SYMPOSIUMS

No. 1 – RELIGION AND NON-VIOLENCE IN DAILY LIFE: Why this theme?

Teachings & lectures

RELIGION AND NON-VIOLENCE IN DAILY LIFE: Why this theme?

The peoples of planet Earth have always rejected war and aspired to peace. Yet at the beginning of this 21st century, violence and armed conflict are everywhere. What is most incomprehensible is that a large number of these clashes have a religious origin. That is why the Aumist Religion chose as the focus of its 2006 Symposium the theme: “RELIGION AND NON-VIOLENCE IN DAILY LIFE”.

As an introduction to the exchanges that will follow between participants, we will briefly address the following points:

1) THE ORIGIN OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS

2) NON-VIOLENCE, THE PATH TO THE LIBERATION OF PLANET EARTH

3) AUMISM AND NON-VIOLENCE

I – THE ORIGIN OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS

When religions are founded on the search for truth about the condition and destiny of man within Creation, and when their doctrine, their morality and their spirituality include respect and love for one’s neighbour, forgiveness of offences and so on, then they are an “antidote” to violence and a source of progress for humanity. But human beings are not always perfect. In every layer of society there are individuals who have not yet eliminated rivalry, ambition and an excessive taste for power from their mental structures. Some do not hesitate to invoke religion in order to commit abominable crimes and satisfy their basest instincts. If religions can be at the origin of deplorable conflicts, which their doctrines nonetheless condemn, it is because over time their original ideal has been perverted.

Instead of being a factor of unification, religions become a factor of division; instead of ensuring the cohesion of the community, they set themselves against other communities. No religion is safe from drifts of this kind. Each has produced its liberals and its fundamentalists. To spread their messages, they have not been content with simple preaching and peaceful means. Religions have clashed both within and outside themselves. Religious violence adds to violence of every kind and makes humanity suffer. Religion becomes entangled with other factors, national, linguistic, economic and so on, to produce together an ideology and a combative political thinking. Many accumulated frustrations of identity thus find relief in it, an ideological motive, a cement, and, more than that, a tool of spiritual and political resistance.

What solution should we adopt in the face of this unleashing of violence? “It is a fact,” says the Tibetan master Samdhong Rinpoche, “that when a house is burning, you do not put out the fire by fanning it, for example by pouring petrol on it. To fight fire, you use the opposite of fire: you use water. In the same way, violence can only be radically resolved through non-violence.”

II – NON-VIOLENCE, THE PATH TO THE LIBERATION OF PLANET EARTH

Religions teach tolerance:

• Jesus says: “In my Father’s House there are many mansions.”
• According to the Bhagavad Gita, a monument of Hinduism: “Whatever the Name by which I am called, I remain the same.”
• Mawlana writes for Sufism: “Though the paths are different, the goal is one. Do you not know that many paths lead to the Kaaba?”
• The great Ramakrishna declares: “Do not talk about love for your brother: love! Do not argue about doctrines of religion: there is only one! All rivers flow to the ocean. Go, and let others go.”

Lord HAMSAH MANARAH concludes: “God, through His many Emanations, delivers to each civilisation, to each humanity, the same Message of Love, Peace and Brotherhood. That is why all religious beliefs are worthy of respect, provided they were founded by One of the Envoys of God whom the Divine sends from age to age the better to save Humanity.” (Le Flambeau d’Unité, p. 64)

This call to tolerance cannot be separated from the ideal of Love: it encourages human societies to eliminate excessive aggressiveness from their mental structures and to integrate non-violence.

Jean-Marie Muller, author of several books on non-violence, writes:

“Non-violence is first and foremost an attitude. It is the ethical (and spiritual) attitude of the responsible person who recognises violence as the negation of humanity, both his own humanity and the humanity of the other. Non-violence is the attitude of the person who decides to refuse to submit to the tyrannical law of violence.” According to him, “the word non-violence is the most precise term to express what it means: the refusal of all the processes of legitimation that make violence a human right.” (Dictionnaire de la non-violence)

The practice of non-violence requires seeking peaceful methods to put an end to violence, in order to recover human dignity and freedom. Indian thought shows the need for “ahimsa”, a Sanskrit term that fundamentally means the absence of any desire for violence, that is to say respect, in thought, word and deed, for life and for every living being.

Jainism is a religion that places ahimsa at the centre of its ethics. This tradition strongly affirms the duty to respect all human and animal life. Anxious to avoid harming life, even in its most elementary forms, Jain monks have come to take extremely meticulous precautions: filtering water, covering their mouths with a cloth so as not to risk swallowing an insect, carefully sweeping the place where they are going to sit so as not to crush the smallest living being…

All religions have inspired people of integrity who fully assimilated their purpose and worked to free humanity from violence. As examples we may cite the exemplary conduct of Saint Francis of Assisi, of Gandhi, of the pastor Martin Luther King, defender of the civil rights of Black Americans, and of Mother Teresa and Abbé Pierre, who, among so many others, fought against the violence of poverty.

