“The principle of ahimsa is hurt by every evil thought, by undue haste, by lying, by hatred, by wishing ill to anybody.” ~ Gandhi, Truth is God, p. 36

OK, but “undue haste?” As readers of Daily Metta we’re well aware that lying and hatred tear the fabric on ahimsa, but “undue haste” often looks, well, a little extreme. And this from a man who walked so fast in his seventies that youngsters sometimes had a hard time keeping up with him. But it doesn’t take much time to see the logic of this idea. Undue haste (unlike a good, fast walk when it’s the only way to give the body its exercise)—is it not a sign of impatience? Think of how much we miss of life and the people around us by moving—or even just thinking—so fast we can’t really see them. It is not a coincidence that one of the early pioneers of film, Griffiths, doubled the speed of scene changes in the budding genre—and created one of the most violent films of all time, Birth of a Nation. As Meher Baba said, “A mind that is fast is sick.”

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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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