{"id":18611,"date":"2009-10-20T16:27:28","date_gmt":"2009-10-20T21:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=18611"},"modified":"2009-10-20T18:21:29","modified_gmt":"2009-10-20T23:21:29","slug":"the-seed-and-the-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/the-seed-and-the-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seed and the Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is from a Quaker pamphlet called The Seed and the Tree<\/strong><\/a> by Daniel A. Seeger<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Seed and the Tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To develop an effective nonviolent witness it is not enough simply to obey the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” The emotion of hatred can in its own way be as deadly as the act of killing. We may pretend to ourselves that it does not matter what our emotions are as long as we act rightly, but when the test comes we always betray ourselves, for our thoughts and emotions control our acts. If our minds are full of hatred and condemnation, this ultimately will be expressed in acts of violence and destruction and murder. We will eventually find that we seem to have no other choice.<\/p>\n

The avoidance of judgmentalism, a key to the development of a nonviolent character, involves more than eschewing the condemnation and hatred of others. For passing a sentence on others is not the only form of judgmentalism there is; self-congratulation for having found the truth one tries to live by is judgmentalism in another form. A feeling of pride at having come to understandings which are not yet widely grasped is corrupting; it disables us as instruments of Truth. For how can one take credit for the experiences one has been given, the persons one has encountered, the emotional and intellectual makeup one has inherited and been nurtured into, all of which have led one, finally and at last, to grasp, probably imperfectly, some splinter of the truth which has been proclaimed by sages since the beginning of human history? Can we be sure that if we were in another’s shoes we would not have the same opinions and be behaving exactly the same way that he or she is doing?<\/p>\n

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The sparks of truth we find in others and in ourselves are occasions for joy and for thanksgiving, but no more than we are to condemn those of less perfect understanding are we to congratulate ourselves or each other for superior wisdom. Such an attitude would be fatal to the fabrication of a truly nonviolent witness. It is always the mark of true prophets that they never take personal credit for the wisdom it is given them to speak; they always have a finely developed sense of appreciation for the element of grace which underlies all achievements of insight.<\/p>\n

Guilt is another form of judgmentalism which is equally fatal. It is judgmentalism turned inward on ourselves. Often, social-change advocates who are free in their condemnation of others are also mountains of guilt; consequently, their witness, rather than resulting in a clearminded attempt to help a social-change process, is often warped by subliminally generated programs of expiation which are useless.<\/p>\n

It is not necessary to feel guilty for not having been tortured. It is not necessary to feel guilty for having been born an American citizen. It is not even necessary to be morosely preoccupied with one’s own past lapses from virtue. As all great spiritual teachers have made clear, one’s soul is inevitably colored by what one thinks. Wherever our thoughts dwell, so do we gradually become. Whether we are preoccupied with the condemnation of others or of ourselves, we dwell in baseness. Our spirits will grow coarse, our hearts stubborn, and we will be overcome with gloom. George Fox and the early Friends preached the good news that we can triumph over sin, but we do not achieve this triumph by brooding over the evils we ourselves have done. Rather, we must turn wholly away from evil, not dwell upon it, and do good.<\/p>\n

What, then, are we left with as we choose not to criticize others, congratulate ourselves or feel guilt? We are left with an overwhelming feeling of solidarity, to use a contemporary term, or love, to use a scriptural one. It is not solidarity only with union organizers in Brazil, with peace activists in America, with the Red Guards or the Black Panthers, or with whatever other group may have captured a passing fancy. Indeed, we are no longer the narrow-minded person who thinks and says, “This individual is one of us, this one is not. This one is a stranger.” Rather, we begin to get a glimmer of the whole of humankind as but one family. We begin to approach the unhesitating and unpremeditated solidarity with all huntan beings which is an essential ingredient of a truly nonviolent approach.<\/p>\n

Such a love of humanity can be very abstract, and it is not real unless it is given concrete expression in the way we behave toward the specific individual human beings whom life brings across our path. To the extent that we can develop genuine human rapport with priests who have joined guerrilla undergrounds, with the directors of mufti-national corporations, with people who work with us on a day-in, dayout basis, we give concrete expression to the larger principle of human community.<\/p>\n

This sense of love of neighbor, of solidarity with all other human beings, is the basis not only of the teachings of Christ, but also of all other great spiritual teachings. For example, the Hasids expressed and practiced the teaching that love arises naturally and inevitably from the recognition that the same Lord lives in everyone. For them, one loves one’s neighbor as oneself because, ultimately, the neighbor was oneself. “He who thrusts away his comrade,” says the Besht, “thrusts himself away. He who thrusts away a particle of the unity, it is as if he thrusts away the whole.” Marcus Aurelius wrote, “It is humankind’s peculiar distinction to love even those who err and go astray. Such a love is born as soon as you realize that they are your brothers and sisters, that they are stumbling in ignorance, and not willfully; that in a short while both of you will be no more; and above all, that you yourself have taken no hurt, in that your own conscience and honor have not been made a jot worse than they were before” (Meditations<\/em>: Chapter 7, verse 22). In the Bhagavad Gita<\/em>, a sacred text of Hinduism, we find the passage: “Who burns with the bliss and suffers the sorrow of every creature within his own heart, making his own each bliss and each sorrow: him I hold the highest of all sages.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is from a Quaker pamphlet called The Seed and the Tree by Daniel A. Seeger. To develop an effective nonviolent witness it is not enough simply to obey the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” The emotion of hatred can in its own way be as deadly as the act of killing. We may pretend … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}