The Roots of Violence.

It is worth understanding that the more violent a mind is, the more full of attachment it is.Violence and attachment live together, side by side. A nonviolent mind transcends attachment. In fact, one who wants to become nonviolent has to let go of the very idea of attachment. The very sense of "mine" is violence, because as soon as I say "mine", I have begun to separate myself from that which is not mine. As soon as I address someone as a friend, I have begun to make someone else my enemy. As soon as I draw a line around those who are mine, I have also drawn a line around those who are strangers to me. All violence is an outcome of the boundary created between those who are "mine" and those who are outsiders, not "mine".

It is often surprising that we are often only able to see into the depths of our minds during moments of crisis. We do not see the depths in ordinary moments. It is only during extraordinary moments that what is hidden in the deepest part of us begins to manifest.

A death occurs in the neighborhood, but it does not touch people's hearts. People simply say," The poor man died." We are unable to brush it away like this when it occurs in our own homes. Thus it affects us, because when a death occurs in our homes, when one of "our own" dies, we also die, a part of ourselves dies. We had an investment in this person who has died, we used to get something from this person's life. This person was occupying a certain corner of our hearts.

So when a wife dies it is not just the wife who dies. Something in the husband dies too. The truth is that the husband came into being when the wife came into being. Before that there was not a husband or a wife. When a son dies, something in the mother also dies - because the woman only became a mother at the birth of her son. With the birth of a child , the mother is also born, and at the death of a child, the mother also dies. We are connected with the one we call ours. When he or she dies, we also die.

Our "I" is nothing but a sum total of what we call "our own people." What we call "I" is the name for all the accumulations of "mine". If all those who are "mine" are to leave, then I will be no more, then I cannot remain. This "I" of mine is attached partly to my father, partly to my mother, partly to my son, partly to my friend...to all of these people.

What is even more surprising is that this "I" is not only attached to those whom we call our own, but it is also attached to those whom we consider outsiders or "not-mine". Although this attachment is outside our circle, nonetheless it is there. Hence, when my enemy dies, I also die a little,since I will not be exactly the same as I was while my enemy was alive. Even my enemy has been contributing somthing to my life. He was my enemy. He may have been an enemy but he was my enemy. My "I" was related to him too: without him I will be incomplete.

Whatsoever we accumulate is less for ourselves than it is for those whom we call "our very own." The house that we build is less for ourselves than it is for those "very own" - for those "very one" who will live in it, for those "very own" who will admire and praise it - and also for those "very own" and "others" who will become full of envy and burn with jealousy. Even if the most beautiful mansion on the Earth is mine but none of "my very own people" are around to see it - either as friends or as enemies - I will suddenly find that the mansion is worth less than a hut. This is because the mansion is only a facade: in reality it is simply a means to impress " our very own" and those who are not our very own. If no one is around, whom will I impress?

The clothes you wear are intended to dazzle others' eyes than to cover your own body. Everything becomes meaningless when you are all alone. You ascend throne less for any pleasure that you may get from ascending - no one has ever attained any bliss from merely sitting on a throne- rather than for the sake of all the charisma that your are able to generate amongst "your very own" and "others" by being on it. You may remain sitting on the throne, but if all the people around it disappear, you will suddenly find that sitting on it has become ludicrous. You will get down from it and perhaps never sit on it again.

Victory is never desired for the sake of victory.THe real interest in victory is because of the ego-fulfillment that it brings to one amongst "one's very own" as well as amongst strangers or those who are not one's very own. "I may gain the whole empire, but what is the point?" It will have no meaning at all.

"Mine-ness" is nothing but violence. It is a deeper violence; it is not seen. The moment I call someone "mine", possession has begun. Possessiveness is a form of violence. The husband calls his wife "mine"; possession has begun. The wife calls her husband "mine"; possession has begun. But whenever we become a person's owner, right there and then we damn that person's soul. We have just killed that person; we have destroyed that person the moment the moment we claim ownership over him or her.

In fact, by owning a person we are treating them not as an individual but as an object. Then a wife becomes "mine" in the same way that a house is mine. Naturally, wherever there is a realtionship of "mine", love is not the outcome. What manifests is only conflict.

This is why in this world as long as a husband and wife or a father and son keep claiming their ownership over each other, only conflict can happen between them - never friendship. The assertion of such ownership is the cause of the friendship's destruction. Such an assertion of ownership puts everything awry; everything becomes violent.

Whenever there is an asertion of ownership, only hatred is created; and where there hatred, violence is bound to follow. That is why all our relationships have become relationships of violence. Our families have come to be nothing but relationships of violence.

If someone is talking in terms of "I" and in favour of nonviolence, then know that his nonviolence is phony - because the flower of nonviolence never blossoms in the soil of "I" and "mine". A life of nonviolence never evolves from the basis of "mine"


- "War & Peace" by Osho.