Mental Ahimsa

This is a four-part article:

Mental Violence.

Mental harm often manifests as prejudice, derogatory thought or speech, or intolerance. At a deeper level, all incorrect perception results in mental violence. Much of the Yoga Sutras addresses the cause of wrong perception (vikalpah), which at a fundamental level is the incorrect belief in a separate embodied self that is in some way divisible or distinguishable from all of manifest reality.

Patanjali defines wrong perception:

Wrong perception is the result of knowledge or speech that has no basis in reality.
-Y.S. 1.8

Someone who has wrong perception has an idea that is baseless. Prejudice or intolerance is an everyday example of wrong perception: an idea that another person or being can be judged as superior or inferior due to their belonging to a particular racial/ethnic/social/religious. Although a tenacious idea, there is no legitimate support for this belief.

If you attempt to follow a belief that a racial group is superior or inferior to another, you will soon encounter irrationality. Insanity is its only basis. Same story with other prejudices. Prejudice occurs because we feel threatened or uncomfortable with something, and rather than changing ourselves or our values, we externalize by projecting a judgement onto another person or group. We feel better, because we’ve convinced ourselves it’s not our fault. We’re not the ones with the problem. It’s those people!

This prejudice is a form of mental violence. Firstly, it might lead to actions or speech that cause harm in another person. Even if the prejudice does not lead to action, the Yoga Sutras (2.15) point to wrong perception as one of the causes of ignorance, suffering, and pain in the mind of the thinker, and therefore hurt is perpetuated. By allowing intolerance to guide thoughts and decisions, we let more trash and weeds accumulate in the metaphorical garden of the mind.

Ahimsa means taking steps to correct perception, and not entertaining inaccurate perceptions.

Exercise: “Sounds easy, I know I’m right!”

Ahimsa means that you must question yourself, from your everyday perceptions to your most deeply held beliefs. To think poorly of yourself is a wrong perception. To think poorly of another person or their beliefs is a wrong perception. Releasing our old ideas is literally a painful process: physical pain is quite similar in the brain to the pain that we experience when we let go of an idea. The more we believed the idea and the longer we held it, the more painful the experience.(reference study) This is one interpretation of the common spiritual teaching that “attachment causes suffering.”

Start simple. Examine your life for a habit that you know isn’t quite right, but you justify anyway. An unhealthy diet, a poor choice in partner, a shortcut you take at work, a prejudice against a social group, etc. How do you justify this action?

Justification means “to make straight,” and is a form of wrong perception. We need to justify ourselves when what we do is “crooked,” not quite aligned with what we know is right. A justification might take the form of, “I’ll just take one more treat, I had a hard day,” or “I know making this change to the product will lower its quality, but I’m really overworked and over budget. I’ll make it up next time.” Perhaps you say, “I deserved to fail because I’m just not good enough to do this job,” to avoid trying again.

First, acknowledge the justification. Don’t focus on changing the action. Just dig up the excuses your mind makes and observe this process of justification. If you can stop this process, your behavior will change on its own. Justification is a way of numbing the pain of acting in a way we know is unacceptable. By removing the anesthetic, you will automatically start to avoid the cause of the pain by shifting your behavior or priorities.

This process is in keeping with the yogic principle that we are removing the blocks that prevent the flow of true perception, rather than focusing on changing specific things for the better. If you focus on changing your action or habit, you will be stepping into a minefield of rationalizations, wondering what is better or worse, how to actually go about accomplishing your goal. Even worse, you won’t accomplish much.

Instead, focus on one little piece: the rationalization itself. By dissolving just this one small thing, you can allow your actions to change naturally, flowing according to true perception. By struggling with actions themselves rather than addressing their causes, you will only further entangle yourself in the web of incorrect perception.

Freedom.

To be established in nonviolence is the foundation of freedom. It supports every worthwhile goal.

The Yogi knows that violence in any form always harms both the doer and the recipient. Indulging in violence leads astray from the path of Yoga, preventing true perception of reality, merely binding us tightly in a prison of our own making.

If you find yourself in a cycle of defensiveness, aggression, and anger, you have been given an amazing opportunity to practice ahimsa when it matters the most. It’s easy to be caring, loving, and nonviolent when you’re comfortable, surrounded by people you love. You must practice in situations that challenge you — in heavy traffic, with someone you dislike, when you feel guilty, or in any circumstance that you find frustrating. You can affect a profound shift by changing the way that you regard someone. While in the heat of anger, it is hard to see a way or even a reason to come to a resolution. Yet I have experienced numerous times how an entire relationship can instantly shift when we drop our defensiveness. For one who is committed to the path of yoga or self-development, there can be no excuse for anger, defensiveness, or blame. Regardless of the details of each specific circumstance, who may be “right” or “wrong,” allowing anger or harm to drive your mental processes will not further progress towards the ultimate goal of liberation. Regardless of how someone else is acting, practice ahimsa.

Aggression is never justified.

You have nothing to fear, and so much to give.

So clean out the mental garbage that is blocking the flow of peace.

Burn the seeds of violence.

This is a four-part article: