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What to do when there's a military draft?



The question "What do I do about...?" often arises. If the response is "Do this" or "Do that", then the responder is assuming authority, which is violence - certainly a hypocritical response for this particular question! Yet, compassion - i.e., the awareness of the unity of existence - compels a response to a plea for help.


The response here seems to be essentially the same as in other talks: understand the totality of the situation, discard all the false, then what else remains but the truth? The answer does not arise from decision, but from choiceless awareness. In this case, understand the full meaning of violence and its many forms: conformity, "discipline", ambition, competitiveness. With a genuine and complete orientation towards a life without any kind of violence, with neither will nor resistance, then all that remains is the true answer to the question.

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