April 17

“Mutual trust and mutual love are no trust and no love. The real love is to love them that hate you, to love your neighbor even though you distrust him.”

–Gandhi (Harijan, 3-3-1946, p. 28)

Gandhi is a master at drawing our attention back to one single, significant truth: love is power, and as such it can be developed. If I love you only to the extent that you love me, I am not loving you– I am engaging in a transaction with you. Can I keep my receipt?  If you take away this much “love,” I withdraw that much more. That is not love, it is tit-for-tat! Love is an open practice, not a currency, and certainly not a threat (which calculated giving certainly can be, as we know to our cost).

Like any good teacher of his craft, Gandhi inspires us to do more than we think we are capable of. He asks us to love not only those who love us back–that’s easy enough–but to love those who do not even like us. Can we really do the impossible? Our capacity for love–closely connected to our self-respect– can only grow when put it to the test. Nonviolence is referred to as “love in action,” after all, and through nonviolence we can become capable of anything, even–especially–selfless love.

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Put your love into action today.

Well, a little Bob Marley might be fitting for today…

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.