“The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance must disappear before the rising sun of suffering without anger and without malice.” ~ Gandhi, from Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, XXVI, p. 159 Let’s be realistic. It’s important to realize that while our hard-hearted opponent must be changed by our suffering without anger or malice, her or… read more
Tag Archives: daily metta
Start With the Core: Daily Metta
“The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance must disappear before the rising sun of suffering without anger and without malice.” ~Gandhi, from Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, XXVI, p. 159 Where to begin with this seminal declaration. Let’s start with the core. This is the essential dynamic, or the magic, if you will, of nonviolence,… read more
Three lenses for violence–Daily Metta
“Violence is a failure of the imagination.” In today’s conversation Michael talks about the “three lenses” one can use to look at violence: moral, medical, and educational. He explains why we think the moral model is not working, why the medical model is better, and why the educational model would be best, although we hardly… read more
We feel each other’s pain–Daily Metta
“People would be likely to refrain from harming others if they knew that in doing so they were really harming themselves.” In this video Michael discusses the fact that modern science specifically neuroscience, specifically mirror neurons, confirm that fact that we feel one another’s pain. This is important because if people were more aware of… read more
A Serious Call: Daily Metta
“We must not forget that India’s conquest was not an invasion by a people but the operation of a trading company.” From Gandhi to Vinoba, by Lanzo del Vasto, p. 26 Gandhi knew that people thought that he seemed foolish by putting his hopes in the spinning wheel, of all things. But he saw into… read more
Durability: Daily Metta
“My non-violence is made of stern stuff. It is firmer than the firmest metal known to the scientist.” ~ Gandhi, Mahatma, Vol. 5, p. 169 In his eye-opening book Anatomy of an Illness: As Perceived by the Patient, Norman Cousins points to the paradox that the “hard” sciences are constantly changing, medical treatments can be… read more
Our Eternal Capacity: Daily Metta
“All religions teach that two opposing forces act upon us and the human endeavor consists in a series of eternal rejections and acceptances.” ~ Gandhi, Mahatma, Vol. 2:45 In Judaism these two forces were called yetsir ra and yetsir tov, “the evil urge and the urge to good;” St. Augustine called them “two loves” (amores)… read more
Beyond crisis-mode–Daily Metta
“We are lurching from crisis to crisis.” In today’s video, Michael, continuing on from February 6, underscores how our common way of thinking has no way to understand the dynamic of Karen Ridd’s heroic act and its effect. He adds a contemporary example of how the prevailing worldview, or “old story,” prevents us from acknowledging… read more
War is Ruin: Daily Metta
“The author of the Mahabharata has not established the necessity of physical warfare; on the contrary he has proved its futility.” ~ Gandhi, The Gita According to Gandhi, p. 128 The Bhagavad Gita is a chapter out of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata. Seemingly, it is a book about a great war; even the… read more
Rays of Hope: Daily Metta
“Even through the failures, we seem to see rays of hope.” ~ Gandhi, The Gita According to Gandhi, p. 126 Trying to put the Bhagavad Gita into practice is no easy task. It describes the height of human idealism and though we strive—and strive we must—reaching that ideal is terribly difficult. Gandhi pointed out that… read more
