December 14:
“It takes a fairly strenuous course of training to attain to a mental state of nonviolence.”
–Gandhi (Young India, October 1, 1931)
Gandhi will emphasize time and again that we do not become nonviolent overnight, and certainly not by reading a few books about it or even attending a training or two. It is an endeavor that may require, he would say, even lifetimes; but with each passing day, when we make the right effort we do get closer to a more harmonious state between what we think, what we say, and what we do, all in the name of nonviolence.
In regard to this work, he offers the following words of encouragement:
“In daily life, it has to be a course of discipline though one may not like it, like, for instance, the life of a soldier. But I agree that unless there is a hearty cooperation of the mind, there mere outward observance will simply be a mask, harmful both to the man himself and to others. The perfect state is reached only when mind and body and speech are in proper coordination. But it is always a case of intense mental struggle. (…) Whatever may be the result, there is always in me a conscious struggle for following the Law of Monviolence deliberately and ceaselessly. Such a struggle leaves one stronger for it.”
Experiment in Nonviolence:
What is your daily “course of training” to grow in your nonviolence? Does it include mental, physical and spiritual exercise?
-
By: Stephanie Van Hook
Stephanie Van Hook is Executive Director of the Metta Center for Nonviolence.
-
-
Gandhi’s Influence on Dr. James Farmer
A Door Into Ocean
Bystander Intervention is only the beginning
Film Screening Thurs. Dec.10
We cannot love our “enemies.”
