It goes without saying that being physically aggressed requires an appropriate response…
shalom to the East and the West.
There is often a question of whether physical aggression has occurred. I believe that is where a non-violent nature is most important. For instance, in the movies you often see someone who fights all the time taking a punch to the face and taking no further action. How can this be that he is not defending his honor?
Because this man is so strong within himself that a punch to the face meant nothing to him, and he has taken it in stride, as an expression of how the aggressor felt, not as a blow to his honor.
Personally I may not be that strong, but what I am very careful about is escalation. So I won’t be the first to throw a punch. In other words if a knife is pulled, I don’t shoot a gun.
If we stay with the rule of not escalating, it usually keeps you out of trouble with the law, and also helps you not to regret your actions.
So if someone spits on the ground, it does not warrant a punch to his face. However, sometimes the threat of escalation is quite useful.
people like the Buddha and Jesus don’t agree with you, but i do 
at least for the time being but i don’t know if i am going to keep the same stream of thought i have now while progressing on the path for as i’ve said before people like Ether and Shanti are older and have more wisdom and experience than i do so…
i am all open for change. you know 
!
and hopefully all of us Arabs could have peace one day with the shalom people 
(hopefully soon, now that deserves a samyama!)
love ,
Ananda
we cross posted Ether
What did Jesus do when He was spit on by an angry mob of hatemongerers as he carried His cross to Calvary? What would He have done in your opinion even if He wasn’t carrying a cross and there was only one person around and that person had chose to spit on Him?
Love,
Carson 
Carson,
Jesus would have cracked him one on the jaw… I’m pretty sure of it.
Love
i remember Jesus being aggressive at the temple when he through out those merchants, so i’ll be aggressive with the guy who spat on him and it would be my pleasure .
There are claims that Jesus studied yoga in the Himalayas,India & Tibet(See Here or Here)
There are references to a lost manuscript, Novotich a Russian reporter and the Humis monastery which it is alleged Jesus visited on his travels. The Life of Saint Issa,allegedly referring to jesus, is mentioned too, Issa being his spiritual name.
On that basis he could have also studied Kung Fu as well.
I remember reading about Jesus acting in a lot of other ways as well.
I specifically remember Him saying:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”
—Matthew 5:38-42, NIV
and
“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
—Luke 6:27-31. NIV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turning_the_other_cheek
You can take what you want from that, but what I personally take is that if someone “spits in your direction” treat that person as a brother. But that’s just me
Love,
Carson
Also spit had a whole different meaning in Jesus’ day. People lived in the desert and didn’t have bottled water. I remember some story of Jesus spitting in someone’s eye to heal them. That would be considered repulsive today.
Spit was valuable like blood.
Me as well.
Emaho!
gri
There can be different perspectives on the same thing.
Someone with a big ego might witness a meditator avoiding violence and think of it as a wimpy act. They might think “In theory that is a better way to act, but it would make me feel like less of a man, and I couldn’t do it. Not this lifetime.”
But a meditator could think “I feel so powerful that the actions of other people don’t touch me.”
Sometimes you can create so much good karma that there is sort of a barrier around you. You feel protected, or shielded. You know you still have bad karma to go through, but it sort of bounces off your shield.
Then when even the worst of things happen to you, you have a sort of underlying resilience, or faith or something, and you know you just have to wait a while. You become unshakeable.
Funny, because this is exactly what the big ego guy wanted all along. So he tries to create it on his own. That’s the hard way, and it doesn’t work.
Meditate. 
Was there a threat of physical violence? It sounds like it was just insulting, in which case I would agree with the advice here.
When I lived in a city, I would get shouted at by men constantly, because I was a woman. Still happens when I go back, and it is physically threatening. I will think about the advice here. When they were close to me, and not yelling from a car, I would sometimes start to lecture them (“how would you feel if someone spoke to your sister or mother like that?”). Sometimes they were weirded out (which is as close to provoking thought as I expect to get), and other times they would get extremely angry (and threaten)–but often they would leave. Genuinely inquiring or explaining to them why I didn’t like it, left me feeling better than ignoring it or yelling back.
