Ik

This is very interesting. I am certainly no scholar of history, but I seem to remember that the Buddha, prior to his enlightenment, was pursuing a yogic path. This was a path of purifying oneself, through various asceticisms, because it was believed that through purity one reaches the highest truth. (I may be oversimplifying things here for the sake of brevity, but you get the idea.) He then rejected this path, and after attaining enlightenment, preached against all extremes in favor of the middle way.

Although I agree that your intention (to do no violence) is very noble, I don’t quite see how it squares with this doctrine of the middle way. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your intention, but it would seem that being committed to only doing non-violence, while laudable, is another extreme and a form of asterism that the Buddha rejected. (Just as being committed to violence would be another extreme practice.)

How far do you plan to take this? Speaking of violence within: I hope that you don’t plan to stop your immune system from “murdering” all of those micro-organisms that you come into contact with, ingest, and breath in everyday?