July 24th, 2022
To defend one’s self is preservation of life: The method must match the threat
To defend one’s self is a recognition of one’s value, the more effective one is the more life one can preserve including that of the attacker to be remanded to the state, in ideal circumstances. The method of defending life must meet both the level of threat as well as fit the circumstances one is in, whether armed or not. If a will is to do harm making methods against the law or harder to apply or acquire will not change the intent of that will and it will find or make a way to do harm. Take aware guns and criminals will use cars or other means, and the news shows this around the world, the reason for this is simple. The reason is that laws that are meant to manage violence will only ever prevent those that abide by the law from acting. Threat of punishment is only as effect as the impact of that punishment and those willing break the law and do harm or kill may be willing to accept punishment if it means being able to do as they will. All one can really control is one’s self and one’s sphere and thus influence all that one interacts with on the stage of the world so to preserve one’s life one must be able to defend it which means directing the force sent against one’s self in order to maintain one’s sense of harmony with the world, the universe and the multiverse. If one has obtained a personal harmony, as stated, one will not contend with others and if one must deal with such one is only seeking to maintain one’s sense of harmony, to keep one’s balance, as again one is not contending.
One example of this teaching is the quote based on the works of Lao Tzu: “Avoid, rather than check. Check, rather than hurt. Hurt, rather than maim. Maim, rather than kill. For all life is precious, nor can any be replaced.” This quote shows the individual as able to be confident in the terms of choosing the level of force one uses which points to the individual having options as one responds to the choices of others. If both the attacker and the defender are making choices it proves that one always has a choice in what one does and what one does not do i.e. to take no action is an action. If one plans one has options, provided one can do as one has planned, and thus one must be trained. If one has planned and trained but the plan did not account for what one is facing one’s training should be such as to allow one to adapt i.e. one cannot plan for all things but one can train to be able to adapt to anything in order to prevail. A part of sound living is knowing what one can do with what one has access to and thus one plans for what one can while allowing for what one cannot plan for. If one knows what one has access to and what one can do with it one must have the will to use it and be willing to accept and adapt to what comes as a result of what one elects to do or not to do. If one knows how to kill one can choose to maim, if one can maim one can choose to hurt, if one can hurt one can choose to check and if one can check one can choose to avoid.
If one knows how to kill one will know how fragile life can be and thus one will know the need for strength to defend life stemming from the awareness of the value of that life. If one can find the drive to kill in defense of one’s self one can find the insight, via the value of life, one can find other options that others with less understanding will not see; this is also known as wisdom. The person that is able and willing to act on any of these levels of force is in control up to the level of ability and willingness to act. If one is not willing to act it is worse than not being able because to the degree that one can act but does not one is at fault for what occurs. This fault is not based in morality, philosophy or culture but rather the natural fact that one could have acted and did not or elected to act not in accord with what one knows. To preserve life demands that one not only cultivate life but rather defend it. There will be times when the logical defense of life is to remove the threat from that life. To do this one must have both the knowledge and means, this is power.