"Ahimsa [non-harming] means thou shall not kill the happiness of others. You cannot take away the comfort of others. Put yourself in their place constantly. You can see yourself inside an ant, a cockroach. They are just looking for food, like a child. They don't hate anyone....Compare yourself to your pet. When you are not there, they suffer your absence."
"I knew one man who had memorized the entire Bhagavad-Gita. But he could not live one line of it. What is the point?
"The Dhammapada says that all beings love life... those who harm the helpless will suffer ten times more."
-Sri Dharma Mittra
At Kripalu, 2/17/12
Dharma said:
ReplyDelete"I knew one man who had memorized the entire Bhagavad-Gita. But he could not live one line of it. What is the point?"
This is PERFECT!!!!!
On another topic -- I'm sorry that I will miss the upcoming Retreat--March3-4. We'll be gettin back from our FL trip late March 2nd. I'll be sure and do yoga on the beach however.
Ralph from DeKalb
RHH, have fun in Florida. I went to Ft. Myers for work in January and got to practice yoga outside (In shorts! Yes, it was great!).
ReplyDeleteI don't eat meat or buy cosmetics tested on animals, but I do take medicines, which were tested on animals (and people in 3rd world countries). Sometimes there's a line of ants marching towards my agave and my husband breaks out the spray (I could argue that's his act, but I haven't killed my own bugs since I got married :o). Or I unintentionally cut a worm in half when I'm gardening. Or maybe there are aphids eating my tomatoes and I kill them intentionally.
So I am wondering...how does one decide when's "enough" with ahimsa? It seems that it would be maddenlingly hard to do it perfectly. Or is it one of those things where you just do the best you can within practical limits?
Ralph - I will miss you and the other 815ers. Timing is everything, though - especially when it comes to sleep. I hope you and your wife have a lovely, peaceful, warm and sunny trip. (The next retreat is Nov. 2-4).
ReplyDeleteGayle, you answered your own question. That said, it's good to do a little more when possible (such as, say, not buying a down jacket, once one knows how they get the feathers), rather than plateauing and calling it a day.
So the answer is that enough is always a little more than I'm already doing.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how others respond to my choices. For example, it's not the people closest to me that give me grief over my diet but coworkers I rarely eat with. "it's not normal" and "I'm not a picky eater like you." I don't know what makes them uneasy.
I woke up at 5:30, looked at my unplowed street, and decided to do my "homework." Monday hopefully. And I'll think about Nov next fall (now is premature). How else will I get to meet Ralph in real life?