“If light can come out of darkness, then alone can love emerge from hatred.” ~ Gandhi, Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, 417

You would think that this truth were self-evident, that Gandhi and King (“Hate cannot overcome hate, only love can do that”) would not need to insist on it. But the fact is, every step further into the abyss of utter destruction—the machine gun, poison gas, the inventions of Nicola Tesla, dynamite—was hailed by its inventor, and doubtless many others, as a step toward peace. We cling to the belief that wrong means will bring about right ends, partly because we simply don’t know the alternatives, partly because we have not learned to look below the surface of person and event to see the underlying forces at play, which are basically two: nonviolence and violence, aka love and hate.

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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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