Violence and No End?
Director X and Sadhguru Discuss the Ultimate ‘Peacemaker’
Sadhguru and Canadian film and video maker, Director X, speak about the power of meditation in reducing violence in society. Director X created Operation Prefrontal Cortex, an initiative harnessing the power of meditation to help reduce incidents of gun, mass, and police violence in his hometown Toronto, Canada. He has shaped the North American music video culture with his work for artists like Justin Bieber, Usher, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, One Direction, and Rihanna, to name a few. Read on as Sadhguru gets down to the root of violence, and how to address it.
Director X: I founded an organization in Toronto called Operation Prefrontal Cortex. It deals with the brain science of violence and aggressive people, and how meditation directly reverses and repairs those parts of the brain that are damaged by childhood abuse, neglect, and stress. We’ve been working to bring meditation into our schools, community, streets, police force, prisons, and of course, the bureaucracy. We’ve had the best progress in the community where a high school started a program called “Meditation Mentors.” There, the kids are changing their lives and that of their friends. Another small community in Toronto that’s ravaged by gun violence has adopted meditation, and their lives too are changing. I’d love to hear your insight on this subject.
The Different Dimensions of Being Meditative
Sadhguru: The word “meditation” in the English language does not say anything specific, which causes a whole lot of confusion. Though various scientific studies have shown immense results from being meditative, people still have different ideas of what meditation is. In the Sanskrit language, there are many words to describe meditation, like japa, tapa, dhyana, dharana, samadhi, shoonya, and samyama. These are all different dimensions of being meditative.
Instead of calling it meditation, I would say it is the quality of being meditative. Meditation is a quality – it is not an act you perform.
The Root Cause That Needs to Be Addressed
Right now, when it comes to violence, whether it is with a gun, knife, hand, or whatever other forms of violence, we are always trying to address the consequences. Someone shooting, slashing, or punching somebody is only a consequence. The real problem is someone is angry, frustrated, hateful, or prejudiced. Are we willing to work on that? We are not. Because the very structure of our society is based on these prejudices.
Someone may think bringing racial equality in a nation will be a universal solution to violence. But it is not – we need to bring global humanity. Otherwise, different races, religions, nations, families, and individuals will keep clashing all the time.
The way we have structured our society is you versus me.
There is violence in everything we do, including business, politics, and diplomacy. Do not think only the man who is shooting somebody is violent. The way we have structured our society is you versus me. When it is you versus me, it is violent. I’m not trying to justify gun violence or any other form of violence; I’m just saying it’s a consequence. Consequences need to be handled by law and order. But what is important is self-transformation.
Are we willing to invest our lives into bringing transformation in ourselves and as many people around us as possible? For this to happen, you need tools of self-transformation. I will connect you to our center at the Harvard Medical School where substantial work is being done in this regard – they do research on how the basic bio-parameters change in the human system simply by sitting in a place in a certain way. If you sit with a certain attitude and focus, everything about you changes.
Why Being ‘Good’ Is Not Good Enough
It is important to change the very chemistry of who we are because all human experience – peace, anger, joy, misery, agony, ecstasy, everything – has a chemical basis to it. We are talking about technologies for wellbeing, tools for transformation, to create a chemistry of blissfulness.
When you are joyful, are there possibilities of you becoming violent? Only when you are miserable, the chances of you becoming violent are very eminent. Then, just a little provocation is all it takes. But, the biggest mistake we have made in the world is trying to produce “good” people. These good people have been constantly fighting some other good people – good Indians are fighting good Pakistanis, good Christians are fighting good Muslims, and so on.
That is too much goodness clashing, because your idea of goodness and their idea of goodness are different. If you keep this aside and focus on producing more joyful and sensible human beings on this planet, you will see these clashes will reduce.
Inner Freedom for the Imprisoned
But what’s the immediate solution for your city? Your children and all these people need to have this solution – inner freedom for the imprisoned. We have been exploring this possibility for the last 20-21 years with the “Inner Freedom for the Imprisoned” programs.
Our programs are mandatory in the prisons of South India. All the long-term prisoners go through simple processes of meditation, and you must see the incredible transformation. You won’t believe – they have written thousands of poems about their self-transformation.
