Training in Nonviolence

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Anuvrat Global Organization

Page 77

A Course Module for Training in Nonviolence
6. Religious tolerance
Practising rectitude and honesty in day-today dealings 8. Setting limits to acquisition and practising self-restraint
Adoption of pure and ethical means in elections
Abstinence from encouraging socially evil customs 11. Abstinence from intoxicants and drugs 12. Refraining from causing environmental pollution 13. Development of ecologic ethic The individual who chooses nonviolent lifestyle is expected to practise the following in his daily life. 1. Commitment to a global ethic (anuvrats - basic vows) 2.
Practice in eating less – reducing items of eating during training - preparing for fasting Dignity of work (shramdan) (i) Do all your work yourself (ii) Participate in a voluntary work projects at school or at a poor
persons' colony 4. Silence - take a vow of silence at least for two hours a day during training
period and utilize the time in swadhyaya (study of sacred and formative literature) Share your excess clothes and food with the poor and take a vow to do
one good turn every day 6. Meditate for at lest one hour daily - kayotsarg - long breathing, anupreksa
etc. for attitudinal changes and undertake health rejuvenating practices 7. Walk at least 4 kilometers a day during training 4. Right Means of Livelihood and Training in Self-Employment
The main cause of violence is unbalanced economic development, which is responsible for concentration of wealth in the hands of a few persons pushing more than two billion people on the planet to abject poverty and starvation. The gale of globalization has widened the gap between the rich and the poor. Unemployment, wanton extravagance and sheer ostentation by the rich contribute to violence greatly. Wealth is the basis of our sustenance as well as a source of conflict in society. We are of the view that a new economic system which may be inclusive and which also takes care of the marginalized groups of society is needed.
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