Nonviolence

Nonviolence does not mean we do not react. It means we do not react with more violence, with more anger. In nonviolence, we are not indifferent, we are proactive and engaged in finding solutions to the underlying problems.

We do not need to wait for a war to be declared to practice nonviolence. We need to practice it every moment of our lives. If a flicker of irritation stirs within us when the phone rings or when someone interrupts us, that flicker is a rising of violence, a seed for future conflict that is planted deep within us. It will combine with other such seeds and together they will grow stronger.  

If we can manage to reduce our self-absorption, our preoccupation with ourselves and what we are doing, the barriers we erect between self and others will come down. We will realize that the underlying problem that caused our irritation to rise was our viewing what we were doing as more important than the other person's activity.

Having found our underlying problem—viewing ourselves as separate from other—we will be in a much better frame of mind to not have that flicker of irritation the next time we are interrupted.