The Subtlety of Violence

What is the true nature of violence? Is it just an action that causes physical or psychological harm or is it much deeper than that? We have to go beyond the simple definition that is the reflection of experience. One must find the truth that is beyond the ideal. The truth of violence is within the mind of each individual and is manifested in the collective consciousness. To understand violence one must start with ones own mind. How that the mind creates the dynamic of position and opposition. Thought is discriminatory, it measures, weighs and arrives at an opinion or conclusion. It is the prison of the known. If I teach you something or give you hope or provide some kind of ideology that provides a perceived relief from the unknown, am I not being violent toward you? Am I not providing a means to further anxiety and confusion?

When we think in terms of the self, of what is beneficial to the self as an individual entity, then one creates a position that eventually becomes a barrier to further understanding. Psychologically one becomes steadfast in belief and opinion. Can it be seen that, very subtly, this is the beginning of violent intent. It is difficult to fully realize the core event that is the seed of all violence. In reality the violence that we are, starts with self inflicted feelings of inadequacy over the perceived image of what we are not. Because we are forever in the throes of being and becoming, all that we encounter becomes the basis for the possibility of violent response in some form. Response can be in the form of thought as conclusion and opinion or it can be on a physical level. Because the nature of thought is grounded in the illusion of individuality, the self must constantly be in a mode of psychological reassertion. This activity of reassertion is the beginning of all violence. It is so because in order to reassert one has to oppose something. That opposition is the violence of position, belief or whatever one wants to call it.

Now is it possible to see, to realize that there is no such thing as nonviolence, there is only violence, not its opposite. Its opposite nonviolence is just violence in another form. Can you grasp the reality of this without a mind that is trying to define and label. If you can look at yourself in the moment, what you actually are, you will realize that you have always been violent and that it permeates your very being. Seeing directly without reference to what is written on this page or elsewhere can you realize this very moment what you actually are. If you can then all violence is ended in this moment. As you realize and see in each and every preceding moment you will die to the self that was and be reborn as that which has never been. It is the intelligence of the true self, the unconditioned.