SNaP Module #7: Nonaggression Faith
Turning the SNaP into a winning spiritual practice
by Brian Wright

This review represents the final module in my so-called Liberation Technology User's Guide series (of seven): Nonaggression Faith. In this short book I lay down the foundations in creed, doctrine, and general requirements for a 'religion' and 'church.' Note the quotation marks around the two terms, necessitated by so many negative reactions to the unbracketed words. By religion I mean:

... an integrated system of belief in, reverence for, and practice of a supreme universal principle or idea, intended to bring spiritual fulfillment.

And 'church' is the social organization of that system of belief. The name of the 'religion' is Beism and the name of the 'church' is the 'Church of Being.' The idea of creating such a spiritual system came from all the work on the Sacred Nonaggression Principle (SNaP).

Audience of Book

A word up front, because for this particular book—which is actually a 28-page, easy-to-read booklet—I envision sending the knowledge out to a fairly select group of individuals. Even though my idea for a new ‘religion’ may stem initially from a desire to deal with an emergency level of corporate-state aggression in our time, the nonaggression principle (NaP) by itself does not work as the organizing principle of a whole belief system for living, breathing people. The intended audience consists of anyone who wants a better life and spiritual awakening, which is accelerated by following the SNaP.

Publishing Context—Marketing the SNaP

Nonaggression Faith [1] represents some new thinking for how to bring the core ideas of the Sacred Nonaggression Principle to the marketplace... both a) to the general readership of caring, conscientious world citizens who are at least emotionally inclined toward political liberty and b) to the self-identified libertarian activists of whom there are not yet sufficient numbers. I made the decision, subconsciously as it turns out, to break the SNaP book—published via Lulu—into seven distinct "modules," more easily digestible chunks of knowledge... for the younger, who do not like to read long stuff, and for the older, who find it difficult to read long stuff. These are the seven standalone modules, each approximately 28 pages:

1. The Kindergarten Rules—“Don’t hit, don’t steal, don’t lie.” The nonaggression principle comes from simple truths, core values.
2. Nonaggression 101—The fundamental rule of live and let live, and why it needs to be sacred.
3. The Roots of Nonaggression—Psychological qualities that promote a society without coercion, the sine qua non of enlightenment.
4. The Barrier Cloud (this book)—Addresses main causes of obstacles to movement along the Nonaggression Vector.
5. Breakthru Strategy—Grand and petite strategies for busting the Barrier Cloud.
6. Productive Action—Taking it to the streets: undoing the state and asserting our natural freedom to live our lives.
7. Nonaggression Faith—Useful techniques for assessing progress and encouraging the SNaP in our lives. Religion and references.

The book size is now 5.5" by 8.5" (vs. std. 'paperback' 4.250 x 6.875) and text size was also increased to 13 point Times Roman, with plenty of spacing. Then, in keeping with the whole goal of approachability and usability, I conceived of the set of documents as a series of stepped- learning training manuals, each addressing a fundamental area of understanding and/or action about the SNaP. Hence, the tongue-in-cheek title for the series: Liberation Technology User's Guide. Finally, I changed publishers from Lulu to Amazon's Createspace, to take advantage of automated ISBN assignment and much wider sales distribution.

Conceptually Appropriate

When the proof modules were first delivered, I was thrilled to learn that they solved—or at least hugely mitigated—the singular problem(s) with my SNaP book: specifically, the high density of new (though simple) concepts and, generally, the stress felt by many in dealing with conceptual material. By repackaging into smaller units, this high density of new concepts has become much easier for the average reader to give it a go.

For example, in the Nonaggression Faith module, I note my encountering a major spiritual message in the writing of Eckhart Tolle and a major spiritual cultivation practice named Falun Dafa. This message and cultivation practice—along with natural reason and my Sacred Nonaggression Principle—form the legs of the ‘religion.’ I come up with a doctrine and creed; the doctrine is as follows:

1. That Being-'all that exists,' the universe, everything considered as one-is absolute and eternal. It is the Source or foundation-beyond mental labels-of all reality, of all lives, and of all values.
2. That as human persons, we exist possessing consciousness, our means of a) apprehending what exists and satisfying the requirements of our material lives and b) having union with Being.
3. That our consciousnesses authorize, embrace, and enhance the use of natural reason to determine the truth of things and to solve the problems of material existence and achieve our fulfillment in the physical world.
4. That our consciousnesses embrace, draw in, and release the creative life-energy of the Source in coordination with natural reason to experience our wealth and abundance in ways that lead to true joy, peace, and spiritual fulfillment.
5. That we abandon all systems of aggression in society, withdraw our consent from coercive governments and their instruments, practicing strict noncooperation with such alien forces.
6. That we oppose all systems of belief that hold at their base the violation of our rational informed consent by means of superstition, blind faith, and manipulation of primal psychology.
7. That we provide for our lives with honest effort to achieve material well being; we believe in joy, happiness, love, passion, progress, and prosperity. realizing inner peace all our days.

And the following graphic shows the creed:

Three general parts of belief make the ‘Church’ of Being and its adherents unique: a) the Central Realization, b) Walking the Principle, and c) Living Well. Related to these, Beism has an association with Falun Dafa, whose tenets are Truth, Tolerance, and Compassion. The book does a good job setting up a promising worldview consistent with the SNaP.

[1] Full title Liberation Technology User's Guide: Module #7: Nonaggression Faith.

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2011 June 03
Copyright © Brian Wright | The Coffee Coaster™
Nonaggression Faith | Brian Wright | SNaP | Liberation Technology

Rock Creek
Free Press