Meditations on Violence and Compassion

 

The enlightened beings who I know personally or have read extensively of their writings seem to fall into one of two categories, the pacifist vegetarian types and the martial artist meat eating types.  This might come as a surprise to many people who have been taught by their religions that non-violence is a prerequisite of spirituality.  It is not, at least not total non-violence.  In fact certain martial arts lineages appear to have a higher success rate helping individuals attain spiritual awakening then the purely religious lineages.

 

I personally have struggled with the issue, especially when it comes to self-defense.  Intellectually I have always believed in an individuals right to defend themselves but emotionally I was raised in a religion which taught non-violence even to the point of death.

 

Ultimately I have come to accept both viewpoints as legitimate but personally agree with the martial artists.

 

The martial artist’s viewpoint is that pacifist enlightened beings who operate primarily out of the upper chakras of the heart, throat, third eye and crown are as unbalanced as the masses of humanity who operate primarily out of the lower chakras of the root, sub-navel and solar plexus.  To be a truly complete balanced human being you have to be able to operate out of any of the chakras as the situation demands.

 

The martial artist lineages tend to teach an extensive system of values and codes of conduct in order to insure that violence is only used under appropriate circumstances.

 

Now I will be the first to admit that non-violence and compassion towards all creatures is more “heavenly” than violence.  Violence is of earth, not of heaven.   And learning to manifest the virtues of heaven in the material realm is one of the main purposes of an incarnating soul.  However, we are not in heaven we are on earth.  This place doesn’t operate according to the same rules as heaven.  Earth is a place where all sorts of negative emotional states promote all sorts of horrific behaviors.  In order to survive in this place sometimes extreme actions are necessary.

 

With regards to compassion…

Standing by and doing nothing while invading barbarians kill you and your sons and rape and murder your wife and daughters is being very compassionate to the invading soldiers, but it is not being compassionate to you or your family.  In my opinion, refusal to defend yourself and your loved ones is not a sign of compassion it is a sign of weakness.

 

Self-defense is everyone’s right and responsibility!

 

 

 

 

 

POST SCRIPT:

 

Two of the pacifist enlightened / spiritually awakened humans who I have had close personal dealings with are shockingly judgemental people.  This surprised me.  Because of the New Testament passage where Christ says “Judge not lest ye be judged” I had expected enlightened humans to be non-judgemental.  Apparently this is not the case.

 

These two individuals have an extreme dislike, perhaps even hatred of people who do not subscribe to total non-violence in all circumstances.  I find them to be extremely hypocritical.  In one breath they preach unconditional love, in the next breath they are judgmental and rejecting of anyone who doesn’t agree with them.  They are as dogmatic as any Jealous God worshiper I know.

 

The Buddha preached the virtues of the middle path.  Now while he was most likely referring to the importance of the central energy channel, the Sushumna, for spiritual awakening, the virtues of the middle path can be applied to almost anything.  Extremes of all sorts are potentially a trap.  The middle way is a way to salvation.

 

Unlike the moral precepts of the ten commandments which were set in stone and to be followed under all circumstances, the moral teachings of Buddhism are guidelines to be followed most of the time, not necessarily all of the time.  The Buddha was wise enough to acknowledge that those moral behavioral guidelines may not be appropriate for all circumstances.  There can be a time to Love.  There can also be a time to Kill.  That is just the nature of life on Earth.

 

The myth of the Buddha indicates that when he attained awakening he pledged to help awaken all sentient beings.  Unfortunately 2500 years later the proportion of the general populace which has attained a high level of spiritual awakening is still very small.  I estimate it is 1 in 100,000 at the very highest.  There do seem to have been improvements in techniques in the last few decades which have allowed us to get to even this modest proportion.  Otherwise it would only be about 1 in 15,000,000.

 

My suggestion to any dogmatic, judgemental, pacifist enlightened humans who read this would be to go to the nearest prison and perform healings on any inmates who are open to it.  Give spiritual healing to the murderers and rapists and wife beaters and husband beaters and child molesters.  These are people that are hurting and likely under the influence of malevolent spiritual entities and need your help.  That would be expressing unconditional love.  Unless the techniques of enlightenment can work with the most psychologically damaged humans and purify them and heal them and raise them up in a single lifetime, the techniques are still deficient and need to be further improved.  Figure it out and save the world!

 

 

 

 

 

4-8-2018