“Man’s nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.”  ~ Gandhi, Harijan, November 1938

The 1930s were not a very hopeful time in the history of world politics, yet here we have Gandhi echoing across the years with a clarion call of hope: do not despair of human nature. People may be obstinate; people may be unkind; people may be downright cruel; but that’s not the whole story. People can change. People can exhibit extraordinary selflessness. People can still love even in the face of the most challenging circumstances, with a fierce, unrelenting love that can stop pipelines and wars. But this love is not a soft, sweet love. It’s the kind of love that resists, and protects, and draws out the highest powers—real power—in people. In a word: nonviolence.

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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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