“The political domination of England is bad enough. The cultural is infinitely worse.… When the cultural domination is complete the political will defy resistance.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, July 9, 1925 Recently Thomas Friedman wrote that the (disastrous) result of the 2016 presidential election in the US “has much less to do with trade or… read more
Posts by Prof. Michael Nagler
Human-centered Reality: Daily Metta
“I make bold to say that the Europeans themselves will have to remodel their outlook if they are not to perish under the weight of the comforts to which they are becoming slaves.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, October 7, 1931 As we’ve seen elsewhere, Gandhi became aware already during his trial by fire in South… read more
Money is Not Life: Daily Metta
“All have not the same capacity. It is in the nature of things, impossible.… I would allow a man of intellect to earn more, I would not cramp his talent.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, November 26, 1931 Is this inequality? Not quite. Because earning more doesn’t mean being better; money is not life. We need… read more
Evidence of Our Senses: Daily Metta
“Somehow we refuse to believe in the evidence of our senses, that we could not possibly have any attachment for the body without the soul, and we have no evidence whatever that the soul perishes with the body.” ~ Gandhi, Letter to Meera Behn, May 4, 1933, p. 148 I very much enjoy the inescapable… read more
Thoughts: Daily Metta
“The greatest tragedy is a hopeless unwillingness of the villagers to better their lot.” ~ Gandhi, Harijan, January 9, 1937 It is indeed a tragedy: that people who have been belittled and oppressed so often take on the message of their own unworthiness put forward by their oppressors. But at the same time, this does… read more
Purer Energy: Daily Metta
Under certain circumstances fasting is the one weapon which God has given us for use in times of utter helplessness.… Absence of food is an indispensable but not the largest part of it. The largest part is the prayer – communion with God. It more than adequately replaces physical food. ~ Gandhi, letter to Meera… read more
Supreme Consideration: Daily Metta
“The supreme consideration is man. The machine should not tend to make atrophied the limbs of man.” ~ Gandhi,Young India, November 13, 1924 Gandhi is in so many ways more nuanced than he is taken for: people think he was a kind of luddite, against machinery. He was not against anything, really; he was for… read more
Unity of Life: Daily Metta
“Diversity there certainly is in the world, but it means neither inequality nor untouchability.” ~ Gandhi, Mahatma, vol. 3, 230 Gandhi wrote long before diversity became what we’d call these days a meme and core value of the ecological movement, before we recognized how essential it is in the health of nature—including, surprisingly, human nature.… read more
Permanent Peace: Daily Metta
“Not to believe in the possibility of permanent peace is to disbelieve in the Godliness of human nature.” ~ Gandhi, Truth is God, 144 Which is just the problem. Many people today do not believe in the Godliness of human nature, even if they profess to believe in God. The besetting problem in the West… read more
Practice: Daily Metta
“Individual Civil Disobedience among an unprepared people and by leaders not known to or trusted by them is of no avail, and mass Civil Disobedience is an impossibility.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, January 9, 1930 Because we are unschooled in civil disobedience, or almost any dimension of nonviolence, we often rush into actions with only… read more
