One of the most difficult lessons I teach in our Social Justice & Peacemaking class at NYU is one of Dr. King's 6 primary principles of nonviolence. The principle challenges us to: Accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of the cause to achieve the goal.
According to King, "Self-chosen suffering is redemptive and helps the movement grow in a
spiritual as well as a humanitarian dimension. The moral authority of
voluntary suffering for a goal communicates the concern to one’s own
friends and community as well as to the opponent." Dr. King's Redemptive Suffering.
Most ask, why would anyone freely choose suffering? Why would anyone fast, for example, or freely submit to verbal or even physical harm? The answer, for King, Gandhi and countless other spiritual warriors who challenge us to consider the way of love, compassion and active nonviolence, is as simple and as complex as the word truth. According to these peace and spirit warriors, truth cannot be found alone, without the other, even our enemy. And our enemy, even perpetrators of violence, possess, somehow, a piece of the truth. As Thich Nhat Hanh (who Dr. King nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize) says, we "inter-are." We are inextricably connected. Thus, we cannot, as a people, as a society, make our way to the truth without one another.
Furthermore, these spirit warriors challenge us to consider that harm to another does harm to the self; and harm to the self results in harm to all. We all are a part of the fabric, the web, of life, for better or worse. Again, it's as simple and as complicated as the scriptural mandate to "love your enemy."
Spiritual traditions do not merely tell us that we must love one another; they add (though we don't often want to really consider what it truly means, myself included) that we must find a way to love, even our enemies. As King shares, that does not mean that we have to like our enemies. It does mean, however, that we have to live lives, to the best of our ability, that invite our "enemies" to see differently, to turn from violence and war and hatred, to see that they, all of us, are members of the human family, a community. Subsequently, in the words of Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption, we, individually and together, either "get busy living or get busy dying."
The Buddhists remind us that life is suffering. No one escapes suffering. The question is will our suffering bring us together or divide us. Will it help us work together for peace and deeper understanding or will it destroy us? King reminds us that we have a choice. If we want to be spiritual warriors, if we want to be fully human, we must accept suffering without violent retaliation for the sake of our collective redemption and liberation. This does not mean that we seek suffering for its own sake, or that we invite or accept abuse; rather, it means that when suffering comes, we refuse to inflict suffering in return. Again, this is not easy. This is why it is the way of the spiritual warrior; it takes profound courage. King and others tell us, however, that if we can do so, we invite transformation of heart and mind that brings the possibility for true and lasting peace and freedom.
Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Peace Laureate from China, a spiritual warrior, in the face of violence, abuse and oppression, exclaims, “I have no enemies and no hatred." In his trial, where he was sentenced to eleven years in prison for speaking out on behalf of democracy and freedom, he proclaims: "But I wish to make clear that I continue to stand behind my 'June 2nd Hunger-Strike Declaration' of twenty years ago: I have no enemies, and no hatred.… Hatred only eats away at a person’s intelligence and conscience, and an enemy mentality [as our country since the Mao era has seen] can poison the spirit of an entire people, lead to cruel and lethal conflict among our own people, destroy tolerance and human feeling within a society, and block the progress of a nation toward freedom and democracy. For these reasons I hope I can rise above my personal fate to contribute to progress for our country and to changes in our society. I hope that I can answer the regime’s enmity with utmost benevolence, and that I might use love to dissipate hate." [Link, Perry (2011-05-10). Liu Xiaobo's Empty Chair: Chronicling the Reform Movement Beijing Fears Most; Includes the full text of Charter 08 and other primary documents (Kindle Locations 768-770). Random House Inc Clients. Kindle Edition.] See also: I Have No Enemies.
I leave you with the words of Mahatma Gandhi. They capture the essence of the warrior spirit that has the power to lead us beyond suffering to sacred salvation:
"I am not a visionary. I claim to be a practical idealist. The religion of nonviolence is not meant merely for the rishis and saints. It is meant for the common people as well. Nonviolence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute. The spirit lies dormant in the brute and he knows no law but that of physical might. The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law—to the strength of the spirit.
“I have therefore ventured to place before India the ancient law of self-sacrifice. For satyagraha and its offshoots, non-cooperation and civil resistance, are nothing but new names for the law of suffering. The rishis who discovered the law of nonviolence in the midst of violence were greater geniuses than Newton. They were themselves greater warriors than Wellington. Although knowledgeable in the use of arms, they realized their uselessness and taught a weary world that its salvation lay not through violence but through nonviolence." [Attenborough, Richard; Mahatma Gandhi (2001-10-19). The Words of Gandhi (Newmarket Words Of Series) (p. 41). Perseus Distribution-A. Kindle Edition.]
