Nonviolence is the bridge between spiritual practice and social change.
Michael Nagler,
President of the Metta Center for Nonviolence.
Michael Nagler I was at a conference about 10 years ago called Conference on Spiritual Activism.
And Van Jones spoke and one of the things that he said really stuck in my mind.
He said,
When spiritual people get active and activists get spirituality,
Watch out.
Now,
If we try to act without being able to act in a nonviolent spirit that action is going to dissipate and counteract any spiritual practice that we've been undertaking.
Any spiritual advancement that we make will be just scattered by our anger and fear.
On the other hand,
If we try to enter into nonviolent action without having any spiritual backing behind it,
It won't be very effective.
Thich Nhat Hanh actually said one time,
You may believe,
Unquote,
In nonviolence,
But when you go out there and you're being attacked and you're frightened and angry,
Your nonviolence is going to go out the window.
Unless you have a daily spiritual practice of meditation behind it.
So,
We are going to talk about how to achieve a perfect harmony among meditation,
Nonviolence,
And Hatha Yoga.
And you can think of this as what the Buddha called,
The third harmony.
We need to have harmony with the environment.
We need to have harmony with other people.
Then above all,
We need to have harmony with ourselves.
And that means that we have to acknowledge that we are body,
Mind,
And spirit.
And that's what this program will be doing.
We'll be approaching the harmony of the body through Hatha Yoga.
We'll be approaching nonviolence by using our mind to learn about it.
And we'll be approaching our spiritual core through the practice of meditation.
My friend,
David Hartsoe,
Who was part of the civil rights movement when he was 20 years old,
Found himself in a lunch counter in Virginia where they had sat for two days without being served with an increasingly angry crowd behind them.
At one point somebody pulled him off a stool,
Held a big knife up against his chest and said,
If you don't get out of here in two minutes or two seconds,
I'm going to stab this through your heart.
Now,
David had had a lot of training in nonviolence.
And also,
He had been sitting there at the counter meditating on the concept of loving your enemy.
That's not exactly what we mean by meditation,
But it's close enough to get the point across.
So,
He said to himself,
Well,
I've got two seconds to decide,
Do I really believe in nonviolence or do I have to relate to this guy in some other way?
A calm came over him and he found himself looking into the eyes of this person which was not easy,
Those eyes were filled with hatred.
And he said to him,
Friend,
You do what you feel you have to do and I'm going to try to love you.
And within a few seconds the hand that was holding the knife started to shake.
It fell.
The person turned and walked out of the lunch counter.
People saw him crying on the way out.
And I share this story with you as a very good example of nonviolence power and where it comes from.
It comes from our ability to convert a destructive drive like anger or fear or excessive greed into its positive constructive counterpart.
In this case,
Probably we're talking about converting fear into empathic courage.
And that conversion process happens – it's driven by our having a vision of connectedness,
Of the unity of life.
So,
Every little nonviolent action that we perform is part of a major shift in consciousness and a shift in culture.
So,
With that introduction then,
I look forward to continuing with you in this exploration of person power yoga.
Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd.
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this recording may be reproduced without Mooji Media Ltd.
's express consent.
