Harmlessness

See also: Ahimsa, Nonviolence, and Nonviolent resistance

Harmlessness denotes the quality of lacking capacity or intent to injure, or to cause any beings, any harm, including death, pain, disability, loss of ability, freedom or pleasure.

Quotes

Harmful magnetic conditions, as the result of man's wrong handling of force, are the causes of evil in the world... How can we, as individuals, change this? By the development in ourselves of Harmlessness. Therefore, study yourself from this angle. Study your daily conduct and words and thoughts so as to make them utterly harmless. Set yourself to think those thoughts about yourself and others which will be constructive and positive, and hence harmless in their effects. Study your emotional effect on others, so that by no mood, no depression, and no emotional reaction can you harm a fellow-man. Remember in this connection, violent spiritual aspiration and enthusiasm, misplaced or misdirected, may quite easily harm a fellow-man, so look not only at your wrong tendencies but at the use of your virtues.
If harmlessness is the keynote of your life, you will do more to produce right harmonious conditions in your personality than any amount of discipline along other lines. The drastic purgation brought about by the attempt to be harmless will go far to eliminate wrong states of consciousness... Therefore, I say to you at this time, I – an older and perhaps more experienced disciple and worker in the great vineyard of the Lord – practice harmlessness with zest and understanding, for it is (if truly carried out) the destroyer of all limitation.
- Alice Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, p. 101/3. (1934)

Harmfulness is based on selfishness, and on an ego-centric attitude. It is the demonstration of forces concentrated for self-enforcement, self-aggrandisement, and self-gratification. Harmlessness is the expression of the life of the man who realises himself to be everywhere, who lives consciously as a soul, whose nature is love, whose method is inclusiveness, and to whom all forms are alike, in that they veil and hide the light, and are but externalisations of the One Infinite Being. This realisation, let me remind you, will demonstrate in a true comprehension of a brother's need, divorced from sentiment and expediency. It will lead to that silence of the tongue that grows out of non-reference to the separate self. It will produce that instantaneous response to true need which characterises the Great Ones who (passing beneath the outer appearance) see the inner cause which produces the conditions noted in the outer life, and so, from that point of wisdom, true help and guidance can be given. Harmlessness brings about in life caution in judgment, reticence in speech, ability to refrain from impulsive action, and the demonstration of a non-critical spirit. So, free passage can be given to the forces of true love, and to those spiritual energies which seem to vitalise the personality, leading consequently to right action. Let harmlessness, therefore, be the keynote of your life.
- Alice Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, p. 101/3. (1934)

I have so emphatically impressed the need of harmlessness upon all of you, for it is the scientific method, par excellence, and esoterically speaking, of cleaning house, and of purifying the centres. Its practice clears the clogged channels and permits the entrance of the higher energies.
- Alice Bailey, A Treatise on the Seven Rays: Volume 4: Esoteric Healing p. 40

What shall I say concerning harmlessness? It is not easy for me to show or prove to you the effectiveness of the higher aspect... The harmlessness with which I have earlier dealt, has relation to the imperfections with which humanity is wrestling, and is difficult for you to apply in and under all circumstances, as well you know. The harmlessness to which I refer in connection with you is not negative, or sweet, or kindly activity, as so many believe; it is a state of mind and one which in no way negates firm or even drastic action; it concerns motive and involves the determination that the motive behind all activity is goodwill. That motive might lead to positive and sometimes disagreeable action or speech, but as harmlessness and goodwill condition the mental approach, nothing can eventuate but good.
- Alice Bailey, A Treatise on the Seven Rays: Volume 4: Esoteric Healing (1953) p.670

I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
- Jesus, to his disciples, as quoted in Gospel of Matthew 10:16].

The first step with which to counter the forces of evil is by confronting it with an attitude of 'harmlessness'. When the daily thoughts, words and activities are positive, and based on love and goodwill, no evil can gain entry into the mind and the results can only be constructive and harmless. It will therefore also be readily understood that if harmlessness is the keynote of life, more will be done to obtain harmonious conditions in the personality than by any other form of discipline.
The life of the man who consciously lives as the soul is expressed by its quality of harmlessness. This is one of the most potent forces in the world today and will demonstrate in daily living as right motive, goodwill, discriminative judging, reticence in speech, ability to refrain from impulsive action, and the manifestation of an uncritical spirit.
- Aart Jurriaanse Attributes of the disciple -- Harmlessness

People try to excuse their brutality by saying that it is the custom; but a crime does not cease to be a crime because many commit it. Karma takes no account of custom; and the karma of cruelty is the most terrible of all. In India at least there can be no excuse for such customs, for the duty of harmlessness is well-known to all. The fate of the cruel must fall also upon all who go out intentionally to kill God's creatures, and call it "sport".
- Jiddu Krishnamurti, At the Feet of the Master (1911)

External links

Encyclopedic article on Harmless on Wikipedia