In India there is the idea of Ahimsa: non violence. While we all aspire to not be violent it isn’t that simple.
Every day we are harmed and we harm. Someone may get annoyed with us and say something hurtful. We may be successful at something and others may be spiteful and wish to harm us. We may innocently eat some meat, but inadvertently rely upon the animal having been harmed. We may watch a film and wish that someone becomes harmed. We may watch the news and support the harming of others. We may buy some cheap clothes knowing that they are cheap because the manufacturer doesn’t pay a good wage thus harming the workers. We may drive dangerously, or eat unhealthy foods, or smoke knowing that these may do some harm to ourselves. We may be unkind to ourself being harsh and critical of what we are or have done. We may deep down have come to not value ourselves and treat ourselves poorly. There may even be moments where we even take pleasure in harming others, moments in films or the Roman colloseum where macabre and voyeristic pleasures arise from the suffering of others. Harm has many guises.
So I’ve classified this into 5 types. (1) Harm that arises by accident e.g. hitting someone while driving carefully (2) Harm that arises through ignorance e.g. eating meat (3) Harm that arises intentionally but for good reasons e.g. the killing of Osama Bin Laden (4) Harm that arises intentionally for bad reasons e.g. shooting a bank guard, self harm (5) Harm that arises for pleasure or for its own sake.
(1) Cannot be avoided. If we respond with the intention of easing the distress this is actually no longer harm. Trying to avoid responsibility or distance ourselves from the situation is not the best response. Making it so that it is lucky we were the person involved turns things around. Harm is bad, our goal is to reduce harm.
(2) If we are genuinely unaware then this is like 1. However if we are sensitive the thought should eventually arise that we are actually causing harm and we should act the reduce distress. Harm is bad, our goal is to reduce harm.
(3) Because we believe we are doing good this type of harm is complex. Great evils have been committed under the belief it was good, for example the allied bombing of innocent civilians in WW2 accounting for the deaths of over half a million men, women and children. Whatever our reasons this is harm. A simple thought is to consider what it would feel like if the Axis powers had killed half a million US civilians. It is harm regardless who it is done to. Irrespective whether such a world is possible, we need be clear that the best world is a world without such harm occurring to any one. If there are evil people who are intent on harming us, we may indeed need to harm them in order to stop them harming, but out intention must be to reduce the harm done. If we don’t understand this, when we are harmed we may become angry and wish to do harm ourself. We are now agents of evil not good and so harm multiplies and spreads. When we do harm to others if they are unwise they will wish to do harm and so on in a chain reaction until it finds wise people who will soak up the harm. Harm is bad, our goal is to reduce harm.
(4) This is simpler however most criminals think they are justified in what they do. I robbed the bank because I have a family to feed, or the rich people who put money in the bank can afford to lose it, or the bank will just write it off and no one has been harmed. The guard who I shot should have just backed off, it wasn’t worth his silly wage packet to protect the bank: he is a fool. However whatever the reasons harm has been done. On the flip side people who have had their money stolen may get angry and wish the robber harmed. Perhaps a death penalty in punishment for shooting the guard. This is also increasing the harm. Harm is bad, our goal is to reduce harm.
(5) This is the most complex. De Sade famously wrote about the life of unrestrained pursuit of pleasure. As a pure individual our pleasure is the most important thing even if it results in harm coming to others. This is the Libertine philosophy. We may even enjoy inflicting pain on others, experiencing the power that comes from such position of “superiority” and “dominance”. I wonder what was in the minds of Romans at the colloseum watching half a million people put to death for the crowd. These people were being executed by the state for being bad, so no one had to feel any sympathy for them. It was a pure spectacle of state power and the submission of Rome’s enemies to the sword, fire, dropping from cranes, or wild animal or whatever diverse way of execution. De Sade had justified the harm in that he believed in “himself” as powerful and justified, just as the Roman crowd had done. However again we need only consider what it would be like to be a victim of De Sade’s imagination or the Roman state to know that this predicament is not our first choice.
We may consider being released to the lions as having some sporting value. We would have a chance to prove our strength and perhaps be victorious punching the lions eyes out and strangling it. Perhaps we would gain favour with the crowd. Perhaps we might beat De Sade and prove that we’re actually stronger than the pain he wished to inflict, not giving him the satifaction of beating us. Perhaps we are low in life, hating ourselves, suffering so much ourselves that we welcome the suffering and death as a release from our own torment. Certainly when we are in suffering it makes it very hard to accept peace and love ourself. But at root all these are not comparable to being without suffering and distress. We would always chose freedom from distress. And so likewise we know that other’s (including animals) will always chose freedom from distress.
