“Determination and Faith”–Daily Metta

by

January 19

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

-Gandhi (Harijan, 11-19-1936, pp. 341-2)

gandhi

Nonviolence is sometimes referred to as “people power.” This is a perfectly valid idea, but we should not think of nonviolence solely as the power of large masses of people in protest.  There is another, possibly even more important face of nonviolence–person power. This is not a question of numbers, however necessary they are in some situations, but a question of the individual’s commitment and ability to stay the nonviolent course.  This is probably necessary in all situations.

Gandhi maintains here that we need two qualities of spirit for developing our capacity for “person power”- driven nonviolence: determination and an unquenchable faith. When we have determination, we will not let any of our seeming failures keep us from trying again. When we have an unquenchable faith in our mission, we will not accept anything less than its full realization; we will not allow anyone to dissuade us from believing that a nonviolent future is possible.

The more we develop our “person power” the greater our ability to hold tightly to such an exalted vision because with real person power, detachment comes. The more we grasp that we are not the “doers,” that we are simply serving what Gandhi has called the Law of Life, the more we have this detachment and consequently the personal power to do our part to serve it.  Then, whether we team up or go at it as individuals we can alter the course of history, which means nothing less than making the world safer and healthier for all who come after us.

 

Experiment in Nonviolence: 

Gandhi experimented in person power when he took a day a week, Monday, for silence. Consider taking a day a week to unplug from the mass media. Try it for a month.

 

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.