March 11:

“The golden way is to be friends with the world and to regard the whole human family like members of one family.”

–Gandhi (Young India, 5-11-1921, p. 148)

The family is often a challenging place to practice nonviolence, especially if there are standing conflicts yet unresolved. Brother and sister no longer talk; mother and daughter are alienated; son never forgave father for his problems, etc.  A tendency when there is such conflict is often to move away from people, grow in different directions, avoid them whenever possible and wish them well — at best. These relationships, however, matter in nonviolent psychology, and even strategy, because they provide a firm grounding for expanding our ability to engage nonviolence with those who are not “ours of origin.” While Gandhi tells us to expand our vision to include the whole world as members of our own family, he is not telling us to love only anonymous people to whom we may never speak, who may never insult us, or forget something important to us, or ask us to do something we’d prefer not doing. He is telling us to build a firm foundation for nonviolence, respect, and dignity in our own families; with people who will rub against our self-will from time to time, and from there, we cannot help but expand our awareness to include others into that circle. What does it mean to treat one’s family as the whole world, and the whole world as one’s own family?  It’s a subtle, but worthy challenge for all of us to consider.

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Is there someone in your family to whom you can give your one pointed attention today and offer the gift of deep listening? Find time to practice this.

Daily 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.