16 The Hermit doesn’t defend Himself
The hermit is someone who is learning to be vulnerable – everybody wants to be invulnerable, doesn’t want to be hurt, but all that happens is that you get a heart of stone, and maybe you think that will make you invulnerable, but it doesn’t, because a hard enough knock will break it in two, and you’ll have a broken heart. A hermit is learning to be vulnerable which means having a heart of flesh. I once heard this story: it’s said that if your hand was made of the finest steel, even with everyday usage it would wear out in seven years and there would be nothing left of it. But it’s not, it’s made of flesh and blood, it’s a living thing and therefore able to regenerate itself. If your heart is of stone it will wear out in seven years, but if it’s made of flesh and is vulnerable it will last forever, and your heart will be a heart of love, and that is worth having.
Can we learn not to fear pain? Can we be hurt without being subject to reaction? Can we be engaged with suffering, our own and other peoples? Because that is compassion – you can only suffer-with-somebody if you haven’t cut yourself off from them.
There’s a peculiar strength in non-resistance, which is what Jesus knew, and it’s what Gandhi knew also. People use power and position and knowledge to defend themselves, but it’s just different sorts of violence. And can you see this: you only defend vested interests. When you’ve invested in something, physically or psychologically, you are seeking security. What you invest in is property, you want to possess something, be it a house, or be it an idea, and you want that something to have continuity – but nothing has continuity, so if you’ve made an investment of any sort there must be fear once more, and you’re no longer living in love.
But if you don’t have possessions that you want to defend, then two things may happen: one is, that you find room in your heart for the violence of others, and maybe in that acceptance it can be transformed; but also that calm, undistorted heart may act as a mirror in which people can see themselves clearly, perhaps for the first time, and maybe they can see that there is no justification for their behaviour, this was Gandhi’s great insight – if you don’t resist and you remain steady, eventually those involved in violence or oppression may see in the mirror of their relationships that they are acting unjustly. Maybe they do and maybe they don’t. But we can know for sure that if you react to violence with your own violence – which is self-defence – then what you do is create a spiral of violence. You may be able to suppress it, but you won’t be able to transform it, it will still be there, and at some point it will find an outlet.
Now a hermit is interested in breaking through this spiral of violence in the world, both political and personal – they are not really a different movement. So meditation is about breaking the chains of action and reaction, both internally and externally. You have to see the truth of this: that there is darkness and light in us all, no one is immune, and therefore we are all responsible for the violence in the world. To a large extent what is inside of you will find a place outside of you, so if you’re divided inside yourself there will be conflict on the outside also. So you have to bring these things to an end and you have to do it through psychological revolution, which is a turning away from yourself and your vested interests, which is metanoia and conversion, a turning to God so that His life can find a home in you.
There is a certain humility in being able to accept what is given, especially accepting signs of other people’s love and care, everybody has a need to express their love in this way, and you know there is a certain power in giving, it’s especially important to see this if you’re involved in the active life, running schools, hospitals, and so on. You can cut yourself off from other people giving to them all the time. Sometimes you see in primitive society that the person who gets to be the headman of the tribe or village is the one who can give the most away. The tribe would gather every year and the person who has the most is the person who can give the most and he becomes chief. You may laugh, but it’s exactly the same in the most sophisticated society: because the United States can give the most they get to run the United Nations. So I hope you can see how this works.
Also, I feel that if you are able to accept all that comes to you, you will be able to grow in holiness in every minute of your life. There are three great things that people fear existentially, the three things that Buddha saw before renouncing all to seek the truth, they are: sickness, old age, and death, and when you see that these things are coming to you too. I think you must ask yourself, what is really important in life? and surely the most important thing is the birth of God. If you can accept what is given then where is the problem? The problem only arises when there is resistance.