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Here's a chapter out of this great book I'm reading about meditating (thanks Tam!)
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Non-Harming—Ahimsa

From Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, by Jon Kabat-Zinn

A friend came back after several years in Nepal and India in 1973 and said of himself, “If I can’t do anything useful, at least I would like to do as little harm as possible.”

I guess you can bring back all sorts of communicable things from distant parts if you’re not careful. I was infected with the idea of ahimsa right then and there in my living room, and I have never forgotten the moment it happened. I had heard it before. The attitude of non_harming lies at the heart of yoga practice and of the Hippocratic Oath. It was the underlying principle of Gandhi’s revolution and of his personal meditation practice. But there was something about the sincerity with which my friend made his comment, coupled with the incongruity of the person I thought I knew saying it, that impressed me. It struck me as a good way to relate to the world and to oneself. Why not try to live so as to cause as little damage and suffering as possible? If we lived that way, we wouldn’t have the insane levels of violence that dominate our lives and our thinking today. And we would be more generous toward ourselves as well, on the meditation cushion, and off it.

Like any other view, non-harming may be a terrific principle, but it’s the living of it that counts. You can start practicing ahirnsa’s gentleness on yourself and in your life with others in any moment.

Do you sometimes find that you are hard on yourself and put yourself down? Remember ahimsa in that moment. See it and let it go.

Do you talk about others behind their backs? Ahimsa.

Do you push yourself beyond your limits with no regard for your body and your well-being? Ahimsa.

Do you cause other people pain or grief’? Ahimsa. It is easy to relate with ahimsa to someone who doesn’t threaten you. The test is in how you will relate to a person or situation when you do feel threatened.

The willingness to harm or hurt comes ultimately out of fear. Non-harming requires that you see your own fears and that you understand them and own them. Owning them means taking responsibility for them. Taking responsibility means not letting fear completely dictate your vision or your view. Only mindfulness of our own clinging and rejecting, and a willingness to grapple with these mind states, however painful the encounter, can free us from this circle of suffering. Without a daily embodiment in practice, lofty ideals tend to succumb to self-interest.


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Ahimsa is the attribute of the soul, and therefore, to be practiced by everybody in all the affairs of life. If it cannot be practiced in all departments, it has no practical value.
-- MAHATMA GANDHI

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If you can t love King George V, say, or Sir Winston Churchill, start with your wife, or your husband, or your children. Try to put their welfare first and your own last every minute of the day, and let the circle of your love expand from there. As long as you are trying your very best, there can be no question of failure.
-- MAHATMA GANDHI