“Satyagraha is gentle, it never wounds.” ~ Gandhi, Harijan, April 5, 1933

At what point do we lose our gentleness as grown ups? A harsh word here, a resentful thought there, a cynical statement to follow. It’s not easy to be gentle, especially when others are not gentle to us. But Gandhi reminds us that to use satyagraha, we need gentleness along with a great inner toughness. Indeed, the former requires the latter, because without the tough “clinging to truth” we are afraid to be gentle, mistakenly thinking it means to be vulnerable and weak. We will therefore strive as nonviolent actors to be gentler—with ourselves, with others, with our planet.

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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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