VIOLENCE

Domestic and social violence usually starts off with a few angry words and a few hurt feelings that don't get resolved, and then it escalates into feelings of betrayal, rage and revenge. Inner feelings of rage soon spill over into all aspects of society. Social stress multiplies daily with every new report of political upheaval, child abuse, drug abuse, workplace violence, children bringing guns to school, homelessness, ethnic wars or some other crisis. The root cause of a lot of these social stresses is the inner violence created by dysfunctional communication between the heart and the mind. As social stress increases, we're faced with a choice: Retreat into fear and isolation, become angry and bitter, try to ignore it all, or take responsibility for our own stress reactions.

Indeed, we must remove the values that accept violence as a means of resolving conflict. This is because the ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, mothering the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction ... The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken,

This means eliminating all spanking, slapping, hair pulling, tickling into hysteria, and shaking, or hitting others, things or ourselves! Anyone who says that throwing things or hitting something is okay still hasn't dealt with the childhood message that those who love you are also those who hit you. Once we learn that hitting is never a display of love, things can change.