THOUGHTS 2.0 (09–12–21)

AHIMSA: from Hindu philosophy, meaning “Do no harm”. “Ahimsa” is tattooed on my left wrist. To me, this is the Eastern “Golden Rule”. If we abide by this, what commandment, rule, law, guideline do we violate? What “sin” do we commit? This is the purpose of the one law given by Jesus to replace all other laws (even the Ten Commandments)— Love. If we truly love, we do no harm, we violate no law, we commit no sin.

True to myself, I must presume in practice to add to Ahimsa, “Do no ‘unnecessary’ harm”, thereby putting grease on the slippery slope of choosing to risk personal judgement regarding what is harm, what is a greater harm, and what do we do about it.

A man comes in my home and threatens to kill my family. I kill him. I have done harm to him to prevent, in my judgement, a greater harm. The total pacifist, Ghandi, would presumably not kill the assailant. I would argue that, by failing to do harm to the potential killer, Ghandi would be responsible for allowing harm to be done to his family, thereby becoming guilty of doing great harm.

That harm which we can prevent, but fail to do so, is harm done by us. The trash on the trail we could, but fail, to clean up becomes our trash, as if we had placed it there.

Thus my philosophy, “Leave it better than you found it”.

CONFRONT THE DISSONANCE: In this case, as usual, sex. Face it, you are a sexual creature. It is good. It is healthy. Sexual pleasure is no cause for guilt. It is a great gift of God. Deal with it. Enjoy, and be thankful.