Good evening everyone, I hope you’re all well. It’s lovely to see you here. So tonight, let’s return to our theme and ask ourselves: does peace actually stand a chance?

I’m afraid I won’t definitively answer that question this evening. Chances certainly exist – but whether they’ll materialize is another matter entirely. Our topic tonight, as you know, is non-violence and peacefulness.

The Unfortunate Timeliness of This Topic

Sadly, the theme of violence and non-violence remains perpetually relevant. Despite our civilization’s astonishing technological progress, we seem to have barely moved beyond primitive methods of resolving disagreements. Perhaps it’s no surprise that warfare technology is precisely where we’ve advanced the most.

For two years now, we’ve witnessed the terrible war in Ukraine, the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, the prolonged suffering in Syria, and countless other armed conflicts smoldering around the world. I think we all feel that atmosphere – how should I put it? – that climate of tension, amplified by fear and media sensationalism. Though these wars don’t happen on our doorstep, they affect every single one of us.

Economically, obviously, but in many other ways too. We’re witnessing accelerated militarization across Europe, and lately, Europeans seem to hold their breath wondering how the new US administration will position itself toward these conflicts. Uncertainty hangs thick in the air – questions, anxieties, an overall deeply uncertain situation.

In such an atmosphere, we individuals can feel utterly helpless before these events, like a storm constantly building strength. But is war and violence truly the only way to resolve disputes?

Two Modern Masters of Non-Violence

In Buddhism, we have powerful contemporary examples: the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh – two great teachers, though Thich Nhat Hanh sadly is no longer with us. Both consistently advocated peaceful solutions. The Dalai Lama through his non-violent struggle for Tibetan freedom, and Thich Nhat Hanh as a peace activist working to end the Vietnam War and all armed conflict.

Though drawing from different Buddhist traditions, both offered the world extraordinary examples of non-violent persistence in pursuing freedom, peace, and human rights. In a world where violence is commonplace – where conflicts, terrorism, and wars still rage, claiming countless lives – these examples inspire hope and genuine interest in a radically different approach to what we might call humanity’s fundamental problem.

This different, non-violent approach to resolving conflicts and navigating difficult life situations is deeply woven into Buddhist spiritual practice. In fact, we could say that non-violence – ahimsa in Sanskrit – represents the very heart of Buddhist practice.

What Violence Actually Is

Let’s explore what Buddhism teaches about violence: its nature, its causes, its roots, and how we might free ourselves from it.

The common Buddhist definition is straightforward: violence is any mental, verbal, or physical act that harms ourselves or others. Regardless of its form – whether directed at ourselves, other living beings, or nature – violence creates and spreads disharmony, deepens divisions, leads to further violence, and increases utterly unnecessary suffering.

What often escapes us when witnessing violence is that perpetrators aren’t exempt from the suffering they cause. We tend to divide the world into good guys and bad guys. But everyone caught up in violence – whether perpetrator or victim – is ultimately a victim. Violence simply makes everyone miserable.

Like all phenomena, violence requires specific causes and conditions to arise. These involve a complex mix of internal and external factors that trigger negative emotions: anger, rage, hatred, envy, fear, and so on. Violence always stems from an emotionally painful, narrowed, clouded perspective where we perceive everything as separate from and opposed to ourselves.

Three Levels of Causes

We can categorize the causes of violence in three ways: external, internal, and root causes.

External Causes

These are situations that provoke violence and lead people into conflict. Whenever interests of individuals or groups clash – which happens constantly – conflicts can and usually do arise.

We distinguish between direct and indirect violence. Direct violence happens between individuals, within families, between interest groups, all the way up to nations or religions – culminating in terrorism and war. Indirect violence includes what we call structural violence: when states and institutions harm people by depriving them of basic needs and rights. Discrimination based on race, nationality, religion, gender – all these count. Buddhism also includes economic violence here – the profoundly unfair distribution of wealth worldwide.

Internal Causes

External factors are usually mistaken for the real causes of violence. But Buddhism digs two layers deeper. At this next level, we examine internal causes: selfishness, preoccupation with our own interests or our group’s interests. This self-focus creates a narrowed perception where everything revolves around us. We become the central reference point.

Such an experience of reality is deeply distorted – we see neither ourselves, nor others, nor situations as they truly are. Selfishness is actually clinging to a character structure shaped by experience – nothing more than a collection of habits forming our recognizable pattern of responding to life.

This clinging manifests through deeply ingrained negative emotions – grasping and aversion – that act like strategic templates for evaluating every new situation. The stronger our clinging, the stronger our reactions. On such prepared ground, fear, anger, and hatred easily sprout, transforming into verbal or physical violence, trapping us in that vicious circle.

Root Causes

Going still deeper, we reach what Buddhism considers the ultimate source of violence and all human suffering: ignorance. But this isn’t ignorance as in lack of education. It’s a profound philosophical ignorance about the very nature of reality – including our own nature, the nature of self, and the nature of all phenomena.

