People can fall asleep for many different reasons. Sometimes, during a stressful period in their life, a person may turn to drugs as an escape from the harsh reality that they are living, i.e., security (albeit a false sense of security).

Ask almost anyone and they will tell you that at one point or another in their life they have become so angry that they struck someone or did something that they were not conscious of at the time, and later regretted.

So how does this all tie back to the idea of falling asleep that I mentioned earlier? Remember that falling asleep in a sense is taking the easy way out. Be it by drugs, violence, or other means, be it on purpose or accidental, falling asleep is becoming closed off to reality and the problems that one has to face. Ever since the first act of violence, man has used it as the easy way out, and it is easy to see today how habit forming this falling asleep has become.

Wink urges his readers to use practical nonviolence as a way to break the spiral of violence that is seen worldwide. The major problem with violence is that it has been around as long as humanity itself. Even in the Old Testament, violence is present throughout. Scholar Raymund Schwager insists that violence is easily the most often mentioned activity in the Hebrew Bible. (Wink 84) The odd thing is, that for the most part, societies condone violence, although in different ways. Each society has their accepted violence and their unacceptable violence. Here in the U.S. violence in music, television, and movies is frowned upon by many, and is often seen as the cause of most of the violence in society. Yet we see violence on the news and on our streets all the time, a lot of times committed by the same people that are outraged by violence in the media. (I point to the recent bombings in Iraq as an example.)

Chodron, Pema. "The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness." Shambhala Publications, 1991. Boston.

The main problem with falling asleep is that it is terribly habit forming. One we become used to the ease of losing control and not having to deal with hardships, it becomes easy to just continually let it happen. When we see how easy it is to deal with anger by punching someone, why try to use other, less violent tactics? When we see how easy it is to be on drugs all the time and not have to deal with reality, why be sober? This is why so many drugs are habit forming, even those that are not physically addictive. Often times psychological addiction is just as hard, if not harder to break than a physical addiction.

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Something went awry in Jesus' case, however. The Powers scourged him with whips, but each stroke of the lash unveiled their own illegitimacy. They mocked him with a robe and a crown of thorns, spitting on him and striking him on the head with a reed, ridiculing him with the ironic ovation, "Hail, King of the Jews!" - not knowing how their acclimation would echo down the centuries. They stripped him naked and crucified him in humiliation, all unaware that this very act had stripped the Powers of the last covering that disguised the towering wrongness of the whole way of life their violence defended. They nailed him to the cross, not realizing that with each hammer's blow they were nailing up, fo

Some common words found in the essay are:
Loving-Kindness Chodron, Bible Wink, Wink Powers, King Jr, Buddhism Christianity, King Jews, Klux Klan, Domination System, Jesus' Powers, Theology Millenium, falling asleep, spiral violence, idea falling, practical nonviolence, resorting violence, idea falling asleep, habit forming, escape path loving-kindness, easy drugs, easy deal, losing control, control one's, wisdom escape path, powers theology millenium,
Approximate Word count = 1956
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)