“Rescuing Peace from War”–Daily Metta

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May 9:

“I can say with confidence that if the world is to have peace, nonviolence is the means to that end and no other.”

–Gandhi (Harijan, 7-20-1947, p. 243)

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Aristophanes, the Greek comic playwright, used his craft as a means for opening the hearts and minds of his ancient audience to urgent truths, and his work remains relevant to this day. In his play Peace, written to sound a note of caution at the signing of the Peace of Nicias, ending the ten-year Peloponnesian War, the characters have been tasked with rescuing the goddess Peace who has been taken captive and hidden in a cave by the god War.  At a moment of War’s inattention (he’s gone to find a new pestle for his mortar to “crush the Greeks to a paste”), the people realize that they have an opportunity to rescue Peace. They are so happy and excited at the opportunity that they begin dancing and running about before they’ve finished the job –Peace has not even been rescued and they are celebrating. Indeed, they end up being more of a hindrance than a help. Peace is eventually rescued, thanks to the intervention of the hard-working farmers, and Hermes helps Peace to tell the story why she went away, namely, she had been ignored and silenced by politicians for years on end (any of this sound familiar?).

The moral of the story is that if we are to rescue Peace today, let us not get in the way of her full return by stopping short of what needs to take place, which as Gandhi points out, is a complete turn toward nonviolence in (as he said elsewhere) every sector of our lives.

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Find one meaningful act you can do today that will bring us closer to rescuing Peace from War.

 

 

Daily Metta 250x250Daily 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.