What is Nonviolence?
What is Nonviolence?
We’ll start with the basic question: What is nonviolence? But the question doesn’t turn out to be simple. It’s profound and far-reaching.
When people hear the word “nonviolence,” they often simply think it refers to the absence of violence. This raises the question: Is the absence of violence even possible? And while the absence of physical violence is certainly a part of nonviolence, it is much more than that.
The word "nonviolence" is a translation of the Sanskrit word ahimsa, which roughly translates into English as the force unleashed when the desire to harm is overcome. And what a word it is, so we’ve given it a LOT of thought, as some of its meaning does get lost in translation. Nonviolence is a power that is released when we overcome the destructive force within emotions like fear, anger, or hatred. We all experience these destructive drives, and we always have a choice as to what we do with that anger or fear. The good news is that since we all experience these emotions, and we all have a choice, we also ALL have the capacity for nonviolence!
So rather than being the absence of something (violence), nonviolence is a positive force—it is the presence of love-in-action. Nonviolence is active, not passive, and it requires an immense amount of courage to practice effectively.
Nonviolence is also any kind of action in which you have the well-being of the other person in mind, even if you have to push back against what they’re saying or doing. By virtue of our being human, by our ability to overcome these destructive drives and gaining control of our minds, each one of us has the power to tap into this unlimited potential.
Finally, it’s perhaps implied by the very nature of offering and taking a nonviolence course, but it bears stating explicitly: nonviolence can be learned. Each one of us has the capacity to learn the history, science, theory, and practice of nonviolence. So that’s what we’ll start to do with this course. In fact, we’ve already started :-).