“I am not a visionary. I claim to be a practical idealist.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, August 21, 1920

Idealism is a beautiful state of mind, a vision of possibility of what could be. But it can be naive and even destructive if it is not coupled with the means for putting it into practice. To paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King: love without power is soft and weak, and power without love is reckless. Nonviolence is the combination of both love and power, or as Gandhi called it “practical idealism.” What could be more practical, anyway, than finding a way through conflict without harming anyone in the process?

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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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