Nonviolence

Nonviolence (Skt. avihiṃsā; Tib. རྣམ་པར་མི་འཚེ་བ་, nampar mitsewa, Wyl. rnam par mi ‘tshe ba) — one of the fifty-one mental states defined in Abhidharma literature. According to the Compendium of Abhidharma, it belongs to the subgroup of the eleven virtuous states.

Definitions

In the Khenjuk, Mipham Rinpoche says:

• Tib. རྣམ་པར་མི་འཚེ་བ་ནི་ཞེ་སྡང་མེད་པའི་ཆར་གཏོགས་པ་སྙིང་རྗེ་བའི་སེམས་ཏེ། གཞན་ལ་ཐོ་མི་བརྩམ་པའི་ལས་ཅན་ནོ།
• Non-violence is a compassionate mind, included in nonaggression. Its function is to avoid causing harm to others (Rigpa Translations)
• Non-violence is a compassionate attitude belonging to non-aggression. Its function is to avoid causing harm to others (Erik Pema Kunsang)

Alternative Translations

• non-hostility (David Karma Choepel)
• nonharmfulness