FIRST LEARNING OF AHIMSA

Ahimsa is a term meaning to not injure, to do no harm.  It is also referred to as nonviolence, nonviolence toward all living beings, including animals.  It is based on the premise that all living beings have the spark of divine energy, so that to hurt another being is to hurt oneself.  Indeed, any violence has karmic consequences, ahimsa states.

I first learned of ahimsa during a World Religions class in college, which confirmed what I felt already, that the wanton killing of living things, especially of innocent things, was immoral.  It was at this time that I met two individuals who unexpectedly violated this principle.

One was a Christian theologian from whom I had just taken a course on the Old Testament.  It turned out that he liked to hunt bears in Montana while on vacation.  At the end of the semester, he invited us all to his home for a party, which proved an opportunity for him to show off the bearskin rugs on his living room floor, skins from bears that he himself killed, of course.

The other instance occurred about the same time.  The pastor of the local Methodist church I learned was a marksman of repute with a bow and arrow.  He was known for being able to split an aspirin in midair with an arrow.  It so happened he liked to go coon hunting with the weapon, I heard him say.  I pictured an unlucky coon squirming on the ground with an arrow stuck through him.

In both these instances it was religious people killing innocent creatures for sport, which, frankly, I didn't get, didn't understand.  But then I did get it, because it moved me away from the religion I grew up with and over to Vedanta and Buddhism, which endorsed ahimsa.

My favorite example of ahimsa comes from Jainism, another eastern religion.  Jain monks carry staffs when they walk through forests, tapping the staffs our in front of them to ward off any insects or little animals lest they accidentally get trampled or injured.  A sterling example of ahimsa.