Posts by Prof. Michael Nagler

Cultural Narrative: Daily Metta

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“I address this appeal to you in the hope that our movement may even lead you. . . in the right direction, and deflect you from the course which is bound to end in your moral ruin in the reduction of human beings to robots.” ~ Gandhi, London Tribune, October 23, 1942 In our age,… read more

Lasting Victory: Daily Metta

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“The German Jews will score a lasting victory over the German Gentiles in the sense that they will have converted the latter to an appreciation of human dignity.” Harijan, November 26, 1938   Here we enter on one of Gandhi’s most controversial claims, that even in the crucible of the holocaust it would be theoretically… read more

Nonviolence of the Strong: Daily Metta

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“. . . but as our nonviolence was the nonviolence of the weak, the leaven did not spread. Had we adopted nonviolence as the weapon of the strong, because we realize that it was more effective than any other weapon, in fact, the mightiest force in the world, we would have made use of its… read more

All We Can Be: Daily Metta

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“I may deliver up my soul with the remembrance of God on my lips.” ~ Gandhi, Pyarelal, Last Phase, II, p. 101 It seems fitting to end our second year with Gandhiji with this magnificent testimony. For this, of course, was exactly what he did, deliver up his soul with the words “Rama Rama Rama”—the… read more

Tipping Point: Daily Metta

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“For India to enter into the race for armaments is to court suicide. With the loss of India to nonviolence the last hope of the world will be gone.” ~ Gandhi, Harijan, October 14, 1939 We would have to say that India is not altogether lost to nonviolence; that flame can be seen if not… read more

Force of Spirit: Daily Metta

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“The force of the spirit is ever progressive and endless… That force resides in everybody; man, woman, and child, irrespective of the color of the skin. Only in many it lies dormant, but it is capable of being awakened by judicious training.” ~ Gandhi, Harijan, February 10, 1946 “Training” has become the watchword of the… read more

One Family: Daily Metta

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“Unity among the different races and the different communities belonging to different religions of India is indispensable to the birth of national life.” ~ Gandhi, CWMG, xxvi, p. 241 Substitute different political outlooks and change “birth” to “rebirth,” and you have a perfect description of our own need today. The advance of human evolution—and the… read more

Observation & Experience: Daily Metta

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“Non-violence, being the mightiest force in the world, and also the most elusive in its working, demands the greatest exercise of faith.” ~ Gandhi, Mahatma 5, p. 17 In the words of Augustine and later Fathers of the Church, credo ut intellegam, “I believe in order to understand.” This technique has been criticized as conducive… read more

Agency/Freedom: Daily Metta

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“Mere withdrawal of the English is not independence. It means the consciousness and the average villager that he is the maker of his own destiny, he is his own legislator through his chosen representative.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, February 13, 1930 We are familiar by now with the key doctrine that “no man loses his… read more