Entering the realm of violence is a one way journey. Crossing that threshold you cannot turn around and undo the the explosion of consequences that ripple down the stream and across the pond expanding the center of the violent act. If you are the one who violates, whatever the justification or lack thereof, the fabric of you is ripped into the past, forever out of reach, and the uncertain future that must survive the backwash of the violent act. There is no mystery why so many of the proponents of violence have only in their protected lives been entertained by its prospects, but never baptized in its painful life-long tattoo.

Many of us have been warned about living by the sword and dying by the sword. No matter what your spiritual tradition, your teachers may have been be diverse among one another, but what they share is they were never ‘mostly just kidding’. What they said they meant, and what they intended they lived. 

Good means growing up and dropping the tap root of your spirit deeply into the radical center of your one existence. Violence is never radical. It is the child’s first failed experiment and only if that child is surrounded by loving nurturance. Violence is only the turbulent surface of life and its meaning. If you haven’t yet, go to the ocean and try to tame the waves by splashing around. Love is the essence of radical difference and depth. Love is a hard lesson to practice, but who said life was easy? Not my teachers.