Non-Reaction and Non-Violent Are Not the Same Thing

Jesus famously said that if someone slaps you on one check, you should offer him the other cheek as well. "Turn the other cheek" has long since become a catch phrase for what Eckhart Tolle and others (like the Buddha even before the Christ) call non-reaction. It's really the only sane response to violence. Anything else will only perpetuate a cycle of violence that will never end until one of the parties is either annihilated or until one of them decides, finally, to employ non-reaction.

The first key to non-reaction is internal. It means that your response isn't a knee-jerk, unconscious response to what's happened or what's about to come your way. It means that your ego doesn't take you over, causing you to act without really realizing what you're doing.
But non-reaction, or turning the other cheek, doesn't alway require a passive response. Being smacked on the cheek is one thing--it isn't going to cause any lasting damage--but other forms of violence require either a better defense than turning the other cheek provides, or even a preventative offense.

Indeed, enlightened individuals can be among the most unpredictable people you will ever meet. Tolle, in A New Earth, gives an example of a Zen master who would sneak up on his students and cane them across the back as an educational tool. If they were not so lost in their thoughts, he would never have been able to get close enough to cane them.

Many situations may require a response involving controlled violence, both individually and collectively. One good example of the former is that of the policeman protecting others.

Another excellent example may be a parent who wishes to demonstrate the consequences of egoic behavior to a child. An enlightened parent may choose to give the child a hearty sample of what he might expect from people that don't love him so much. The parent may choose to be uncooperative or may repay the child evil for evil, in some way.

The Tao te Ching speaks directly to the necessity for controlled violence in the collective:

[The decent man] enters a battle gravely,

with sorrow and with great compassion,

as if he were attending a funeral.

Sometimes wars must be fought, but no one should enter into the fray with a light heart.

The second key to non-reaction is trusting your instincts. The Tao te Ching again:

Open yourself to the Tao,

then trust your natural responses;

and everything will fall into place.

We don't know in a rational sense what any moment requires. We don't know what's about to happen. We don't know what that other person needs from the present situation. But the Tao (or the Universe or God, as you prefer) does know. If we clear away the ego and live in communion with that higher power, then we can trust the instinct that arises.

It may tell us not to flinch in the face of the most extreme demonstration of violent capability. It may also tell us to pull the trigger when nothing much has happened.

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