Since nothing was said in this instance, I would start out asking them why they did it, just to see what they would say. It would be interesting to see their reaction.
Those kind of guys often react well to an attitude. Like “Why you gotta yell at me, you pervert?”
Or just “F- off” with the finger.
That is speaking their language, and a woman can get by with it.
Hi Ananda, Gumpi & All,
Brother Ananda - regarding Jesus and the money-changers, even the Bible makes clear that story is a metaphor, and not meant to be interpreted as an historical event. Immediately after that incident, the Bible reports Jesus saying, “This temple shall be destroyed, and in three days, I will raise it again.”
Then, it reports, “And his disciples knew he was referring to his body.”
And so, yogic master Yeshua was providing a teaching about the need for diligence in not indulging traits (limited, separate thoughts, feelings, conditioning, etc.) which preserve the egoic illusion of separate self … as all yogic masters have always done.
As “evidence for my hypothesis” - I will point out that every actual teaching of Jesus was ahimsa based:
*Love your neighbor as your self.
*If someone strikes you on one cheek, offer them the other cheek.
*If someone orders you to go a mile with them … go two miles.
Every religion has always taught:
Love all, serve all, create no sorrow.
Why?
Because it’s “good”, or “holy”?
Not at all; those things are concepts of limited mind.
The reason ahimsa (non-violence) is taught, is because it’s based in reality.
Ahimsa does not recognize the illusion of separate self.
When Ahimsa-reality can pour through into human manifestation … the infinite light of the only actual power in the Universe shines through - and nothing can ever stand against it; it’s reality — all else is illusion.
How else do you think one former attorney who dressed funny (one Mohandas K. Gandhi) managed to free his nation from the largest imperial power the world had ever known?
Gandhi created the freedom by loving; by living from the wholeness.
When everyone else doubted, and said violence was the only option – he kept loving.
Ahimsa was the way - Satyagraha was the foundation - Gandhi’s followers were known as Satyagrahis – those who hold to reality (Satya) with an unshakeable grip (graha).
Gandhi and his followers didn’t just get beat up … Gandhi and many of his followers died (well, appeared to; that’s a topic for another thread though - as in: “we are not the body”).
Why would they give their lives for a “cause”?
Because Satyagraha isn’t a “cause” - it’s reality.
If you have a sore throat - do you choke it until it gets healthy, and swallows without pain?
Probably not.
Why, then, would you react violently to a part of yourself which was dreaming separation (for instance a “black man who spit when you walk by”.)
Heck … maybe he had a cold and sore throat (and that’s why he spit). Maybe he hates white people, or people from Arab nations, or everyone - who knows, it’s his bad dream; it doesn’t have to be anyone else’s.
In fact, just as you would (presumably) do nice things for your throat if it’s sore, or any other part of your body/system in need of healing … just as you would likely rescue a small child from drowning …
… maybe, realizing that wholeness is real, and ego is not …
The light of pure awareness can shine through as ahimsa to the small child that’s drowning …
… who appears to be an angry black man, spitting.
Imagine you’re a doctor … treating an epileptic patient who is thrashing around … and in thrashing, she smacks you in the nose, and you get a bloody nose.
So, you smack her, right in the nose.
She thrashes more … everyone gasps … and you say indignantly:
“She hit me!!”
Ahimsa isn’t wimpy … ahimsa is being a doctor; the courage of loving, of doing what we’re here to do, when all hell is breaking loose.
At HEART though … Ahimsa is more than that … actually, utterly independent of that (“being a doctor” – that’s a concept; albeit a possibly helpful way to “get” what’s going on a little more clearly — violent people aren’t “violent people”; … They’re ill … they’re having an egoic seizure!).
Ahimsa is simply the pure light of true nature, shining – the healing balm of reality.
Ahimsa isn’t an “appropriate” response … it’s the light of consciousness, being itself.
Ahimsa is reality.
Everything else is just an idea.
As most men have been, I’ve been in confrontation situations … at times, I wimped out (as a small kid), at times, I fought back (as a teenager and young man) - and in recent years, I shine love … not because it’s good, or right … because it’s all I can do … literally.
