A Phenomenological Approach to Spirituality and Its Relation to Nonkilling
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NONKILLING SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS Vol. 1 Edited by Joám Evans Pim and Pradeep Dhakal Center for Global Nonkilling Honolulu September 2015 CREATIVE COMMONS LICENCE Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 You are free to share, copy, distribute and transmit this work* Under the following conditions: Attribution. You must attribute this work in the manner specified by the author/licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform or build upon this work. * For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. * Any of the above conditions can be waived if you gain permission from the copyright holders. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the Authors’ moral and legal rights. Parts of this volume have been released under GFDL and Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 as part of Wikiversity’s School of Nonkilling Studies (http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/School:Nonkilling_studies). The Center for Global Nonkilling does not necessarily endorse the views expressed by the authors. Also available for free download at: http://www.nonkilling.org © The Authors, 2015 © Center for Global Nonkilling, 2015 (this edition) Cover background picture: “Sunset in Zadar” by PJL (GFDL License) First Edition: September 2015 ISBN-13 978-0-9839862-6-3 ______________________________________________________ Cataloging in Publication Data (CIP) Nonkilling Spiritual Traditions / Edited by Joám Evans Pim and Pradeep Dhakal. ISBN 978-0-9839862-6-3 CDU - 172.4 : 327.36 ______________________________________________________ A catalogue record is also available from the Library of Congress. Center for Global Nonkilling 3653 Tantalus Drive Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822-5033 United States of America Email: [email protected] http://www.nonkilling.org Contents Introduction Affirming the Nonkilling Spirit 11 Joám Evans Pim Chapter One The Role of Spiritual Ecology in Nonkilling 15 Leslie E. Sponsel Chapter Two The Spirit That Kills Not 37 Predrag Cicovacki Chapter Three A Phenomenological Approach to Spirituality and its Relation to Nonkilling... 55 Douglas Allen Chapter Four Spirituality and Nonkilling Theoretical Basis and Practical Evidence 81 Piero P. Giorgi Chapter Five KĈore Whakaheke Toto (Do Not Shed Blood) 97 Kelli Te MaihƗroa Chapter Six Buddhism and Nonkilling 113 Juichiro Tanabe Chapter Seven Dawn of Awareness: Buddhist Antidotes to Killing 135 Karma Lekshe Tsomo Chapter Eight Hindu Vision of Nonkilling 151 Pradeep Dhakal Chapter Nine Peace Movements in Light of Pan-Indic Spiritual Traditions 163 Shivani Bothra Chapter Ten Nonkilling and Necessity in the Christian Tradition 173 Robert Emmet Meagher Chapter Eleven Mennonite Peacebuilding 195 Julianne Funk Deckard Chapter Twelve An Alternative to Anzac: White poppies at the Peace Pole 223 Katerina Standish Chapter Thirteen The Nonviolent Crescent 243 Chaiwat Satha-Anand Appendix Protecting Sacred Spaces 261 Introduction Affirming the Nonkilling Spirit Joám Evans Pim Center for Global Nonkilling On November 4, 2007, the participants of the First Global Nonkilling Leadership Forum became the initial signatories of the Affirmation of the Global Nonkilling Spirit, an inspirational proclamation that “calls upon all / to work toward the measurable goal / of a killing-free world / with infinite crea- tivity / in reverence for life.” As part of the discussions of the Forum—that brought about the establishment of the current Center for Global Nonkill- ing— the relevance of the principle of nonkilling across a range of spiritual traditions was explored. In the proceedings (Paige and Evans Pim, eds., 2008) short personal accounts expose the connections between nonkilling and Ha- waiian spirituality (Guanson), Buddhism (Ariyaratne), Christianity (Maguire), Hinduism (Bhaneja), Humanism (Simson), Jainism (Gandhi), Islam (Satha- Anand), Judaism (Tucker), Taoism (Dongshick), and Vodou (Paul). Previously, CGNK’s predecessor, the Center for Global Nonviolence, convened a number of seminars that led to the publication of a series of academic volumes that explore the deep links between nonviolence and several major spiritual traditions. The 1986 seminar on “Islam and Nonvio- lence” convened in Bali, Indonesia, developed into the 1993 groundbreaking book with the same title (Paige, Satha-Anand and Gilliatt, eds, 1993). The opening chapter to that book, “The Noviolent Crescent,” by Chaiwat Satha-Anand, is republished here as it fully retains the power of its message. The 1989 seminar on Buddhism and Leadership for Peace, held in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, evolved into the 1991 book Buddhism and Nonviolent Global Problem-Solving (Paige and Gilliatt, eds., 1991). A 1990 one-day gath- ering at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa generated the book Nonviolence in Hawaii’s Spiritual Traditions (Paige and Gilliatt, 1991). These discoveries, all available for free download from CGNK’s website, were relevant in the formulation of the nonkilling vision presented by Paige (2002) in Nonkilling Global Political Science that now guides the contributions brought together in this volume and the work of the Center of Global Nonkilling. 