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Nonviolent to yourself

From John Dear

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Nonviolence begins first with being nonviolent to yourself.

Video Interview Transcript

So I would say there are these three attributes of nonviolence: first, to be nonviolent to yourself and that means just look deeply within. Why do I feel so violent ? Why do I beat myself up and put myself down ? Well, you've been trained to be violent. And we have to continue to, if you will, not cooperate with our own inner violence and cultivate what I call interior nonviolence or create a space of peace within ourself. This of course is the classic Buddhist tradition of mindful living, compassionate living, concentrating on our breath.
But all of us have to do that work especially if you're gonna be out on the streets marching holding up a sign because the cops are going to come along and somebody is going to have a gun and it's going to push your buttons and trigger the violence within you that maybe was something that happened when you were five years old. Or you can start fighting back just because of the violence in your youth. You're not consciously attentive to being nonviolent.

Discussion starter questions
  • What is this interior nonviolence?
  • ...

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