Journey to Enlightenment Part 01

Author(s): Chitrabhanu, Chetana Catherine Florida, Nirmala Hanke, Raksha Penni Helsene
Publisher: Create Space

Page 135

Spring 2003: What is the Philosophy and Practice of Reverence for all Life?
More than twenty-five hundred (2500) years ago, Mahavira made a simple yet profound statement based on the absorption of Ahimsa - Non-violence - into the fabric of his consciousness. He realized, “All life is just like me. I want to live. So do all souls, all living beings. The instinct of self-preservation is universal. Every animate being clings to life and fears death. Each of us wants to be free from pain. So let me carry out all of my activities with great care so as not to be harmful to any living being."
The philosophy of Non-Violence is a living practice. More than refraining from violence, it is a deep Reverence for All Life. We come to realize that our life force is precious and that we are here to respect and reveal its innate wisdom. It is a process of taking care of both our inner being and the material envelope in which it dwells. Like a mother nurturing the development of her child, we do what is healthful and helpful for our spiritual growth.
Most of us are not used to treating ourselves with gentleness and love. It requires a conscious decision. The practice of Reverence for All life begins with a decision to not take any hurtful influence into our body or mind. This is called samvara, stoppage, or stepping apart from the rat race, discontinuing pain-creating habits, and re-evaluating one's thought and practices in life.
Observation and Self-Inquiry
The automatic and mechanical aspects of living cease to rule us when we activate our faculty of observation and self-inquiry. We take time to notice the universal law of cause and effect and how it is functioning as a precise computer in our lives. There is a real connection between the vibrations we send out and the pain or pleasure we receive. When we radiate loving-kindness, joy, and friendliness, it multiplies and comes back to us.
Violent thoughts are as real as the tangible world. They too, return to us. When anger, jealousy, or unfulfilled ambitions goad us, the one whom we damage first is our own self.
This is equally true of harsh, slanderous, or critical speech. It works like a matchstick; before it ignites something else, it burns its own mouth.
Through practice of self-respect, we recognize that our peace is the most precious thing in the world. Before hating, judging, or treating anyone as an inferior, we check ourselves. Before buying or using any we product, we ask “By my action, am I causing any living being to pay a price in pain? Directly or indirectly, am I causing a life to be lost?'
We take the help of meditation to know and remember what we really are. In our natural state, our soul is nothing but love, energy, peace and bliss. Gradually we glide to a peak of realization and joy, exclaiming, “I am life! I am a living conscious energy! I feel my life force moving in all my limbs and awakening all my cells with awareness!” At the heart of the experience of self-reverence, we realize that the same energy which is pulsating in us is also vibrating in all living beings. When this awareness dawns, we see
136 - Journey to Enlightenment