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Introduction to Non-violence
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A Study Guide prepared by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Read it here
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When embraced, the rod of violence breeds danger and fear: Look at people quarreling. I will tell of how I experienced dismay. Seeing people floundering like fish in small puddles, competing with one another as I saw this, fear came into me. The world was entirely without substance. All the directions were knocked out of line. Wanting a haven for myself, I saw nothing that wasn't laid claim to. Seeing nothing in the end but competition, I felt discontent. And then I saw an arrow here, so very hard to see, embedded in the heart. Overcome by this arrow you run in all directions. But simply on pulling it out you don't run, you don't sink... Whatever things are tied down in the world, you shouldn't be set on them. Having totally penetrated sensual pleasures, sensual passions, you should train for your own Unbinding. |
| Sn 4.15 |
Choices: Living Consciously
| Victory creates hatred. Defeat creates suffering. The wise ones desire neither victory nor defeat... Anger creates anger... He who kills will be killed. He who wins will be defeated... Revenge can only be overcome by abandoning revenge... The wise seek neither victory nor defeat. |
| -The Buddha |
Read more here
The article 'Choices: Living Consciously' mentioned above was written by Sulak Sivaraksa, holder of the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) and his life's work has been a wonderful example of what can be accomplished through non-violent struggle.
- Sulak Sivaraksa's website (to visit, click on the image)
Bonding and violence
The biological processes involved in the Origins of Love and Violence are no longer a mystery. During pregnancy a mother's body provides the sensory stimulation; the taste, touch, smell, sight, sound, and the pleasure or pain associated with these sensations that shape her baby's brain. The state of the mother's own body, in relationship to her environment, safe and nurturing, or unsafe and anxious, is mirrored in the baby's developing brain and nervous system. If mother feels safe and is herself nurtured, her baby's brain, with its creative capacities, will reap the benefit. If mother feels unloved or unsupported, is threatened, anxious, and fearful, nature will give greater emphasis to her baby's ancient core brain, with its defensive and survival systems, at the expense of evolution's newer creative capacities.
Read more here
The Forgiveness Project
...works at a local, national and international level to help build a future free of conflict and violence by healing the wounds of the past. Read more here
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