Beyond 'Do No Harm': Ahimsa Requires Mutual Care
You will mostly see the principle of Ahimsa (ahiṃsā; अहिंसा) defined as “non-harming” or “nonviolence,” but there is a more affirmative definition that I find helpful in our practice of Yoga off the mat: Ahimsa as living with reverence and love for all (credit to Nischala Joy Devi for this prescriptive, rather than restrictive, frame). To live with this awareness that we are Divine Beings - and so is everyone else - calls us naturally to non-violence and to mutual care.
Ahimsa is the first of a set of foundational values known as the Yama and Niyama, outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras as the beginning of the path toward liberation. The Yama are taught as a guide for living in alignment with our true nature: Ahimsa (reverence and love for all), Satya (truthfulness), Astheya (generosity), Brahmacharya (balance and moderation), and Aparigraha (awareness of abundance). The idea is that when we fully embody the first Yama, the other four come naturally, which I think rings more true with this broader definition of Ahimsa. Living with an intention of reverence and love, we will naturally seek to be truthful, generous, and balanced, and to live with an awareness of abundance (a deep sense of having and being enough).
shared divinity, shared humanity
The challenge, in a time of loud division, is to see the Divine in everyone (to say nothing of the challenge of extending care), no matter how vehemently we disagree. But our shared divinity is simultaneously humanizing. It reminds us that there is a spark of truth in each of us, a commonality deeper than our difference. It allows us to stand up to injustice and violence as an act of care, without denying the humanity (nor indeed the divinity) of the aggressor. We can take direct action - whether it be an act of protest in the street or at the dinner table - while holding awareness of what good and true in those we stand against (yeah, like I said, challenge).
Further in support of mutual care, our shared divinity also speaks to the Tantric principle of interconnection - that all consciousness is interconnected and indivisible. The self and the whole are one and the same. Which means we should apply each value (from Ahimsa on down) to ourselves, to our community, to the world, and to all creation. Whew, now we’re cooking! When we acknowledge our interconnection, we feel supported and we feel a duty of care.
So when wellness memes and instagram ‘gurus’ affirm your anointed specialness, when they tell you to look within to find love and light, they are only taking you halfway. Finding the light within might make you feel good but it doesn’t make us free. When we center ourselves (or the light within us), without acknowledging the same light in others, we ignore our interconnection. Love yourself, yes, know that you are Divine, and know too the same divinity in everything else. This also requires intentionality.
living ahimsa
Even when interconnection becomes permanent in our awareness, even when non-violence underlies our every other intention, to embody Ahimsa is, as Susanna Barkataki put it, “to be mindful of each action and to perform each action with the least harm and the most love… non-harming, yes, but also love in action.”
So, here it is, the bottom line. When we look at Ahimsa as more than non-harming, as living with reverence and love for all, to be in alignment with this value requires mutual care. (I would go further to say that it requires mutual aid, free and joyful sharing of what we have, material and otherwise - but that’s for another day.) Living the value of Ahimsa means that at the foundation of everything we do there is care, reverence for the Divine in us all. As we find our way toward a better world, care seems like a good place to start. //
PYC is a community we’re building together, with the intention of mutual care. We hope you receive the support we offer here with joy, knowing your very presence in this community nourishes it. And when you’re able to invest in a sliding scale membership or contribute for a drop-in practice, know that you’re offering support to every other member of this community. 💓