Questioner: How do we meet violence in other people?
Krishnamurti: My neighbour is violent: how shall I deal with it? Turn the other cheek? He is delighted. What shall I do? Would you ask that question if you were really non-violent, if there were no violence in you? Do listen to this question. If in your heart, in your mind, there is no violence at all, no hate, no bitterness, no sense of fulfilment, no wanting to be free, no violence at all, would you ask that question about how you meet the neighbour who is violent? Or would you know then what to do with your neighbour? Others may call what you do violent, but you may not be violent; at that moment your neighbour acts violently you will know how to deal with the situation. But a third person, watching, might say, “You are also violent.” But you know that you are not violent. So what is important is to be for yourself completely without violence—and it does not matter what another calls you.
J. Krishnamurti/Beyond Violence, pp 83-84
