All spiritual traditions mandate harmlessness, yet the twentieth century was the most violent period in human history. How is this possible? Positive Harmlessness in Practice documents that we have no collective experience of harmlessness because our habits of harm are so pervasive. To build our "harmlessness muscle", Dr. Riddle details a pragmatic three-step daily practice-a Butterfly Shift. Such mini-immersion experiences of harmlessness help us develop the skills and habits that make it possible for us to embed harmlessness as our core value. Positive Harmlessness invites us to embrace an ethic of harmlessness, individually and as a human family. Practical exercises and a Harmlessness Scale help us learn to model harmlessness in all that we think, say, and do.

Positive Harmlessness in Practice

ENOUGH FOR US ALL VOLUME TWOBy Dorothy I. Riddle

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Dorothy I. Riddle
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-3631-1

Contents

Preface....................................................................i1 The Concept of Harm......................................................12 Positive Harmlessness as Our Core Value..................................233 Harmlessness and the Butterfly Shift.....................................474 Managing Our Focus.......................................................675 Noticing-Step One........................................................856 Leveraging Emotions......................................................917 Feeling-Step Two.........................................................1138 Reviewing Our Action Options.............................................1219 Acting-Step Three........................................................13710 Maturing Into Harmlessness..............................................14511 Our Maturational Opportunity............................................16912 Developing an Ethic of Harmlessness.....................................193A. Universal Declaration of Human Rights...................................225B. Ending Violence Against Women...........................................231C. Harmlessness Scale: Questions & Scoring.................................235Notes......................................................................245References.................................................................269Index......................................................................277List of Exercises..........................................................287

Chapter One

The Concept of Harm

If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them. - Dalai Lama

All religious traditions share a commitment to harmlessness, however defined. So do professional codes of conduct, which include phrases like that attributed to the Hippocratic Oath: "First, do no harm."

Why do we tolerate harm? Why is there so much violence? It is clear that we cannot rely on spiritual beliefs to prevent it. Part of the answer lies in our distorted view of who we are and how our universe operates, which encourages us to focus on self-interest and to live from a fear-based myth of scarcity.

The first volume in this Enough for Us All series, titled Principles of Abundance for the Cosmic Citizen, explored the meaning of "enough," the benefits and responsibilities of being a cosmic citizen, and seven principles by which our cosmos operates (which are listed in the Preface of this volume). We will review those principles in the next chapter as they relate to harmlessness. In exploring the concept of harm, the principles that concern us most are that we are indeed all part of the same cosmic energy field (the Principle of Interconnectivity) and that we have evolved primarily through cooperation and networking (the Principle of Cooperation).

We have been shaped over the past 300 years by the mechanistic, deterministic worldview that emerged from Newtonian physics as well as by a belief that our evolutionary history was grounded in violence and competition ("survival of the fittest"). The findings of quantum physics reveal quite a different picture and one that can help us shed our mistaken identities as violent beings. But first, if we are to shift from harmfulness to harmlessness, we need to understand harm and why we indulge in it.

The Root Causes of Harmfulness

Why do people choose to behave in a harmful or violent manner? We may act harmfully out of fear, particularly a fear of scarcity or of loss. If we see life as a win-lose competition for scarce resources, then it is easy to justify any action that will make us the winner. This is an "I'll get them before they get me" mentality.

Or we may act harmfully out of an ignorance of alternatives. If all that is modeled for us is the option of violence, then it would come as no surprise that we choose violence. Our violence may be a matter of unconscious habits or "the way it's always been done"-as in hazing, corporal punishment, or forced sex. We may not have developed a moral compass of our own.

Or we may act harmfully because of our own sense of entitlement to have what we want when we want it. In this scenario, anyone who interferes is expendable. We explored this entitlement dynamic in some detail in Principles of Abundance for the Cosmic Citizen. In essence, here we choose to make ourselves feel good at the expense of others.

Or there is the issue of choice and control. Causing harm is a control strategy, not an out-of-control occurrence. Some people make choices to dissipate tension and frustration through violence rather than accepting responsibility to work through the discomfort without harming those around them.

Exercise: Motivation Regarding Harm Reflect back on the past week and identify the following: 1. I had an opportunity to speak negatively about someone, and I consciously refrained because: 2. I had an opportunity to act aggressively towards someone, and I willfully refrained because: 3. I could feel myself becoming judgmental about another person, and I purposely shifted to compassion because: How did you feel as a result of the types of actions described above?

The motivation of choice raises the matter of intention. Part of the definition of harm refers to hurt that is deliberately inflicted. Intention is tricky because we can have good intentions and yet harm others without realizing what the consequences of our actions will be.

Finally and most fundamentally, we may do harm to others in denial of our actual interconnected reality, substituting instead an "us-them" mentality that includes objectifying the other person or group. When we remember that the "other" is in a very real sense a part of ourselves-the Principle of Interconnectivity-then it is not so easy to humiliate or degrade or physically hurt them.

The Pervasiveness of Harm

Surrounded as we are by messages about the importance of harmlessness, one would think that harming another person would seldom occur. Unfortunately, we know better. Harmfulness is ubiquitous. We kill millions in wars over religious differences and territorial greed, leaving millions more scarred for life. Murders, assaults, sexual and domestic violence, and other examples of violence between humans are rampant, to say nothing of the mistreatment of animals, species extinction due to human initiatives, or damage to the environment. And, though caused unintentionally, harmful illnesses stemming from misdiagnosis or inappropriate treatment are the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer. The list seems endless.

Rather than improving, our rate of violence appears to be escalating. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that "the 20th century was one of the most violent periods in human history. An estimated 191 million people lost their lives directly or indirectly as a result of conflict, over half of whom were civilians."

Our callousness seems to be intensifying as the amount of violence in the media, music and music videos, and video games increases...