Osho Rajneesh – Those who talk nonviolence are violent against themselves

From The Book of Secrets

Victory needs knowledge, not fight. Fight is a subtle violence. And this is strange, but this has happened: those who talk about nonviolence to others are very much violent against themselves. There are teachings and traditions which say, “Do not be violent to anyone,” but those same teachings are very much violent as far as you are inwardly concerned. They teach you to be violent with yourself, but not to be violent with others. All types of asceticism, renunciation, negative attitudes, life-denying philosophies, are based on maintaining a violent attitude toward yourself. They tell you to be violent with yourself.

Tantra is absolutely nonviolent. It says, if you cannot be nonviolent with yourself, you cannot be nonviolent with anyone else — that is impossible. A person who is violent to himself will be violent to everyone; in his nonviolence also he will be just hiding his violence. Aggression can be turned against yourself, but that aggressive attitude is destructive.

Paras note: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar talks about how Gandhiji was so violent with himself when fasting in his cause to stop the violence of others.

#ads