May 8:

“The pursuit of Truth is true bhakti (devotion).”

–Gandhi (Yeravda Mandir, p. 4)

The night before morning prayer meetings, Kasturba Gandhi used to memorize the prayers shared from the various religious traditions. During prayer time, she would close her eyes as words were slowly, purposefully recited, and let them sink deep into her heart and mind.  Whenever her mind would wander, she would bring her attention back to the words of the prayer. Close to twenty years later, meditation teacher Eknath Easwaran would develop his method of Passage Meditation, which uses the same technique of passage memorization and concentrated repetition, though silently, not through a “people’s mic” (though, wouldn’t that be an interesting experiment!). While Passage Meditation uses the words of mystics from the major religious traditions worldwide–each passage pointing to the same universal experience of union with Reality, Easwaran also includes some very beautiful passages from Gandhi because it was he whom he felt truly awakened his spirituality.

Here is one of my favorites:

I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing, ever dying, there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and recreates. That informing power or spirit is God. And since nothing else that I see merely through the senses can or will persist, He alone is. And is this power benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely benevolent. For I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He is Love. He is the Supreme Good.

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Do your best to commit this or another very inspiring passage from Gandhi to memory. Consider using it for meditation.

Daily Metta 2015, a service of the Metta Center for Nonviolence, is a daily reflection on the strategic and spiritual insights of Mahatma Gandhi in thought, word and deed. As Gandhi called his life an “experiment in truth,” we have included an experiment in nonviolence to accompany each Daily Metta. Check in every day for new inspiration. Each year will be dedicated to another wisdom teacher.