“Nonviolence does not signify that man must not fight against the enemy, [meaning] the evil which men do, not human beings themselves.”  ~ Gandhi, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 8, p. 281

This is a core principle of nonviolence and Gandhi repeated it often (as we have seen). On more than one occasion he added, “imperfect ourselves, we must be tender toward others.” This clarifies that unity is always the goal, and unity with “evildoers” is attainable—this is the special message of nonviolence—only when we separate the person from the deed (or even attitude). After all, it is only when we can disassociate someone from what they are doing that they can stop doing it.  Thus once again we see how principle and strategy fall together.

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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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