Now that for a minute plays into De Sade’s and the Roman state’s hands. He knows despite the strength of the captive that they would prefer freedom from distress, and he has the power to deny them this freedom because of his own freedom. However De Sade has a problem. He believes in himself, in his own pleasure beyond that of others. What he doesn’t see is that he isn’t that free because he needs to experience that freedom through oppressing other people and effectively stealing their freedom. The Roman state could only prove its existence and power by oppressing people in the colloseum. Remove the captives and suddenly everything goes empty. Indeed the self depends on others in whatever mode we chose from a mode of harm to a mode of help. Fact for everyone is that we take pleasure and depend upon in others whatever the mode. If we take pleasure in harming others we will find relationships with others very difficult, ard work and complex; if we take pleasure in helping others we will find relationships effortless, automatic and simple. We are, by ourselves, nothing. Looking inside ourself we see that there is nothing there: it is an empty space in which feelings, thoughts, memories arise but we ourself are nothing! Ironically the psychopath sees other people as empty, he’s half way there he only needs to see himself as empty too and then he can see he is the same as others.
So what of troubling feels arising from pleasure at harm. The soldier who experiences exhilaration fighting, or the boxer getting a rush as he crushes his opponent. Such things happen. The point is to realise clearly that such pleasures and out comes are not as good as love, mutuality , equality, cooperation, joy and helping. Harm is bad, our goal is to reduce harm.
So what is Heaven like. The Vikings believe the perfect Heaven was heading into battle every morning, killing and dying again, resurrecting and celebrating every evening at a huge victory feast, getting drunk with an endless supply of beer delievered by voluptuous celestial maidens, sleeping and arising to do it all over again. Quite a busy heaven. I wonder tho what of a heaven where we can seek peace. The Chinese saying goes, “the wise value peace over pleasure”.
We are in a bright space with gentle music, it is warm and a faint fragrance of meadows and flowers is in the air. We are lying down at ease, comfortable with our head in the lap of our celestial guardian. She/He is wise and infinitely kind and wishes us no harm, but only wishes the best for us. They know our thoughts, our deeds, our feelings: they know that all things are well now and no harm can arise within us or around us. We can relax and know that all things are good. It is safe to feel love for them, to feel affectionate, to enjoy their company, they are feeling infinite kindness and love for us. We may have some anxieties arise: maybe we think we will be punished for something, maybe it is too good to be true and we don’t deserve this, maybe we think we will get lazy and lose the strength to be independent, maybe we will feel guilty for things we have not done, or feel an urgency to get on with things we must do or assist people we are responsible for, maybe we will become anxious about it ending, perhaps we may feel bored, or feel afraid, or hateful… there are many forms that disturbance and distress take. Our celestial guardian knows all these things and assures us that everythink is well and is being taken care of, there is nothing for us to do. We are free from distress, discomfort, worries, suffering; we are safe, we are healthy, we are at ease, we are loved, we are valuable, we are happy, we are content, we are at peace like the surface of a still pool of water in the deep emerald forest.
Now while thoughts may arise like “how long can this peace last” or “this is not practical, how can I eat or pay y mortgage” or “my guardian is wasting their time with me”, these are simply example of distrurbance, distress and harm. Nothing wrong is them, we just let them come and go. Peace means to let things come and go by themselves and experience just the simple joy of the present moment.
Now compared with the Viking in Valhalla this Heaven is boring. But we have an advantage over the Viking: we are not running away from boredom. Boredom is just one of those things that disturb us and keeps us from peace. Are the Vikings really that afraid of being bored?
Once we know peace for ourself and are clear that it is the best state of mind, we are in no doubt that harm is never good. Harm is not something that can benefit ourselves, and it is not something that can benefit other people either. Maybe when our celestial guardian sees the time to return us to our usual world we see that there is no one out there who has that patience and love for us. Indeed very few people do. But what we can do is, now we know the deep value of Peace, we can take the place of that celestial guardian and try and at least make a Heaven for someone else. And we should be careful not to criticise ourselves and feel down or bad when we fail as this is simply more harm. Anything done to reduce harm is the goal of Heaven. And we can always return to our own celestial guardian when ever we want: that peace is always there inside us when we want it once we give up harm. And the more we experience and know Peace the stronger and easier to find it becomes for us. Harm is bad, our goal is to reduce harm. May all being be free from harm. Ahimsa.
