(For those here taking a more Buddhist approach with neg. entities, I've found Sharon Salzberg's story to be a great help in navigating the experience and wanted to share this in case anyone else had fallen into the same trap I had - the idea that "hitting them with your umbrella" can't be a wise choice.)
A while back a story was told to me about Sharon Salzberg, a Western Buddhist author and teacher. Apparently she spent some time in an ashram in India. While she was there, she had taken a vow of non-violence. While driving through a market one day, a man tried to pull her out of her vehicle. The one thought going through her mind as she struggled was, "How can I avoid doing this man harm?" She tried to free herself without causing him pain, and while she was able to extricate herself from the situation without harm coming to herself or the man, her question continued to trouble her, and she soon took it to her spiritual teacher.
His response: "Why didn't you hit him with your umbrella?"
Sharon's guru trusted that his student would not strike out against an aggressor with malice. Knowing that her intentions were well-considered, he advised her to defend herself - even though hitting the man is a pain-causing act.
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To strike out does not "feel" loving. Yet if we did not strike out, would not negative people and entities only continue to abuse, gleaning only the lesson "I can get away with it"? To allow other beings to take advantage of us only encourages them in perverse behaviors, thus ensuring that they degrade their spirits. As long as we check our intentions, fighting can be a beneficial choice, not only for us, but for them and their karma.
On a more personal note:
For a long time I have struggled with the idea of "causing pain." I believed that the only way to rid myself of negative entities' influence was to cultivate compassion. I persisted for a long time in compassionate practices, heeding the Tibetan scriptures, "driving all blames into one." Without a fighting spirit, cultivating my ability to feel lovingkindness towards cruel beings only opened me up to their endless abuses.
I recently did cause some pain to someone who had been psychically harrassing me for days. I sent it to their heart via the extant connection, with the message "Don't you dare do this to me again," and the warning that I was capable of sending more. I held the intention as I did this that the pain would be relatively "soft," capable of being dissolved by their natural processes, and not durable or lasting, concealing this consideration from them lest the message be diluted. Then I cut the string on which the pain had been delivered, and let go of things.
To my surprise, they stopped sending their nonsense. A few hours later they came back around (psychically) with a "sullen" energy - "How dare you defend yourself!" While it's still troubling, I can tell I had an effect on their initial reckless impulse.
Sometimes, you gotta hit 'em with your umbrella.
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