“Means must determine ends and indeed it’s questionable in human affairs whether there is an end. The best we can do is to make sure of the method and examine our motive.” ~ Ronald Duncan, Selected Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 14
No matter where you cut him, Gandhi is close to what he called that “diamond mine,” the Bhagavad Gita. Perhaps nowhere closer than in his view of human action and where our real responsibility in action lies, namely in the method we choose (violence or nonviolence) and the state of mind, or motive leading us to that choice. Over end results we have no control; but this “best we can do” is enough. If we act rightly in the right cause then, as he famously said elsewhere, “full effort is full victory.”
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About Daily Metta
Stephanie Van Hook, the Metta Center’s executive director, launched Daily Metta in 2015 as a way to share Gandhi’s spiritual wisdom and experiments with nonviolence.
Our 2016 Daily Metta continues with Gandhi on weekdays. On weekends, we share videos that complement Michael Nagler’s award-winning book, The Search for a Nonviolent Future: A Promise of Peace for Ourselves, Our Families, and Our World. To help readers engage with the book more deeply, the Metta Center offers a free PDF study guide.
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By: Prof. Michael Nagler
As the Founder and President of Metta Center, Michael Nagler is also Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at UC, Berkeley, where he co-founded the Peace and Conflict Studies Program. Michael is the author of The Search for a Nonviolent Future and The Nonviolence Handbook: A Guide for Practical Action. His latest book is The Third Harmony: Nonviolence & the New Story of Human Nature. Visit his website: michaelnagler.org.
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I so agree with today’s Metta and it is one of the principles of Beyond War Northwest. The means are the ends in the making. How we choose to act and be determines what result we will get. True on a personal and global level.
A martial arts instructor I had said we can always perform with excellence if we are doing our very best at the time. We may never see the results of our actions for social justice and peace, but our full effort improves the odds for success!