In our habitual, coarse grasping at reality, we experience ourselves as separate from others, from other life forms, from nature itself. We deeply believe in our separate existence. Naturally, anything outside what we identify with feels opposed to us. This dualism of self and others is the foundation of ignorance.

Interestingly, we experience ourselves the same conflicted way when confronting our own complexity and contradictions. Ignorance underlies our disharmony with ourselves and the world – the fundamental cause of human suffering.

The Path of Transformation

How do we escape this vicious circle? Buddhism points to deep inner transformation. The belief in transformation rests on understanding that nothing in this world is fixed and unchangeable. Everything constantly changes – from the smallest particle to the largest galaxy. Nothing remains identical even for a moment.

We human beings have nothing predetermined, fixed, or unchangeable within us either. Even what seems most stable – our character – reveals itself upon examination as simply habits that strengthen through repetition, creating only an illusion of permanence.

Change requires effort. Without effort, we’d never know change is possible. That effort needs motivation and inspiration, which we find through deeply contemplating our own lives and life itself. There’s a saying in Buddhism: we learn most about our past by observing our present, and we glimpse our future by what we do right now.

The present moment is all we truly have. Whether past actions completely determine our present – whether we mechanically repeat old patterns or respond differently and start a positive new direction – depends entirely on us and our degree of understanding. The opportunity for a fresh start is always present, in every moment.

Our future depends on changing how we relate to ourselves, others, and life situations. This “different relating” means non-violent relating – not harming ourselves or others. This dual criterion – self and others – is crucial. Applying it frees us from selfishness and lets us consider actions and consequences from a much broader perspective.

Living this way means taking responsibility and consciously directing our own lives.

The Strength of Non-Violence

Choosing non-violence might seem like poor strategy to some – even weakness. We often encounter this thinking. But remember: violence, despite its illusion of power, always springs from fear, inner turmoil, and confusion. It’s actually weakness and helplessness – history’s worst possible strategy.

Non-violence, on the other hand, comes from a mind that’s peaceful, stable, composed. It expresses inner strength, determination, and wisdom – a strategy with no real alternative. The power of non-violence lies in being rooted in reality itself, while violence is the product of ignorance – a mind alienated from its nature, insecure and afraid, merely pretending to be powerful.

Why Practice Non-Violence?

Non-violent action in Buddhism serves two purposes. First, it creates harmony within ourselves and our surroundings – conditions worthy of human life. Second, it establishes conditions favorable for “turning the light inward,” as the Zen tradition says – the practice of meditation, of cultivating the mind.

Our view of the world depends on our experience of the world. But our experience depends on our mind’s state, which depends on how much we’ve cultivated it. This chain of conditioning is worth remembering.

It’s not enough to simply behave morally, to want to act non-violently. We must position ourselves so that such behavior flows naturally and spontaneously. Otherwise, externally imposed moral rules become difficult to maintain – they’re not backed by direct experience of the world that makes those principles self-evident.

We need to honestly examine our interactions with others: how we see them, how we listen, how we speak. How much is our perception colored by our preconceptions? Through what subtle forms of violence do our views manifest in relating and communicating?

This is our task if we want real change in how we relate to ourselves and others. Because it’s not just about violence toward others – violence toward ourselves is equally important and often overlooked. We harm ourselves in countless ways. Changing how we treat others must begin with changing our inner relationship with ourselves.

The Practice of Awareness

This self-examination requires introspection – awareness of what’s happening in our mind, awareness of what we say and do, awareness of how we experience ourselves and others moment by moment. And understanding what that experience rests on, and how we can shift it.

I won’t list examples, but I’m certain those of you who meditate and observe yourselves through the day know that our perception is deeply conditioned. What we see, hear, and experience is heavily colored by past experience. Practice means learning to perceive directly – free from that conditioning, free from that coloring.

From this direct perception, we can actively transform our relationships. When we catch ourselves seeing or hearing through old patterns, we recognize it, release it, and shift how we see, how we hear, and consequently how we speak and act.

Speaking of speech – in interpersonal relationships, it’s enormously important. How we say something, when, in what tone – all crucial for communication quality and relationship quality. If we’re discussing violence, we must recognize its subtle expressions. Few of us consider ourselves violent, yet violence manifests across a whole spectrum.

Learn to recognize even the mildest, most subtle expressions of violence in your experience. Release them. Actively change your way of being with yourself and others. The gross forms – insulting, gossiping, mocking, accusing, humiliating – those serious practitioners should have left far behind.

Cultivating the Heart: Four Immeasurables

Freeing ourselves from violence means freeing ourselves from negative emotions. And freeing ourselves from negative emotions means finding inner peace, stability, happiness, contentment. Besides standard meditation methods, Buddhism offers a specific practice for actively cultivating positive emotions and transforming our relationship with ourselves and others: developing the four immeasurable states of mind.

1. Friendliness or loving-kindness (maitri in Sanskrit)
2. Compassion
3. Joy
4. Equanimity – mental stability

These four states – especially the first – begin with directing benevolence toward ourselves. There are so many ways we’re violent toward ourselves: excessive self-criticism, undermining our own confidence and security, and so on. Beginning the practice of benevolence by focusing on ourselves is extremely important and beneficial. It’s actually the prerequisite for extending that same feeling to others.

