February 4 “The law of love will work, just as the law of gravitation will work, whether we accept it or not.” –Gandhi (The Nation’s Voice, Part II, pp. 109-110) Gandhi was a scientist when it came to the practice of nonviolence. He carried out precise experiments in every aspect of his life, driven by… read more
Posts by Stephanie Van Hook
“Conquer with Love”–Daily Metta
February 3 “Wherever there are jars, wherever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him in love.” —Gandhi (The Nation’s Voice, Part II, pp. 109-110) In 1931, Gandhi found himself in England for the First Roundtable Conference on Indian freedom. The campaign he was leading back in India based on the revival of the spinning… read more
“Like Disciplined Soldiers”–Daily Metta
February 2 “There should be no mistake. There is no civil disobedience possible, until the crowds behave like disciplined soldiers.” –Gandhi (Young India, 8-25-1921) Gandhi, to the surprise of many pacifists, participated indirectly in several war efforts, including Indian recruitment for World War I, feeling that since he had appealed to the Crown for redress… read more
“Facing Provocation”–Daily Metta
February 1 “Victory is impossible until we are able to keep our temper under the gravest provocation.” –Gandhi (Young India, 8-25-1921) In the summer of 2014, my colleagues from the Metta Center and I visited a village in the occupied West Bank of Palestine, At-Tuwani. From within this impoverished village of sheep herders has sprung… read more
“A Burning Passion and Absolute Detachment”
January 31 “A burning passion coupled with absolute detachment is the key to all success.” –Gandhi (Harijan, 9-29-1946, p. 336) When Gandhi uses the term “detachment” he does not mean a passive disinterest or cold indifference; he is pointing to an active state of conscious awareness of the unity of life. We glimpse that… read more
“Hating Systems, Not People”–Daily Metta
January 30 “By a long course of prayerful discipline, I have ceased for over forty years to hate anybody. I know that this is a big claim. Nevertheless, I make it in all humility.” –Gandhi (Young India, 6-18-1925) While Gandhi said that he ceased to hate anybody, he never denied hating the acts of people.… read more
“Tending Toward Truth”–Daily Metta
January 29: “Every moment of our life should be filled with mental or physical activity but that activity should be sattvika, tending to truth.” –Gandhi (From Yervada Mandir, pp. 23-26) Energy drives the human being and all of life, but not all energy is the same. The Bhagavad Gita breaks it down into three… read more
“Necessities and Nonviolence”–Daily Metta
January 28 “A starving man thinks first of satisfying his hunger before anything else.” -Gandhi (Young India, 3-18-1926) At the basis of the Indian Freedom Struggle was the spinning wheel. It represented independence through grassroots employment and freedom from the dependence on the British to supply their basic need of cloth. Gandhi worked endlessly… read more
“Life and Death”–Daily Metta
January 27 “Bereavement ceases to leave us desolate when the death of our dear one only spurs us on to a more vivid consciousness of our duty.” –Gandhi (Letter to Devdas, 7-24-1918, from Day to Day with Gandhi, vol. 1, p. 196) In a magnificent letter from 1918 to his son, Devdas, who was grieving… read more
“Human Duties”–Daily Metta
January 26 “The true source of rights is duty.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, Vol. 2, p. 179) When Gandhi was asked to sign the Declaration of Human Rights, he said to bring him instead a Declaration of Human Duties, and he would sign that. Duties and rights always went hand in hand for him. The talk… read more
