Ahimsa

I often find myself mulling on the fact that it is so very easy to pontificate on this blog and elsewhere and most certainly in my Reiki classes about the need to let go of attachments. To let go of anger. To let go of judgements. To let go of everything that binds us into the world of suffering. If we don't let go of these things then how can we hope to become better people? How can we hope to spread love and compassion in the world when we are still prone to the arising of hate and anger and judgement and jealousy and all the other negative mental states? Yes it is easy to say all of that. How easy is it to put into practice though?

Sometimes, a lot of the time in fact, it is actually quite easy when one has the where-with-all to take note of the nature of the mind in that moment and release whatever is being held there. When the emotion is of a mild quality, it is not too difficult. Just thinking of something positive can be enough to let the negativity go. Often it is as simple as this - even if it is a somewhat occasional practice. But what about those times when the judgment or the attachment is incredibly strong? What about those times when someone has done something to you or someone that you love that is so bad that to simply suggest that you put down the anger, sounds like a profound arrogance? What do you do when you have been so badly treated that to suggest that you need to let it go simply gives rise to a volcanic eruption of seemingly justified rage at the stupidity of the person making the suggestion?

I have often wondered at this. How would I cope in such a situation and having to put into practice my own very good advice? I found out this week. I found out that the need to let go of attachments, to let go of anger and hatred and aggression is very, very urgent indeed. I found out that the words; the advice that I give to my students are indeed words of power. They are not just insipid, 'lovey-dovey' rubbish that when push comes to shove need to give way to the might of the sword. When violence in thought, word and deed hold sway, then the world can never find peace. We need to put into practice without delay the Reiki Principles and develop our minds. We need to develop our compassion and let go our attachments.

So let me tell you my story of my this week.

Right now, as I write this, I am in that limbo-like space between Christmas and the New Year. Those of you that live in the West will know what I mean here. It is a sort of waiting place. Waiting for time to move along and get us to the New Year now that the Christmas festivities are over. I am also waiting however for my injuries to heal so that I can get on with my life as well as a New Year.

Christmas Eve saw me finishing a piece of writing for my blog on Amazon.com. I hadn't got anything else to do that evening once my writing was finished and it was Christmas. I decided to go the few minutes into town and have a couple of beers with some friends. I am not a prude and I don't subscribe to the 'spiritual people don't drink' agenda. It's OK with me. I don't mind the occasional beer, but am not one for over indulging.

On my usual rather pleasant route into town, once I get across a busy road at the end of my street, I get to wander along a quite nice little lane for most of the way. It is more an alleyway really, but runs along the edge of my home town of Rugby's set-piece Caldecott Park. Sadly the other side of the lane is mostly bordered by the ominous and rather unpleasant looking local police station. Still, you can ignore this and keep your eyes on the trees and the squirrels - much nicer.

As I turned into the lane and left the Christmas Eve traffic noise behind me I became aware of a group of youths up ahead of me. They were clowning around, making a fair bit of noise and trying to impress their girlfriends with their posturing and testosterone-fuelled strutting. Just made me smile a bit really as I walked through the group and carried on in the direction of the town centre.

I had gone maybe 10 or 15 metres beyond this group when one of the noisiest of the males made some comment in my direction. Now, I am not entirely clear what he said as I was not in the slightest bit paying any attention to them. I turned in their direction though to see what, if anything he wanted. No-one was looking my way or seemed to be interested in me and so I turned back and carried on walking. "What the fuck are you looking at?"

I kept walking and ignored the comment. I then heard footsteps running down the lane in my direction. They would just run straight past me I reasoned. Sometimes 'reason' is the most stupid of things to rely on as it presupposes a reasonable world full of reasonable people and this is simply not the case at all.

When the first kick to my head came I really didn't notice it that much as I was still reeling and pulling myself together from being punched and thrown into a wall. The thug-frenzy didn't last long and I managed to crawl/stumble/grope my way to the police station in a state of semi-consciousness. Within 5 minutes two of the gang and the rest of their admiring friends where in custody whilst I was being sped to the local hospital. One of them got away and was picked up a couple of days later.

How does a committed Buddhist and practitioner of Reiki deal with a situation like this? With great difficulty most certainly! With the practice of 'ahimsa' most definitely. 'Ahimsa' means non-violence in thought, word and deed. Violence is the way of the weak and ignorant and of the stupid. This does not mean that we should not defend ourselves when an unprovoked and senseless attack comes. In this we need to be like the reed in a stream. We bend to the needs of survival and allow the flow of the stream (the thing that could break us if we allow it) to pass us by. We do what we need to do to survive and to get out of harms way as quickly as we can and no more. What we don't do and which the reed does not do, is raise a thought in anger or violence for the aggressor. We simply flow with the way that life is, rather than the way that we think that life should be. Defence without violence takes courage and discipline.

In the attack that was launched against me I neither had time nor ability to raise a thought or action of any kind. It was all too fast. I have since had time of course - plenty of it. I have to say in all honesty that it has been difficult to avoid the arising of anger towards the thugs that attacked me. I have not however succumbed to the desire for reciprocal violence. I am simply overcome with sadness that not ony did these young people who have the potential to do so much good in the world do so much harm, but that they also had friends who seemed to applaud their vile and disgusting actions. Thankfully, I am reasonably young, very fit and of course I have Reiki. An older person, or someone without my strong constitution could be dead by now.

It is not easy sometimes to put the ideals of love and compassion into practice. We simply must do the best that we can and if we fail, if we fall and anger arises and thoughts of violence arise, then we must simply recognise that we are human and that we are here to travel the path of learning from our mistakes. We need to simply pull ourselves together and redouble our efforts. The most important thing to recognise is that there is never an exception to the rule of 'ahimsa'. There is never an exception to the need for the generation of love and compassion.

So where does this leave me now? I am writing this at a point in time when the youths that the police have arrested have yet to be charged. I understand that the charges will be put to them sometime next week with a view to them going to court the following week. They have already admitted their actions I understand, though they are squabbling over who is the most to blame. I am very sorry for all of this really. How easily avoidable this all was. For now then I must simply recover physically and find the opportunity and the good in this situation. It is always there, somewhere, lurking in the dim corners of every awful ocurrence. The trick is to find it!

Many blessings to all.

Steve