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
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“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
“The risks of nonviolence”–Daily Metta
November 26: “No big or swift movement can be carried on without bold risks, and life will not be worth living if it is not attended with large risks.” –Gandhi (Young India, December 15, 1921) Nonviolence is always going to include taking risks, but so does violence. And when you get down to it, so… read more
“Gandhi’s philosophy”–Daily Metta
November 25: “My philosophy, if I can be said to have any, excludes the possibility of harm to one’s cause by outside agencies.” –Gandhi (Harijan, July 25, 1936) Whenever he talks about the full power of nonviolence, Gandhi is sure to tell us that the first observance we must acknowledge is, the cause must be… read more
“Proof is within”–Daily Metta
November 24: “There come to us moments in life when about some things we need no proof from without.” –Gandhi (The Leader, December 25, 1916) Have you had a moment in your life where you knew you were heading in the right direction, even if around you there was chaos and confusion? My guess is… read more
“Talking to a dictator”–Daily Metta
November 23: “The fight of Satyagraha is for the strong in spirit, not the doubter or the timid.” –Gandhi (Harijan, April 7, 1946) It is one thing to protest outside of a palace, where you can say pretty much whatever you like, in whatever tone. It’s an entirely different thing when you speak directly to… read more
“A dash of humor”–Daily Metta
November 22: “If I had no sense of humour, I should long ago have committed suicide.” –Gandhi (Young India, August 18, 1921) When Gandhi arrived in Marseille on his way to the Second Roundtable Conference, he was wearing his traditional Indian clothing, a dhoti and shawl, which according to one biographer, “scandalized the French journalists.”… read more
“Taking children seriously”–Daily Metta
November 21: “From my experience of hundreds, I was going to say thousands, of children I know that they have perhaps a finer sense of honor than you and I have.” –Gandhi (Young India, November 19, 1931) How often does our media turn to hear the voices of children when violence occurs? We see their… read more
“Adel Termos’ Example”–Daily Metta
November 20: “Not to yield your soul to the conqueror means that you will refuse to do that which your conscience forbids you to do.” –Gandhi (Harijan, August 18, 1940) When Adel Termos went to the open-air market with his daughter in southern Beirut, he did not know that he would be called upon by… read more
“We are sick of blood-spilling”–Daily Metta
November 19: “I feel in the innermost recess of my heart…that the world is sick unto death of blood-spilling.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 3. p. 115) According to Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan in Why Civil Resistance Works, people avoid using violence if they do not have to, only resorting to it if they feel that… read more
