The right to defend oneself has been discussed widely and there is agreement that there are situations when this defense is justified. Anyone who has lived in a rough neighborhood knows that non-resistance to abuse will bring more abuse. To be willing to rise to challenges is necessary for survival.

 

By Angel Roberto Puente

I’m not a historian, but with the little I know, I can see that the evil playing out right before our eyes is as old as humanity.

The long list of psychopaths, murdering narcissists and just plain power-hungry sub-humans that have walked the earth is impressive. Didn’t we start by wiping out the Neanderthals?

The motivation for the imposition of one human over another has always been possession. The means have always been violence backed by superior weapons. Today we can unite motivation and means with one word: money.

Violence in primitive societies was probably justified as a way of protecting the group and ensuring survival and reproduction. But even then, some men went far beyond tribal protection and ventured into evil: violence for violence’s sake.

Going back thousands of years before our era, these types of men would exterminate complete populations and wipe out countries, all for riches and power.

In Buddha’s time, there was turmoil.

Bhikkhu Bodhi writes, “Late in the Buddha’s life, the cruel King Vidudabha, rogue ruler of Kosala, massacred the Sakyans, leaving few survivors. The state of Magadha, with its capital at Rajagaha, became the nucleus of a new empire.”

The Sakyan was the clan Buddha had belonged. Even before this happened there was social chaos but Buddha always, “propounded an ethic of harmlessness that rejected violence in all its forms, from its collective manifestation in armed conflict to its subtle stirrings as anger and ill will.”

Christ did not resist the violence that was perpetrated on Him. In modern times we have the examples of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, champions of non-violent protest.

I, as a lesser being, find it difficult to follow these examples without consideration. The right to defend oneself has been discussed widely and there is agreement that there are situations when this defense is justified.

Anyone who has lived in a rough neighborhood knows that non-resistance to abuse will bring more abuse. To be willing to rise to challenges is necessary for survival.

How do you accept the necessity of violent responses while following a spiritual path?

It’s a very old question. “In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna advises Arjuna to fight in the war, but to do so without attachment to the outcome, hatred, or personal gain, essentially performing his duty as a warrior while remaining detached from the violence itself, focusing on upholding Dharma (righteousness) rather than seeking personal glory or vengeance; he should fight with restraint and understanding that the soul is eternal and not truly harmed by death.”

In violent Feudal Japan, the religion of the samurai warriors was Zen. Takuan Sojo was one of the main teachers.

He wrote:

“We speak of original mind and deluded mind. Original mind is mind that doesn’t attach to any one place but spreads to fill the entire body. Deluded mind is mind that, preoccupied by something, is stuck in one place. So when the original mind is stuck in one place, it becomes what we call a deluded mind.”

“Applied to Your Lordship’s art of swordsmanship, this means that you don’t attach the mind to the hand wielding the sword. Completely forgetting the hand wielding [the sword], strike and kill your opponent, [but] don’t fix the mind on your opponent. Realize that your opponent is empty, that you are empty, that both the hand wielding the sword and the sword being wielded are empty. Don’t even let your mind be captured by emptiness!”

In industrialized countries, violence is disguised.

Manipulation of the population has become very sophisticated. The mirage of democracy that the masses believe exists is, in reality, a reflection of the struggle between camps of the ultra-rich. Politicians respond to the people who pay for their campaigns.

What we see happening in the USA is the clear takeover of government by the mega-rich. Peter Coyote, as a student of Zen, gave a pretty good explanation of this.

But even when overt violence is not widespread. The gut reaction we feel in the face of government actions tells a different story. We feel that we are being attacked.

Let’s kill them all…,..economically. Stop buying their products, get off all the platforms owned by them, and sell off shares in their companies. I’m sure the brilliant minds in our spiritual camp can come up with even better suggestions.

We can resist violence and the evil it brings with it while still retaining our commitment to a clear mind. Evil is avoidable. The struggle between good and evil, I believe, is eternal. I feel reassured that evil will never win.

At the end of time, when the sun collapses and the entire galaxy is destroyed, all evil humans will be sucked into the black hole of the exploding sun. Only those that have preserved the original mind in sync with the creative forces of the infinite universe, in the past as in that moment, will merge with eternity.

That’s the version I tell myself.

 

Photo: Pixabay

Editor: Dana Gornall

 

Were you inspired by this? You may also like:

How Do We (as Buddhists) Respond to Violence?

The Truth is that I am Violent and So Are You

 

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