Do vs. Do Not

So how did "Do Not" become "Do" over the course of history and what does that even mean. When I hear it, I think of the parenting tactic my dad always used on my brother and I. It's like when a child is say kicking the wall and you would really like for this child to stop. Instead of saying to the child "Do not do that, stop it right now," you would instead say "Hey, you should come over here and color." Instead of telling them they can't do something, give them an alternative thing to do. This does two things and helps you in two ways. First, it distracts them from what they are doing and second, it prevents them from getting angry with you fro telling them to stop what they are doing. The only down side to this is, it would only work about half of the time because when you are not strict with the child they won't be afraid to say that they would rather kick the wall then color in a coloring book. This leaves you in a rather difficult situation where you have to decide whether or not you are going to get mad at the child and tell them they need to stop or if you are just going to let them keep kicking the wall. 

The reading assigned a couple of days ago talks a lot about Gandhi and his teachings. Ahimsa, the concept meaning non-violence, is something that I actually hear a lot about in yoga. But I never actually knew what it came from so it was interesting to learn that the belief came from Gandhi. Because Gandhi is also someone that I hear a lot about. So Gandhi used non-violence to protest against the British imperialists, which is very similar to what Martin Luther King did to gain civil rights for the African Americans. The idea of "Do" instead of "Do Not" came into play when Gandhi developed his new beliefs. ""Do" instead of "Do Not" in religion is the difference between following a set of given laws and taking action to make things right. It is really interesting to learn about how that shift was made because it makes you realize that this society is "Do Not" society instead a "Do" society. And I say that meaning the laws. But I guess our government does take action about certain things, but only if our national security is at risk. But with that, not everything is peaceful so our society is a very non-teaching-of-Gandhi type of society.