We don't sell the fish – we give you the rod.
The One Thesis: Ahimsa
I live in Wittenberg. By coincidence or perhaps not.
On a church in the old town stands a memorial. It says Martin Luther was a Jew-hater. That made me curious.
Why do we venerate someone who preached hate?
I researched. What I found was more complicated than the memorial. Luther spoke with Jews. He respected them at first. Then he changed his mind. Then he changed his books.
The same early words – suddenly under a different intention. History was not rewritten. But the light had changed.
I sat before that door one year ago. The same door where Luther nailed his 95 theses in 1517. I meditated. And I had only one thesis. Just one.
Cause no suffering to any living being.
95 theses reduced to one. The essential. The rest is noise.
This one thesis has a name. It comes from Sanskrit. It is thousands of years old. It is called Ahimsa.
Ahimsa means non-violence. Gandhi carried it into the world. But it was always there – in yoga, in Jainism, in Buddhism. In every person who stopped fighting and started understanding.
I have practiced Kundalini yoga. Hatha yoga. Tantra yoga. And everywhere – Ahimsa. Non-violence as foundation. Not as weakness. As strength.
Ahimsa also means – we cause no suffering to animals when we can avoid it.
That does not mean eating no meat. That means eating consciously.
At the European Rainbow Gathering in Sweden the Sami came to visit. They brought the Family an animal. A consecration. A dedication. A gift from deep respect.
Some people ate the meat. Not because they had to. But because it was consecrated. Because it was a connection – between the Sami, the Family, the animal, the land.
That is the difference.
The indigenous people of America – whom we call Indians – shot animals with bow and arrow. So the animals would not know who it was. So they would carry no enmity. They always shot the weakest. Natural selection. And they thanked the animal. For its life. For its nourishment. That is consecration.
A pig fattened to be killed that is not a life. That is industry. That is bare horror.
A pig that lives with us, that receives shelter, dignity, time and that after its natural death gives us nourishment — that is something else.
Ahimsa does not distinguish black and white. Ahimsa asks how do you live with the life around you?
Ahimsa does not end with the body. It begins in thought.
Even in thought one should not wring anyone's neck. That creates karma. Bad karma.
But karma can be cleansed.
When such a thought comes one can take it back. One can say: This thought does not belong here. I take it back. I am sorry.
That cleanses the karma. That I practice in yoga. That I practice in life.
And at the end of the day – I speak this dedication.
I hereby dedicate fully and unconditionally all fruits and consequences of this day to the universe. May the fruits be received and consecrated.
That is consecration. That is Ahimsa in action. That is the one thesis.
Cause no suffering to any living being.
Luther had 95. I have one. It is enough.