{"id":15,"date":"2016-07-24T21:22:32","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T21:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev2.wagingnonviolence.org\/metta-center-for-nonviolence\/?p=15"},"modified":"2019-03-18T23:13:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T23:13:24","slug":"nonviolence-and-the-new-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2016\/07\/nonviolence-and-the-new-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonviolence and the new story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The explosive growth of scientific thought that began in the West with the Renaissance and ultimately led to industrialism on a global scale, has brought humanity many benefits, but at a mounting cost. The problems that seem to be rising on every side, from personal to environmental, can largely be traced to an increasing lack of clarity about ourselves\u200a\u2014\u200awho we are, why we are here and how we are to relate, ideally, to one another and the natural world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cstory\u201d that accompanies and made industrialism possible\u200a\u2014\u200athe underlying narrative implicit in textbooks, newspapers and films\u200a\u2014\u200aportrays us as material entities compelled to seek satisfaction in consuming increasingly scarce resources. If this were true, competition and violence, along with the destruction of our planet\u2019s life-support system, would be inescapable. Yet it is not true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A shift in emphasis across many fields of modern science, aided by remarkable breakthroughs in physics at the start of the last century, has brought to light a far more hopeful picture of our nature, along with the inspiring possibility of a meaning and destiny that was alien to the mechanistic, reductionist view of what is now called \u201cclassical science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this appealing image, violence is not inherent in human nature, or in nature. Competition, alienation and greed can, in principle, be put behind us. This vivid vision is not a new one. Nor is the image of human nature being conveyed by these new findings ultimately startling or unfamiliar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who are aware of the shift, its recent reemergence has felt like recovering something precious that had, due to some kind of strange inattention, nearly slipped from our grasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body, mind and spirit<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The essence of this new (or rather, recently recovered story) is that we can now confidently maintain that we are much more than disenchanted bodies, despite the unvarying clamor of the mass media on this point. We are also, and in fact primarily, spirit. \u201cBody, mind and spirit\u201d has been a kind of rallying cry of those welcoming the recovered vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many centuries, the sages of all nations and religions have been telling us that we are not these mere bodies, marvelous as they are. Swami Ramdas, who visited the U.S. in the 1950s, gave us this inspiring picture, from the depths of his own realization, of human nature and its destiny:<\/p>\n\n\n

On the physical plane man [sic] is but an animal. On the intellectual plane [s]he is a rational being. On the moral plane [s]he is a power for good. On the spiritual plane [s]he is a radiant being full of divine light, love and bliss. Humanity\u2019s ascent from one plane to another is its natural movement.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Swami Ramdas\u2019 image brings us closer together and eventually to the realization of oneness: while our bodies are separate, our minds can resonate harmonically. On what he calls the \u201cspiritual plane,\u201d we are pure consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n