And I have yet to once be sorry I let ahimsa shine through, to help heal aching parts of myself.
And I’ve been amazed, literally, at how powerful ahimsa can be.
“In defenselessness my safety lies.”
~A Course In Miracles
Heart Is Where The AUM Is,
Kirtanman
PS- Notice that everything Jesus taught has one common thread: everything he said to do, everything he said not to do … all have the common trait of not supporting the illusion of the separate “me self”.
“The world is not my concern; it is my self.”
~Adyashanti
AWESOME post Kirtanman!
@lacinato
i dressed up as a woman once(some years ago) and i did feel pretty vulnerable. but it was great insight into woman psychology and the predatory male gaze. I could’nt wait to get that drag outfit off ( trust me i’m pretty normal- this is before ayp) as soon as i could. i tore it off in a little vestibule entrance in the high street. i waas actually egged on by a bunch of girls whose company i was with to gain access to nightclub i was barred from.( somehwat embarassing to admit that here- not something i made a habit of, in my more hedonistic days)
etherfish,
Regardin the need to feel that violence can ever be justfiied, i agree with you Etherfish deep meditaiton would seem to solve this one.I live in Glasgow,uk which has a pretty mean reputation, and i’ve seen urban shitholes, even lived in some depressing places, had to score heroin in them etc,been amongst the underclass,lived in a hostel,more than a few encounters withthe law etc but you would’nt know looking at me. I don’t look emaciated or too destitute 
Although my head sometimes can feel a little mesed up, but i know the yoga is working, which is good and of great comfort( thankyou Yogani)
I have spat in the street myself but whenever i’ve done so i’ve made sure no-one is near so as not to potentially offend anyone.If i frettted about every spitter in the street i think i would have gone crazy alot sooner.
Thankyou Etherfish for your wisdom, and everyone else.
i think you just need to keep a balanced apporach to why people might behave acertain away and not take things personally- i liked what you said Etherfish-(and this commuunicates a sense of what i can describe here as’ personal integrity’(it may have a moral pesuasionbut just a clear picture of the forest, to me , not being swayed by others, the mob, the group, trusting the inner guru etc)
Sometimes we don’t really know ( or understand) what is going on ,none of us, not just perhaps becuase everything is constantly changing, in a state of flux.We are always making asessments( judgements perhaps)Trying to figure out. This is a tormented soul, rather than just letting be things just as they are, as you find them,not trying to change anything but yourself etc.
i don’t thing any of us ever reaaaaly do- reaaaly comprehend evrything completley.. the Infinite is what it possibly is- becuase our pereceptions can be quite warped and distorted.
I echo Machart…great post Kirtanman.
One question that is unrelated…doesn’t “Satya” mean “Truth”? I have a friend who’s name is Satya and when I asked him what his name meant he said “Truth”. I guess that could mean “Truth” as in “the true reality” or “Reality”, but since you are the “Sanskrit Guy” around here I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask for the clarification. Thanks again for a great post…
Love,
Carson
quote:You can take what you want from that, but what I personally take is that if someone “spits in your direction” treat that person as a brother. But that’s just me
love that Carson it’s beautiful and it’s true this is how i should be reacting, and this is why i employ diplomacy first but if i am left with no other option in the end but to go toward the extreme i’m gonna bcz i don’t have to be anyone’s doormat and let them make a habit out of it.
concerning religion; all the saints have their paradoxes if we are going to check more closely… for example the prophet Mouhamad and lord Krishna and a lot of the early muslim saints and the jewish holy men of the old testimon both speak of love and God… and at the same time you see that they fought a lot in their lifetimes especially the prophet peace be upon him.
kindest regards,
Ananda
namaste brother K, your words echo truth in my heart and i am not a stubborn person when i hear wisdom i submit .
i wish i could be powerful enough to practice ahimsa always, and this is why diplomacy comes first in my opinion for it’s a form of ahimsa and it often resolves stuff most of the time take sister Lacinato’s example.
concerning the extreme i just mentioned in the reply towards Carson well let’s just hope things do not get that far.
love and thk you that post was beautiful,
Ananda