Ahimsa is an ancient concept that began
in India about 3600 years ago. The roots of ahimsa are
found in the Vedas, i.e., the sacred scriptures of the
Hindu tradition. However, the concept spread to Jainism
and then to Buddhism. It culminated in the thought and
practice of Mahatma Gandhi. For Gandhi, the basic meaning
of ahimsa was no harm to any living being by thought, word
or deed and the greatest love (compassion) for all creatures.
Given Gandhi's belief in and practice of ahimsa, one is
able to achieve the `softening the boundaries of the self'.
This softening is necessary if one is to overcome the ego
which is formed by the tight boundaries.
The ancient Indian traditions of Hinduism,
Jainism and Buddhism, all appeal to overcoming the ego
as a telos, i.e., an end, aim or purpose. In fact,
it is necessary for achieving self-realization in the Hindu
and Jain traditions and for achieving nirvana,
i.e., the extinguishing of the craving for an ego, by the
Buddhists. Also, even though the Hindus, Jains and Buddhists
believe that overcoming the ego will require many lifetimes,
the knowledge gained about the subject from these traditions
is of importance to those persons and traditions that do
not subscribe to a belief in rebirth. Surely, so much of
the conflict and violence in relationships, the home, the
community, the state, nation and globally are caused by
what the three great Indic traditions take to be ego or
what we in the West would attribute to egotism or egocentrism.
In general, westerners do not take ego, in itself, to be
a detriment to human development, whereas the Indic traditions
do. In fact, as will become clear in this paper, according
to the Indic traditions, even the isms such as
fundamentalism (usually religious) ethnocentrism, nationalism,
etc., are, at the root, problems of ego.
It is against this backdrop that this
paper traces the development of ahimsa from the
ancient Indic traditions of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism
to its use and practice by Gandhi. The paper also makes
it clear that for these great traditions and Gandhi, it
was ego which caused himsa, i.e., harm, and it
was ahimsa which enabled them to overcome ego.
The paper also argues that ahimsa makes it possible
to soften the boundaries of the self which form the ego.
When they are softened, it is possible to overcome the
ego. Finally, the paper considers Gandhi's practice of ahimsa and
shows how this practice breaks down the boundaries of the
self, thereby, allowing one to eventually overcome the
ego or at least to achieve significant development in the
process. |
