April 15

“I would like to say to the diligent reader of my writings and to others who are interested in them that I am not at all concerned with being consistent. In my search for Truth, I have discarded many ideas and learnt many new things.”

–Gandhi (Harijan, 4-29-1933, p. 2)

When I first began studying Gandhi, I must admit, I was looking for a moralist and a purist. I was searching for someone who was “good,” perhaps someone even so remotely “good” that I could flat out ignore him when I didn’t like what he was saying. Imagine my surprise, then, when the person I found in Gandhi is no moralist, but a scientist, certainly an idealist and optimist, but above all, a seeker.

When he spoke, it was from his hard-earned experience. He was not the mouthpiece of an ideology of any sort. That is what is hard to ignore. By letting his experiences change– instead of harden or break– him, he inspires me to be more detached from my own opinions and ideologies, and to be more compassionate with others who are “not there yet” (well, more often than not, myself).

So, what Gandhi’s talking here is about more than a strategy of avoiding being called out as a hypocrite or rigid ideologue (in-group fighting anyone?), he’s talking about a powerful methodology for personal and collective liberation. Such a path will no doubt bring us out of the passive mindset that separates people between “good’ and “bad” by–of all things–our past mistakes. Instead, we will have to learn to be more discerning, and ask whether we have felt accountable and let our mistakes change us; and if so, whether there is still more work to do. “Well,” Gandhi might say, “there will always be more work,” but that is another Daily Metta. 

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Think of the ways in which your views have constructively evolved since childhood, not to mention last 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.