11 12 Nonkilling, Security and the State This work must also face the challenges of ‘translating’ and applying the important messages and learnings on nonkilling derived from all spiritual and humanistic traditions into the field of policy and action to prevent lethal vio- lence and build killing-free societies in the present and for the future. One example is the “International Conference on Protecting Sacred Spaces and People of the Cloth” held in Bankok, Thailand, on May 28-29, 2011, co- organized by the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, the Peace Information Center and CGNK. As a result, a joint policy brief (also included as appendix to this volume) was presented to the ASEAN Secre- tary General, H.E. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, and a collective volume published. To continue exploring this field, the Center’s Nonkilling Spiritual Tradi- tions Research Committee, with over 30 members, envisioned a collabora- tive academic initiative to further understand and analyze: 1) the impact of the “Thou Shall Not Kill” / “Do not take any human being’s life” imperative across world spiritual traditions and non-religious humanist ethics, but also its internal intrareligious contradictions and controversies; 2) faith-inspired nonviolent/nonkilling leaders and movements throughout history—e.g., Is- lam (Ahmadou Bamba and Abdul Ghaffar Khan), Christianity (Martin Luther King, Jr., Guillermo Gaviria, Leo Tolstoy), ‘Indigenous’ Spirituality (Te Whiti o Rongomai and Queen Liliuokalani), Hindu/Interfaith (Mahatma Gandhi), etc.; 3) spiritual practices related to nonkilling behavior and way of life, in- cluding meditation, prayers, art and spiritual guidance, with special interest in behavioral change—individual or social practices (e.g., meditation in pris- ons has shown to reduce violence and killings). The collection of essays compiled in this first volume represents a preliminary example of the possi- bilities offered by this line of inquiry, that it is hoped can be expanded. Studying spiritual traditions through the focus of nonkilling can provide new insights. The three chapters that anthropologist Marvin Harris dedi- cated to the topic in his 1990 book Our Kind (“The Nonkilling Religions,” “The Origin of Nonkilling Religions,” and “How the Nonkilling Religions Spread”) are a good example. Following a cultural materialist approach, Harris explains how nonkilling religions emerged, in a confluence of brutal and costly wars, environmental depletion, population growth and rise of cit- ies, food shortages, widespread poverty and rigidified social distinctions. As we move in the present 21st century into a scenario not very far away from that presented by Harris, the need for seriouly reconsidering the im- portance of a global nonkilling ethic becomes urgent. The editors hope that this book may represent a contribution to that cause. Chapter One The Role of Spiritual Ecology in Nonkilling Leslie E. Sponsel University of Hawai’i “I need no inspiration other than Nature’s. She has never failed me as yet. She mys- tifies me, bewilders me, sends me to ecstasies” (Gandhi quoted in Moolakkattu 2010:152-153). “Through the wider Self, every living being is connected intimately, and from this in- timacy follows the capacity of identification and, as its natural consequences, practice of nonviolence…. The rock-bottom foundation of the technique for achieving the power of nonviolence is belief in the essential oneness of all life” (Naess 2008:90). “… nonviolence is the fundamental condition in which all the great spiritual teachers have called upon humanity to live” (Paige 1993:142). Spiritual ecology is a complex and diverse arena of intellectual and prac- tical activities at the interface of religions and spiritualities on the one hand, and on the other ecologies, environments, and environmentalism. The use of the plural in these terms reflects the variation and variability within each category. Some scholars prefer labels such as religion and ecology, or relig- ion and nature, instead of spiritual ecology. However, spiritual is a more in- clusive term since many individuals who do not choose to affiliate with any particular religious organization, or identify themselves with some religion in general, are nevertheless