Two opposites dancing together

1351:

If we think only in the framework of the present time, if we see some present behaviour as normal for all time, then it's likely we don't ever jump ahead in our mind and look back, as it were, to now, and see how absurd we seemed.  For instance, we still have very fixed ideas about violence, and although we might not like it, we still see it as our only option when it comes to dealing with problems or getting something we want.

Non-violence has always seemed a bit passive, as if not defined enough to effectively eliminate violence.  But perhaps that’s the point – we shouldn’t want to kill off anything, and that includes violence itself. It’s the nature of the planet we all live on.  It's within every creature including the human. There’s violence within the body. Alongside the external invasions of diseases there lives an internal battle-worn immune system.  One attacks, the other defends.  Or in Nature, there’s a destructive storm and the stalk of wheat attempts to survive by bending but not breaking in the wind.  There's tension in the mind itself, between the opposites of our own mental processes, alert to violence creeping in unnoticed, alert to our non-violence becoming too unrealistic.

Non-violence dances with violence, that’s all.  Take the animal activist, for example.  We observe the violence-based world making its impact.  We jump ahead in time to watch as it burns itself out.  And now, while it still rules, we can want to end violence.  We can step in to make some sort of different impact.

At this point in time, after the exhausting violence of the twentieth century, we’re looking at a new paradigm, at what could turn out to be non-violent solutions to our problems.  At first, they seem unpromising, because they are largely untested.  But if non-violence is to be the modus operandi of our new century, it must be eased in gradually.  We have to usher it in, learn to walk with it but not yet try to run with it.  We must practice it in all the small ways first.  And if the new process starts with excluding the most obvious violence from our personal lives, then the smallest thing becomes one of the biggest things - it's logical that we start by excluding violence-based foods from our bodies and eventually move onto food that is in no way associated with violence, that is violence towards animals.

Once this is established, one's mind is so focused on the plight of our enslaved domesticated animal populations that it's almost impossible to entertain violent feelings or engage in violent acts. The differences between ourselves, by way of culture, religion, race or education become points of interest rather than threats to our own way of life. And then we could see, perhaps for the first time, the practical sense and beauty of living a life of peace.  Keeping animals locked up and killing them and eating them couldn't be seriously considered, and making war with others wouldn't be anything but a ridiculous idea.