Harm None to Avoid Harm

If we harm someone, the evil we have inflicted, even unconsciously, falls back on us because the executioner and the victim, though separated and different at the level of the ego, participate in the same unconscious psychic field. "He who lives by the sword dies by the sword," "He who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind," "What goes around comes around": these are teachings contained in the Scriptures of all Traditions and belong to the wisdom of all peoples. This is because "ahimsa" (the practice of non-violence) responds to a concrete structure of reality, the cosmic-ethical order of divine origin (dharma). If we benefit someone, even if it is an ant, a cat, a mouse that we free from a difficult situation, a fly to which we open the window to let it out, or a person as insistent as a fly, whom we help to find their dimension, relieve their tensions, and act in a more constructive way, what happens is that the good we do returns to us through the ethical laws that govern the universe. Ahimsa is a non-harming understood in the broadest and most extended way: not harming with desires, thoughts, words, or actions. Even flattery is a form of harm, as is slander. Imposing things for the good of the other, instead of offering them, is also harmful. We must choose to be persuasive, authoritative, and not authoritarian because every time we impose something, we exercise a form of violence and will surely receive a response and a reaction opposite to our hope. Marco Ferrini