doubt that the world would be a little more chaotic than it is now. To be self-serving is to exploit the environment around you (socially, politically, and ecologically…among other things) for your own self-gain. It is reminiscent of sadism: you do what you what, when you want without any consideration for others. When it comes to food, we rarely think twice. I was brought up seeing (in school, movies, books…) Darwinism. Only the strong survive. To eat is to kill, but it is a means of living. Eating is as ironic a practice as I can think of. When you eat something (either a plant, animal, or fruit), you let it grow (while it eats…), until eventually you eat it, destroying all of the growth from the previous days, months, and sometimes years. It is a necessary process.
The idea of ahimsa would argue that while we can’t completely ignore our need to eat, we need to learn how to minimize the destruction involved in eating. “As scientist Brian Swimme has suggested, we are currently making macrophase changes to the life systems of the planet with microphase wisdom. Clearly, we need to expand and deepen the wisdom base for human intervention with nature and other humans”(811). On a daily basis, we make decisions on a “microphase level” that have drastic world-changing effects. The movie “The Butterfly Effect” effectively discusses this concept. I was watching Life last week when a segment about pelicans came on. Apparently, the mass-fishing that goes on in the oceans nowadays in order to supply fish to countries around the world has greatly reduced the population of whatever fish it is that White pelicans like to eat. Instead of moving to where there are more fish, however, the pelicans have simply changed their diet. Instead, now they have begun raiding the nests of some other ocean-dwelling bird (I can’t remember which now), and stealing/eating their young. It was shocking to me. This is just an example of how our lack of ahimsa is having a very tangible effect on our planet.
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