The first principle of yama: what harm is, why "total non-violence" is impossible, how to choose food, when self-defense is allowed, and how to practice ahiḿsá in thought, word and deed.
Let us look at the first principle of Five principles for how we treat the world: not harming, truthfulness, not stealing, keeping the mind on the Supreme, not living beyond need.: ahiḿsá. What is ahiḿsá? Translated from Sanskrit, "hiḿsá" means "harm," and so "ahiḿsá" means "avoiding harm" or "renouncing evil."
Renouncing evil means causing no harm by word, thought or deed. This raises the question: what is harm? One can do harm to the physical body, or have a negative effect on someone's mental and spiritual development. We need to avoid actions that lead to such consequences. For example, a man in the forest sees a deer and shoots it. In doing so he has violently ended the animal's life and harmed the deer's physical existence; that is, he has brought evil into the world. Or another example. Someone is meditating, making an effort to concentrate. Such efforts develop them mentally and raise them spiritually. And someone else tries to distract this person from meditation with unimportant questions that need no urgent answer, or simply makes noise and shouts, preventing them from concentrating. These actions do harm too, but on the mental and spiritual levels. Causing unjustified suffering to other beings is also considered harm.
A person may have an inborn tendency toward evil; that is, in the mańipura A center of psychic energy in the body; seven major ones lie along the spine. there is the emotion of "harming others, or sadism," which may be rooted, for example, in vindictiveness or aversion. This emotion does harm.
Let us look at situations in life that may seem to contradict the principle of ahiḿsá. At one time in India ahiḿsá was interpreted as total non-violence, that is, as a complete refusal to cause any harm to other beings.
But existence itself contradicts the principle of "total non-violence"
If you look closely at human behavior, at every step someone is harming someone else, intentionally or not. In the end it turns out that this interpretation of ahiḿsá is far from reality.
When we cause harm unknowingly, we do not violate the principle of non-violence, because causing harm is not the aim of the action. For example, with every breath every living being kills a great many microbes, and our immune system is programmed to destroy microbes. The world is arranged so that some living beings die for others to survive. And still, what should we eat so as not to violate the principle of non-violence? Follow a simple law: for food, choose beings whose minds are least developed. For example, if you have to choose between eating beef and eating chicken, you should choose the latter, because a chicken's mind is less developed than a cow's. And if there are vegetables and grains on the table, you should choose them. In any case, the question of food needs to be approached rationally, without dogmatism.
A rational approach tells us that to preserve the life of a more developed being it is better to use a less developed one as food. This means that when plant food is not available, eating meat to preserve life and health will not be considered a violation of the principle of non-violence.
But if it is possible to live without killing an animal, why kill? Only for the sake of pleasure? Before killing an animal, a person needs to judge whether they can preserve their life and health without doing so. Killing an animal for pleasure rather than out of necessity will create negative karma. All animals kill only out of necessity, to feed themselves. But the habit of eating meat leads a person to violate the principle of non-violence. Let us say it once more: by acting this way, according to the law of karma, a person creates negative consequences: "as you sow, so shall you reap." And that means the suffering a person has brought into this world will surely come back to them.
Or another example. Suppose a burglar breaks into your home. What should you do in such a case: give in or resist? In this situation calling the police can be called resistance that will harm the burglar. Yet it is the right action.
In the ancient scriptures people of hostile nature were called átatáyii. In the texts of that time, átatáyii are people who want to take land from others, depriving them of their means of livelihood. Átatáyii are also people who seek to set fire to someone else's house, to violate someone else's wife, who take up arms against others, or who wish to poison or rob. If a person has set out to do even one of these things, they are considered a hostile being. In that case force may be used against them in defense against evil, and using such force is not a violation of the principle of harmony.
If there is a way to avoid a physical clash with a hostile person, it should be taken.
When we stop harming beings on the physical plane and respect their existence, all creation begins to respect our life in return, and the world begins to treat us in a friendly way. The world feels what energy a person radiates: love or aggression. By practicing the principle of ahiḿsá, a person gets rid of two things: aggression and fear. These two emotions are linked, since without fear there is no aggression.
For example, if a person radiates aggression, a wild animal nearby senses it. And a large animal is quite likely to attack. If a person is afraid, the animal will see them as prey and will also attack. If there is neither fear nor aggression in a person, the animal will see them as a friendly being and will leave them alone. Moreover, a person in whom fear and aggression live will keep getting into situations that provoke these emotions even more. If a person treats the world with aggression, the world will show itself aggressively in that person's life. But if, say, a hostile person comes up to us, and we do not respond to the provocation and show no disrespect in return, the situation may be resolved peacefully. When there is no hostility in response, the attacker often loses the desire to go on being aggressive.
Practice
1. Begin practicing the principle of ahiḿsá with right thoughts. Notice and correct your aggressive thoughts, or any unkind attitude toward people that comes through envy, resentment, greed or pride. Replace negative thoughts with good ones. Think of the other person as a friend, not an enemy; think of them as someone you wish happiness.
The resentment and ill will that sit inside us are present in our soul like dark knots. And to be happy, we need to untie these knots. That is, if I have not forgiven someone, I need to forgive my neighbor for my own sake. You can forgive by cultivating the thoughts "I want you to be happy," "I want all to be well with you," "I want you to develop and progress." And little by little the dark knots of the soul will come undone. This is the inner work with ahiḿsá. If we have quarreled with someone, we need to make peace. If someone has hurt us, we need to try to forgive. If we envy, we need to let go of envy. We have looked at how to work with ahiḿsá on the level of thoughts.
2. Work on the level of words. Working on ahiḿsá on the level of words is far from easy, because words "slip off the tongue by themselves," for example when you speak caustically or sarcastically. Such words are often not constructive. They are said not to help and not to make the other person better, but to rise above them and assert oneself. Watch for these emotions in yourself so that, once you notice them, you can remove them from the mind. Cultivate the habit of being polite and courteous.
3. Establish yourself in ahiḿsá in the physical sphere. Live by the principle: "I will live so as to cause as little suffering as possible to other beings!" Watch your diet, buy clothes in keeping with the principle of ahiḿsá, and measure your whole life against this principle.
Do the practice. May you be inspired!