But it must be stressed that non-violence is not reserved for believers: it is put into practice outside religions by humanists who have faith in man. “To be free,” says Nelson Mandela, “is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

Non-violence is fundamental in the Aumist religion, which brings us to the next section.

III – AUMISM AND NON-VIOLENCE

Advocating non-violence, His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH, Founder of Aumism, addresses everyone, believers and non-believers. In Le Yoga de l’Amour dans la Force (p. 41), He gives advice and teaching that allow each person to make efforts to gradually eliminate violence from daily life.

Here, by way of example, are some of these recommendations:

• Become aware that violence has a degrading role that weakens institutions and leads to the decadence of society.
• Strive to know yourself well in order to understand yourself better.
• Adopt educational measures to halt the decline of morals, together with a serious moral education in the family and at school.
• Mystics, sincere and selfless servants of humanity, must refrain from judging and condemning others; they can form prayer groups to spread Energies of Love and positive thoughts of peace for the benefit of humanity.

Concerning the selfless work of Mystics for the benefit of Humanity, we would like to bear very humble witness to what we, the Aumists of the Congo, did during the troubled period our country, the Congo, went through between 1993 and 1997. Before 1993 we gave press conferences in Brazzaville, Dolisie and Pointe-Noire to warn the population against the intolerance that was eating away at society and to show how to get out of the ruts of hatred and quarrels between sons and daughters of the same country. Considering that the fratricidal war could not be avoided, we set up prayer groups in Pointe-Noire. This port city, the economic capital, was protected and spared from looting, the destruction of homes and violence of every kind, despite the massive arrival of militias and Angolan troops.

Non-violence must not remain the preserve of a few exceptional figures. His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH teaches that non-violence, including religious non-violence, must be the fruit of daily learning in every field. That is why, during this symposium, the Aumist talks, without claiming to be exhaustive, address different aspects of the path towards non-violence, which are closely interwoven and complementary:

• First of all, on the personal level, balance is necessary for non-violent behaviour in society. It is therefore important to begin by respecting our body and our mind, which bear the consequences of our daily choices. Far from being slackness, the practice of non-violence towards oneself encourages effort to develop fully one’s human dimensions and to regain unity with God present in each of us.
• Non-violence rests on an awareness leading to mastery of the emotions. A physical discipline such as hatha yoga or the martial arts develops the self-confidence and strength that underlie non-violence, which is neither weakness nor cowardice. An example will be given with a demonstration of Vigildynjaya.
• The personal balance and non-violent attitude of adults have an impact on the education of children. From the earliest age, children must be able to learn, with love and without laxity, to manage their own violence and that of others, to open up to the world and to respect differences. Let us recall that on 10 November 1998 the UN General Assembly decided to make the years 2000-2010 the International Decade for a “Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World”.
• Freeing ourselves from violence also requires respecting all the kingdoms of nature, which is alive: how could it endure our destructive violence without taking revenge? Urgently putting an end to the violence inflicted on nature, which is part of ourselves, is vital for the planet. Lord HAMSAH MANARAH shows us the path of reconciliation with all the kingdoms.
• Freeing ourselves from violence also means learning to move beyond the oppositions that lead to wars. “God is One, whatever Name is given to Him; it is human beings who divide Him”: such is the one dogma of the Aumist religion, the dogma of respect and love to which His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH bears witness and of which the Pyramid Temple of the Unity of the Faces of God is the symbol.
• We may then ask ourselves about the meaning of the “Messiah’s Battles”: about the delicate problem of the origin of Evil, its destructive effect and humanity’s responsibility. The Messiah has a fundamental role in delivering humanity from what endangers the continuation of life on Earth. Each person is now free to choose their own future and that of future generations.
• Thus, by making us aware of the causes of violence and offering us the means to put a well-understood non-violence into practice, Aumism helps us to rediscover the deep meaning of religion, which is to unite. Agreeing to progress in non-violence, a source of reconciliation, is the first condition of social peace, of inner peace and also of spiritual Realisation.
• The written Teaching of His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH offers us all means suited to every circumstance to overcome our fears and to lighten ourselves of hatred and suffering. It invites us to experience the benefits of prayer, meditation and the repetition of the Sound OM.

CONCLUSION

We are going through a pivotal period in which, beyond the violence, new choices and new behaviour are emerging, those of a new era: the age of mutual understanding called the Golden Age.

“A Golden Age world,” says Lord HAMSAH MANARAH, “is governed according to the principles of the unity of nations, the unity of races, the unity of peoples and the unity of religions, this unity having to be founded on mutual respect, tolerance, brotherhood and solidarity.” (La Révolution du monde des vivants et des morts, p. 446)

Each of us, through our daily thoughts, words and actions, can express and establish our choice of non-violence, which will foster planetary peace. OM

Bibliography (works in French):

– Works by His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH

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