A Violence Free Man

The Start of a Violence Free Society

Peace in the world is not only possible, it is essential. We can easily see that, with growing world unrest, if peace is not attained it will mean the end of the human race. Therefore peace is inevitable. The only question is if anyone will be left to enjoy it.
Since the world is made up of individuals, it is up to each of us to commit to peace and vow to be violence free. We each need to strive for an inner peace that will translate into peace with others and the world at large. When we can be a peace with ourselves, we can then enjoy peace with our families, communities, municipalities, districts, countries and the whole human race. Although many can achieve peace with like minded individuals, and soon as you introduce them to someone with different ideologies the fireworks irrupts. It can be a challenge to accept others with different political, religious or moral views, but we can resist the urge to kill each other if we can come to terms with agreeing to disagree.
Hear the words of Jesus;
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
(New Testament, Matthew 5: 43-48 KJV)

Power of 2: Exponential Thinking!
Although there may already be many individuals who are committed to being violence free, I control only one and that is myself. The concept of starting a violence Free world therefore begins with me. I must commit to being violence free under all conditions or the violence free earth can never happen. What a shame it would be if everyone else on the earth was violence free and I was the only one that prevented it from being universal. If I can exhibit a violence free character and prove its benefits, I should be able to influence one other person to be violence free this year. In that way our number will already have doubled. If we can each influence one other person next year we will double again. If we can continue this process for 40 years we will have reached over 1 billion people, which was the population of the world in 1804. The 41st year would see over 2 billion violence free souls. Increase that to 4 billion in year 42 and we will have well over half the estimated current world population of almost 7 billion and year 43 should see a completely violence free society on earth. This is based on just one person currently being committed to being violence free and influencing only one other person per year to do the same. This is the simple math, putting this plan into practice is another issue. I will attempt to lay out in the contents of this book a plan that each individual can follow to stay violence free. Hopefully when others see the advantages of being violence free, they will also want to adopt a life style that will promote that.
I do not advocate pushing religious beliefs on unwilling souls. That only aggravates the situation and leads to violence. I don’t suggest a war to end all wars. The world has seen two world wars that were supposed to do that. They didn’t work. You can’t fight violence with violence. That only adds fuel to the fire and makes things worse. What we need to do is to respect the beliefs of others whether or not we agree with them. It is possible to agree to disagree and remain friends. We need to guard our thoughts and our words. What we think and what we say can lead to war.
Abdu’l-Bahá says;
I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content.
Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness.
When soldiers of the world draw their swords to kill, soldiers of God clasp each other's hands! So may all the savagery of man disappear by the Mercy of God, working through the pure in heart and the sincere of soul. Do not think the peace of the world an ideal impossible to attain!
Nothing is impossible to the Divine Benevolence of God.
(Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 29)

Feel free to leave your comments. I hope to publish the book soon.