For someone with the word "ahimsa", which means “non-harm”, tattooed on their neck, I don’t write about it nearly enough.
I discovered the word when I was around 13, after watching that three-hour epic “Gandhi” with Ben Kingsley. It cracked open something in me. But let’s be honest, the idea of non-harm isn’t going to land for most humans. Not right away. We're trapped in the conflict mind, until one day we’re not. We wake the fuck up. We become aware of how humans, like all creatures, evolved in a savage, dog-eat-dog world. Competitive with other species, and even more viciously with each other, inside our families, our friendships, our communities.
And that conflict mind runs deep. We’ve been socially conditioned to commit violence toward the planet itself. All of us are partly responsible for the flattening of forests, the poisoning of oceans, the strip-mining of mountains, the fracking of sacred ground. We’ve built empires on top of lithium, water, wood, metal, and oil. All of it justified in the name of "survival."
Some people think God gave us permission to fuck this place up. Others, the materialist types, think Darwin wrote them a blank check to dominate everything and everyone. Survival of the fittest, right? So they act like that gives them license to conquer. Even if God did say the world was made for us, and even if evolution rewards the strongest, it still doesn’t make sense to destroy the only planet we’ve got. It makes even less sense to torture and eat animals that were abused their entire lives. Their suffering is real, and we take it into our bodies when we eat them. That misery doesn’t just vanish. It becomes chemical. Fear floods their systems before death. Adrenaline. Cortisol. That toxicity ends up in your bloodstream, in your cells. And if you think you’re spiritually immune because you said grace over your bacon, you’re kidding yourself.
Let’s talk about fish. People love to say they’re different. Maybe. They swim wild and free until the last horrifying moment they’re snatched from the sea. Some might not experience terror the same way mammals do. But it doesn’t matter, because their flesh is poisoned too. Humans have laced the oceans with mercury and microplastics. It all comes right back into our chemistry. You want to play dumb? Fine. There’s limited data on some of this. I’ll give you that. But let’s be honest, some of you need me to be wrong just so you can feel safe continuing your habits.
We are stuck in a harming mind. A culture that glorifies violence. Have you seen a movie trailer lately? It's all guns, revenge, and apocalypse. We reward beauty over compassion. Because it’s easier. Because our brain chemistry is wired to do that. Because we’re fucking anxious.
Our harming concepts are camouflaged. We harm ourselves with food. We spin out in negative thoughts planted in childhood. And our parents? Most of them were clueless. Not evil, just unaware. It’s not about blaming them. It’s about breaking the cycle. But shifting the collective consciousness to non-harm? It’s a long, uphill, blood-soaked hike.
Still, if 70% of us got it, really got it, we’d win. Humanity would become stewards of life. Utopian societies would spring up. Children raised in love, the elderly cared for, criminals healed instead of caged. No more mass starvation. No more goddamn wars. Maybe even less Donald Trump and the ghouls who ride his coattails of treachery. Fuck, I’m getting political. Good thing no one’s reading this.
Anyway. You get the gist.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I couldn’t give less of a shit about flat earth, UFOs, chemtrails, the deep state, or “evil vaccines.” All that shit is anxiety-born nonsense for people allergic to logic.
I’m not here to preach to you. I’m just going to explain non-harm the way I see it, and you do whatever the fuck you want with it. Hopefully, you’ll come to the same conclusion I did, that practicing non-harm not only helps the world, it’ll calm your goddamn nervous system. You’ll suffer less. Not because you’re holier than thou, but because you’re a person healing themselves and waking the fuck up to the fact that your behavior matters, to your descendants and to every living thing that comes after us.
I’m talking about microbes in the soil. Mollusks in the sea. Sharks, salmon, oak trees, celery stalks, bees, birds, fleas, flowers, cows, lemurs, chickens (yeah, even those dumbass birds), snakes, scorpions, and every other creature just trying to make it on this spinning ball.
We’re here to help life survive. That’s the mission.
This isn’t about heaven or hell. This is about now. This is heaven. And we’re shitting on it like bratty little apes with too much screen time and sugar in our blood.
Those in power? Same story. Suits and speeches don’t mean they’re evolved. Most of them are scared five-year-olds with a megaphone. And the rest of us follow blindly. We need a collective jolt to the system. That jolt is ahimsa. Non-harm. Try it.
Don’t kill for food or fashion. Don’t use your words as weapons. Be fucking kind. Be of service. Refine the ideas of non-harm and share them with the people who are ready. Don’t proselytize. Don’t be an obvious guru-posing douchebag. Teach with subtlety. Teach the youth before they get jaded.
Ahimsa is a sacred Sanskrit word. But it’s not exclusive. You’ll find its cousins in every culture on Earth. In Chinese, there’s a term that mirrors it. In modern psychology, it shows up as nonviolent communication, harm reduction, compassionate action. Indigenous traditions are packed with this wisdom.
The practice begins with this: Recognize that some things help, and some things hurt. Duality is real here on Earth, whether it’s an illusion or not. And if duality is part of the operating system, then I’m going to work with it. I’m going to call shit what it is.
Some people say, “Don’t judge.” They say judgment is an obstacle to spiritual growth. Maybe. But a lot of times that’s just an excuse to stay in denial. The universe might be a dream, but pain is real. So is hunger. So is suffering. And we get to decide which side we’re on.
Choosing good doesn’t mean you’re the Messiah. Maybe it just means you’re smart enough to see that kindness is efficient. That helping others makes your own pain lighter. That’s not mystical. That’s just fucking logic.
So don’t announce it. Don’t hashtag it. Just do it. Quietly. Like a ninja of decency.
Now, let’s be real. We’re still gonna kill things by accident. Tiny organisms. Bugs underfoot. Bacteria on the toothbrush. Just existing means participating in the food chain. That’s not genocide. That’s life. But if you’re living in good character, you at least acknowledge it. You bow your head and say, “I’m sorry.” Then you go plant something.
Every breath we take is part of a cycle. One day, the universe cashes out our flesh. We decay. Trillions of microorganisms feast on our bodies. They get fed. They feed something else. Round and round we go.
Nature is slowly evolving toward less killing. But Earth is still beta-testing this shit. Three billion years old? That’s infantile in cosmic time. The universe hasn’t even hit puberty yet. We’re in the goddamn opening credits.
So let’s leave the cosmic math to the physicists. The rest of us? We have a simpler task: Be kind.
That’s the job. That’s the practice. Especially now, in a world where millions of people still don’t have food or medicine. Civilization isn’t measured by AI or rockets. It’s measured by how we treat the vulnerable.
And that brings us to sharing. Sharing is ahimsa too. Not just any bullshit, share nourishment. Share wisdom, but only if it’s invited. Don’t force-feed people your enlightenment. That’s not sharing. That’s spiritual narcissism.
We do that kind of shit when we’re scared. When we’re addicted to being right. That’s a different essay.
For now, just know this: The more you practice non-harm, the higher you climb. Start small. Watch how you talk. How you treat your coworkers. Your kids. The guy who cuts you off in traffic. Then look at your fuel, your food. Recognize that your cravings are tied to old pain. That meat might have been your childhood comfort, but it doesn’t have to be your future poison.
When you understand that harm is rooted in fear, and you stop feeding that fear, your life changes.
That’s ahimsa.
Now f**king go live it.