RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICES

Does Non-Violence Exclude Self-defense?

True non-violence recognizes the right of people to defend themselves, their life and their property, including their family, community and country, from unprovoked violent attack. However monks and yogis who have renounced the world no longer have any attachments. They are not required to defend anything, though it is not wrong for them to defend themselves if they choose to.

Yet self-defense should never be an excuse for violence. Even if we have to defend ourselves we should not hate those who are attacking us. We should act only in such a way to prevent more violence from occurring. Self-defense should not be a disguised form of self-assertion. It never requires that we attack others first or that we aggressively seek to promote our beliefs or expand our borders.

On the other hand, non-violence should not be an excuse for not defending the Truth, which requires that we hold to the Truth even when faced with opposition. Non-violence does not mean to passively and fearfully allow the forces of untruth to promote themselves unquestioned. True non-violence is not cowardice that flees from confrontation but Divine courage which faces all confrontations without running away or resorting to force. This means not responding to violence with violence but responding to it with Truth and fearlessness.

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