“The strength to defy and the strength to forgive are part of a single emotional package which makes a person capable of nonviolence.” In our Sunday video edition of Daily Metta Michael Nagler thinks about the moment when Nelson Mandela shook hands with his former opponent, De Klerk, in front of the world, saying that he… read more
Tag Archives: forgiveness
“No one beyond redemption”–Daily Metta
June 25: “No human being is so bad as to be beyond redemption, no human being is so perfect as to warrant his destroying him whom he wrongly considers to be wholly evil.” –Gandhi (Young India, March 26, 1931) In the days following September 11, 2001, Rais Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi citizen studying in the United… read more
“Forgiveness in nonviolent action”–Daily Metta
June 2: “One cannot forgive too much.” –Gandhi (Young India, April 2, 1931) When Gandhi returned to South Africa for his second stay in 1897, he was not a welcomed guest. The South African port and police kept his ship quarantined for close to twenty days just off the Durban shore as a tactic to… read more
“He who has no enemies”–Daily Metta
March 29: “For one who follows this doctrine [Ahimsa] there is no room for an enemy.” –Gandhi (February 16, 1916, Selected Writings, pp. 377-390) In the classic Indian epic The Mahabharata, one of the heroes, Yuddhisthira, has the epithet Ajatashatru, meaning, “he who has no enemies.” After his death, he arrives in heaven. The inevitable… read more
“Forgiveness and Strength”–Daily Metta
January 8 “A definite forgiveness would mean a definite recognition of our strength.” -Gandhi (Mahatma, vol 2. p. 5) (Gandhi and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the man who ‘had a problem for every solution Gandhi came up with’) When it is not confronted with nonviolent resistance, violence always leads to more harm than any physical harm… read more
