Harmlessness and movement
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Harmlessness and movement
One of the traditional key precepts of Yoga brought through by the great teacher Patanjali in the comprehensive Yoga Sutras was that of non-violence, non-injury, and harmlessness. Ahimsa is a Sanskrit word translating as ‘without violence’. In the Hindu, Buddhist and Jainism tradition ahimsa is interpreted as respect for all living things and avoidance of violence towards others.
If we understood the truth of this offering and made it a living way we would see a very different world than the one we are currently living with.
Most can relate to the obvious evil of violence toward another and or not causing harm to anyone, yet we are still at war and there is abuse and violence in our homes, our communities.
Clearly even though we do not want this disharmony we are nonetheless living with it and dealing with that discomfort in our own ways. We might react to it and become a freedom fighter or rather prefer to numb ourselves so we do not have to feel such horror. So are we prepared to go there, as uncomfortable as it is to face the ugliness we as human beings have had a hand in creating? … and on the flip side to respond to the call of our truer selves and the magnificence we are.
When we remove the ‘us and them over there’ mentality and accept that we are in truth a collective us, a one unit or movement of evolving beings on this planet, can we begin to bridge the inequality gaps and stop the momentums that are not serving us as a whole.
This is not something that is going to change overnight. but every one of us has a part to play.
Life presents us with many opportunities to observe our behaviours, both the obvious and the subtle. We may not be displaying outward violence towards another, but what of the silent harm towards us. What if we considered the harm we direct towards ourselves that is possible through our thoughts, words and actions.
If we made that a focus for a few days or even hours and watched the thoughts that enter – thoughts that undermine like ‘gee I look fat today’, ‘you’re no good at that’, ‘I’ve failed myself’ – and the many other separating thoughts that can play havoc with us, both directed inward and projected outward, the self-talk then may become an external voice magnifying the untruth as it is spoken aloud…and often repeated.
Then the track is set and the behaviours start to mirror the thoughts that confirm us as less than – none of this being true. In reaction to what we have taken on and now believe is real comes the next movement to relieve the discomfort of the lie we have bought into. Our movements begin to change and we are now harming with every footstep, not only self-harming through critique and judgement but harming outwardly in voicing those untruths.
It can become a slippery slope and the action of harm may then be acted upon in the obvious and also in the subtlest of ways that can undermine us, and therefore affect others.
It may be in the food we go to grab, or in the abuse of the body through over exercise or binging on TV or any mode of distraction. We could even go as far as saying at this point we are unconsciously polluting the earth with every imprint.
And what if we took it one step wider and saw harmlessness in this way…
"In-truth, to harm is to do anything that is not
Serge Benhayon Esoteric Teachings & Revelations Volume II, ed 1, p 238
in the Glory of who you truly are.
When we realise the responsibility of being Glorious,
and what it really means by way of reflection
to the human being,
we will be able to understand harmlessness."
In this all-encompassing quote by Serge Benhayon, who has a lived wisdom of the psychology of the spirit, we are invited to see the truth of harmlessness in full. So as much as it is about not bringing harm to another, it first comes from our union with the divinity within us that knows everyone as equally that, and so confirms us in our oneness. To walk in the magnificence of this (oneness) offers the reflection to others that they too are that.
Now that is an expansive call to responsibility to embrace; to live in respect of and in union with all we truly are, and to live that by reflection.
Filed under
Body awareness, Conscious presence, Energy, Responsibility, Spirit
