December 8: “A mere belief in ahimsa or the charkha will not do. It should be intelligent and creative.” –Gandhi (Harijan, July 21, 1940) Once when Gandhi was asked about Hitler, he said we should look seriously at the efforts he was putting forward. It was partly to stress, I think, that violence isn’t “natural;”… read more
Tag Archives: daily metta
“Reframing Masculinity”–Daily Metta
December 7: “Human nature will only find itself when it fully realizes that to be human it has to cease to be brutal.” –Gandhi (Harijan, October 8, 1938) Almost everywhere we go, masculinity and violence tend to be conflated. This violence is toward oneself, in so far as “manly” often means shutting oneself off from… read more
“We are not machines”–Daily Metta
December 6: “After all, men are not machines.” –Gandhi (Harijan, April 14, 1946) Stephen Lewis worked as a drone operator for the United States Air Force. From a military base, in a comfortable chair sitting in front of a computer screen, he held a joystick and targeted and killed human beings because he was following… read more
“Principles like food”–Daily Metta
December 5: “Ill-digested principles are, if anything, worse than ill-digested food.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 4, p. 154) Food is to the body what principles are to the spirit. When food is rotten, it can harm the body; when our principles are corrupted, they harm us and conceivably the world around us. Thus Gandhi maintains that… read more
“Grow with me”–Daily Metta
December 4: “I want you also to grow with me.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 4, p. 154) I heard a song today, a freedom song, one sung in places like Selma and Birmingham in the 1960s. The singer, from Sweet Honey in the Rock, said, “I’d like to teach you a song. It will be the… read more
“Once the seed is planted…”–Daily Metta
December 2: “I may tell you that I am constantly evolving, and the application of my principles is ever widening.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 4, p. 154) When we first hear about nonviolence, few of us believe that it can be put to work in almost every situation and every relationship imaginable. We usually (if you’re… read more
“Peace brigades now”–Daily Metta
December 1: “The need for the peace brigades was never more urgent than now.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 6, p.53) When Gandhi pronounced these words in the 1940s, it was in response to someone inquiring what could be done by the Indian Congress in the face of “raids and scares and possible disturbances.” His response, however,… read more
“Nonviolence and human rights”–Daily Metta
November 30: “I for one will not hesitate to give water or food to a soldier who comes to me with hands red with murder.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 6, p. 53) Gandhi understood that nonviolence was the active and radical expression of empathy. There was no one, in his book, who did not deserve kindness,… read more
“Nonviolence above all”–Daily Metta
November 29: “Nonviolence has brought us near to swaraj as never before. We dare not exchange it even for swaraj. For swaraj thus got will be no true swaraj.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 6, p. 41) Swaraj is the Sanskrit term for independence and freedom, as applied at all levels, from the personal to the global.… read more
“What I hold to be essential”–Daily Metta
November 28: “I, having made up my mind to surrender every non-essential, gain greater strength than ever before to die for the defense and preservation of what I hold to be essential.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol 6, p.3) There’s a story about a man who was being mugged, and he fought tooth and nail to ward… read more