From ourselves, we expand to those closest to us, then to friends, then to people we barely know, and finally to those we feel antipathy toward or consider enemies. This practice includes everyone. It’s how we establish peace within ourselves and peace with the world we inhabit.

We shouldn’t have enemies. We shouldn’t cultivate anger, hatred, or negativity toward anyone. When we catch ourselves in such feelings, we recognize them, release them, and change our relationship. This practice offers a concrete, effective way to develop a different relationship with ourselves and others – definitely worth incorporating into your meditation routine alongside whatever methods you already use.

If you’re interested, you can find the full practice described on our website, and plenty of explanations elsewhere online.

Conclusion: Personal and Global Responsibility

We’ve covered a lot tonight about non-violence and peacefulness. We explored external causes, internal causes, and root causes. We discussed the path of transformation – freeing ourselves from violence through inner change, through shifting our relationship with ourselves, others, and the world. We talked about reconciliation with ourselves and reconciliation with the world.

One thing I didn’t emphasize enough: while we mistake external factors for the only real causes, what escapes us is that non-violence must arise from how we actually are in this world. It grows from our individual experience, which gradually shapes global relationships. At that global level, resolution seems nearly impossible from our small individual perspective. But remember: the true cause of those large-scale global problems is always our personal lack of reconciliation with ourselves and the world we inhabit.

The path to universal peace must move in both directions. From within, certainly – but we also need solutions from above, from those in positions to address these problems seriously.

In a way, we’re all responsible for our world’s condition. I spoke earlier about taking responsibility. It’s vital to take that responsibility and do what we ourselves can. To offer our own different contribution to the world we live in.

That’s enough for tonight on violence, non-violence, and peacefulness.

Questions and Answers

Q: In freeing ourselves from conditioning, is recognition the key?

A: Yes – freedom from conditioning begins with recognizing it. As long as we don’t recognize how past experiences and views condition us, we can’t free ourselves. Most people never even consider that their present experience might be conditioned. There’s this deep conviction that our understanding of ourselves and the world is correct. This is actually where most interpersonal conflict comes from – everyone believes they see things rightly, that their view is the true one.

It’s not just about different philosophical views – it’s about different interests, about things we experience incredibly powerfully because of clinging to “I,” to “me,” to “mine.” Recognizing how our thinking is conditioned by this egocentric perspective is crucial – it’s the first step toward freedom. Being able to experience something fresh, unburdened by the past – that’s the path to freedom.

That’s what practice teaches us: to let go of clinging, to release conditioned thinking patterns, to ask whether things really are as they seem, and to look directly – not through past experiences and thoughts.

For example: meeting someone after years with whom you’ve had unpleasant experiences. The old picture appears automatically – “I know this person, my experience was negative.” You’ll likely avoid them, or the meeting will be uncomfortable. Why? Is it inevitable? Do we lack freedom to change this? Recognition and practice are the answers.

Q: Can speaking the truth be violent? Can lying sometimes prevent violence?

A: Interesting question. Yes, speaking the truth can certainly be violent. In Buddhism, when discussing violence, we always consider intention – motivation is crucial. We can tell the truth at the wrong time, in the wrong way. When we say something, what we say, how we say it – all matter. Truth told at the wrong moment can deeply wound.

Lying isn’t recommended either, even to avoid hurting someone. We should speak truth, but we must know when and how. Intention is paramount. Without harmful intention, when our action springs from genuine compassion, we’ll find the best way and right words – truth that doesn’t wound.

We can’t completely control whether others feel hurt. Some people may be hurt no matter how carefully we speak. We can’t bear total responsibility for others’ feelings – but we should do our absolute best. Intention matters enormously, as does our whole manner of relating, our fundamental orientation of benevolence, compassion, friendliness.

If that’s behind our actions, we’re on the right path. It’s hard to avoid being misunderstood sometimes.

Q: A listener shares: I once read in a Buddhist magazine that our civilization is going through puberty – with all the pimples, hormones, rebelliousness, conflict. It’s temporary, and we just need to wait it out. But recently I’ve seen articles suggesting we should prepare emergency suitcases – practical survival kits. I’m confused: should we just work on ourselves, or prepare materially?

A: It’s hard to grasp that this “puberty” could last thousands of years! We’re inclined to see civilization as constant evolution toward something better. But measurable technological progress doesn’t match spiritual maturity – clearly.

Still, we shouldn’t ignore that the critical mass of consciousness has grown. The problem is that people who are aware and would solve problems differently aren’t in positions to do so. Not to be pessimistic – but we must see reality clearly.

Buddhism isn’t pacifism. It understands violence’s reality and offers various ways to deal with it. As for preparing suitcases – I’m not sure that’ll help if things really deteriorate. Let’s all hope the situation resolves well.

Goodnight everyone – see you next time.

This is an edited transcipt of a public talk by teacher Žarko Andričević held in December 2024