“If it is allowed for some that the practice of love is possible, it is arrogance not to allow even the possibility of its practice in all the others.” ~ Gandhi, Harijan, September 26, 1936

While we never cling to them, there are certainly fruits associated with a reverential and circumspect practice of nonviolence, or ahimsa. One is the awesome awareness that you are others and others are you. It does not come all at once but steadily, with sustained effort, it becomes integral to our consciousness. Thich Nhat Hahn famously wrote, “Call me by my real names,” very much in this spirit: whether good or bad, what is possible for others is possible for me because I am human. Or as Pythagoras said, “Nothing human is foreign to me.” If we believe ourselves capable of immense love, we can have no doubt that it is possible for others and we begin to work even with opponents to bring that higher nature out in them by allowing ourselves to mirror to them how they are acting and what it feels like, whether they choose harm or love. It’s an amazing process and practice to say the least. However, if we approach nonviolence as simply a tool to pick up to get what we want and to put it down at all other times, we only scratch the surface of what is potential is.

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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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