So. . . this isn't the first time that the question came up, and to be honest it isn't usually a question, it usually arrives in the form of an accusation, or worse, an insult. The question, if it were put in a civilized way ( I'm big on civilness lately ) would be "Is self defense spiritual?" And the answer is: of course it is. Never heard of Martial Arts? Distinctly spiritual. Or how about the Shao Lin order: kick ass monks, they are. There are gentler forms of martial arts such as Aikido which turns an opponent's attacking energy back against them. Then there's Tai Chi which is even gentler, but it's still about moving and redirecting energy to where it is appropriate and beneficial. Redirecting energy is healing, and so I say, let the healing begin.
Pacifists can be spiritual too, of course. I don't question pacifists. I don't insult them. I don't even wonder whether or not pacifism is connected to their spirituality. It might be. It might not. What it really is, is, none of my business. I respect a pacifist for their choices just as much as I respect the next person for defending themselves, or others. If a pacifist changes his mind I still respect him. Same goes for a non-pacifist who says "no" one day to self defense, even if he changes his mind five minutes later. It's really all about personal choice and the right to live one's life as one chooses. Naturally if we do that we recognize the same rights for others. That's the ideal scenario, in any case.
Where does it become a gray area: how about when a pacifist gets all up in my face for having defended myself? Yeah, would a pacifist do that? Yep. I can witness on that, several times in the past. There will probably be more attacks by pacifists, or those who otherwise find themselves more "spiritual than thou" whenever I do or say virtually anything which does not agree with what they personally think is "spiritual". The good news is, I've only ever been attacked in such a way by people who don't know me at all: they just do a "drive by" and then keep on rolling.
