“My presence acted as a check upon petty bickerings.” ~ Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, p. 216

There is a famous sutra in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a classic text on meditation and its effects from somewhere around the Second Century BCE, that states (and I paraphrase): “In the presence of one in whom nonviolence is established, hostility drops away” (III.35). That does not mean, of course, that all we have to do to resolve a conflict is show up—or even all that Gandhi had to do. But it does mean, as Gandhi said, that there is a “living force” within us which is “invisible in its effects” but always works to bring peace to those around us, to the extent that we have, as the sutra says, managed to establish nonviolence within us. Modern science is beginning to find ways to measure at least the effects of this force and the physical mechanisms within us that respond to it.

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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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