June 19: “No one should dogmatize about the capacity of human nature for degradation or exaltation.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, Vol. V, April, 1940) Human beings are naturally violent. It’s our nature. We’ve all heard this a time or two. It’s called “innate aggression theory,” the school of popular psychology that maintains that human beings are just… read more
Posts by Stephanie Van Hook
“The ideal and the practice”–Daily Metta
June 18: “The propositions from which I have drawn my arguments are as true as Euclid’s definitions, which are none the less true because in practice we are unable to even draw Euclid’s line on a blackboard.” –Gandhi (Young India, October 8, 1925) Remember the story from June 17th’s Daily Metta about the scorpion and the… read more
“Ahimsa is the highest ideal”–Daily Metta
June 17: “Ahimsa is the highest ideal.” –Gandhi (Harijan, June 9, 1940) Ahimsa is an ancient Sanskrit term and virtue that roughly translates to “the negation of the desire or intent to harm or kill.” Gandhi went so far as to assert that it–and not violence–is the law of humanity. Our capacity to endure and… read more
“Understanding history”–Daily Metta
June 16: “We are constantly being astonished these days at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence.” –Gandhi (Harijan, August 25, 1940) Distinguished historian J.B. Kripalani had a run-in with the Mahatma that he… read more
“Begin with the mind”–Daily Metta
June 15: “Nonviolence to be a potent force must begin with the mind.” –Gandhi (Young India, April 2, 1931) One day a young man approached Gandhi and told him that someone hit him, and he felt humiliated but did not fight back. Wouldn’t “Bapu” (a term used to address Gandhi, meaning father) be proud of him… read more
“A love story”–Daily Metta
June 14: “True happiness comes from health and true health is impossible without a rigid control of the palate.” –Gandhi (Guide to Health, 1930) Gandhi and his wife, Kasturba, were married as children, at 13 years old, in an arranged marriage. In many ways they grew up together, and as Gandhi grew in his understanding… read more
“Diversity and Democracy”–Daily Metta
June 13: “How can there be room for distinctions of high and low where there is this all embracing fundamental unity underlying the outward diversity?” –Gandhi (Young India, September 24, 1921) The word ‘unity’ can make some people cringe. It can make it possible to overlook the experiences of those who have been systematically oppressed,… read more
“Go Deeper, Woodcutter”–Daily Metta
June 12: “I am but a seeker after Truth.” –Gandhi (Young India, June 17, 1926) Hindu mystic, father of the modern Vedantic movement, Sri Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar, often shared stories with his devotees to illustrate principles important for understanding the nature of Reality, what Gandhi would call, Sat, or Truth with a capital T. The… read more
“In my country”–Daily Metta
June 11: “ My faith in truth and nonviolence is ever growing.” –Gandhi (Harijan, May 1, 1937) In 2005 I lived in the West African country of Benin as a volunteer with the Peace Corps. I had access to a small video screen to watch films from time to time, and in care packages from… read more
“I am because you are”–Daily Metta
June 10: “I believe in the essential unity of humanity, and for that matter, all that lives.” –Gandhi (Young India, September 3, 1925) In order to make nonviolent institutions possible, they have to be built on a solid cultural foundation that embodies respect and even reverence for the human experience. Not a reverence with our… read more
