II.35 Ahimsa: nonviolence, love, compassion for all – The first principal of Yama In the presence of one firmly established in nonviolence, all hostilities cease. The practice of Ahimsa transports us to Golden Age awareness, where the entire world of people, animals, plants, and inanimate objects is our family and friends, and ultimately we are one. To see the world through pure hearts without the mind’s ability to discriminate and differences emerge. Ahimsa is a vast and continuous practice. Rather than waking up tomorrow and vowing to have reverence for everyone and everything all the time, choose something specific to work on. Give yourself the opportunity to succeed. Some ideas for practicing ahimsa towards the earth: Donate to plant trees for the future or find a local organization where you can plant trees directly in your community; or even grow your own garden and commit to nourish yourself from it every day. Practicing ahimsa towards animals: Some yogis and yoginis choose to go vegetarian or vegan, do you have to become vegetarian or vegan in order to practice ahimsa towards animals? No. Just become aware of the food you are putting into your body and where it comes from and how the animals are treated in the span of their life. Do some research! And do your best not to support companies that torture, drug a mutilate the food that you consume. Before each meal acknowledge that sacrifice and give thanks to the life that was given to sustain your own. If you decide to become vegetarian or vegan again, RESEARCH, make sure you get the nutrients your body needs, there are some wonderful plant based proteins supplements in the world today. Practicing ahimsa towards others: Patanjali recommends that your yoga practice be based on the determination to avoid not just harmful actions, but harmful thoughts. Our thoughts are very powerful and can lead to the harm of other as well as to the harm of ourselves. Compassion is an essential ingredient of ahimsa. Through compassion you can begin to see yourself in others. Developing compassion trains the mind to see past our differences. If you find yourself having angry or harmful thoughts toward another go the root cause of those thoughts. Nothing exists without a root cause, examine the motives of your thoughts and actions. Are they selfish or unselfish? Does this take a lot of work and continuous practice? YES. However, as a divine being it is your job to perfect your thoughts and actions to act in the most selfless and compassionate way toward all other beings who are also divine despite what reservations or judgments that may surface in you; learn to let those reservations and judgments go. Strive to see the divine in all. “Until we stop harming all other beings, we are ALL still savages.” – Thomas Edison
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 22:48:39 +0000
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