“If each retained possession of only what he (or she) needed, no one would be in want and all would live in contentment.” ~ Gandhi, From Yaravda Mandir, ch. 9, p. 37

This is part of Gandhi’s unshakeable faith in (or should we say, his awareness of) the moral order of the universe. The world has been stocked, so to say, with absolutely everything we need, and could go on indefinitely without causing want, until and unless someone or someones get the idea that we have no resources within us and have to grab happiness from outside (inevitably, from others). In other words, the world is perfectly balanced for human beings who are perfectly balanced. When the latter go out of balance, so does the world—and even that has a purpose, namely to warn us to get back on track. The Greek philosophers also spoke of pleonexia, that “wanting to have more” that causes all the trouble.

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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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