“Thus the lynching ultimately proved to be a blessing for me, that is, for the cause. It enhanced the prestige of the Indian community in South Africa, made my work easier, and the experience prepared me for the practice of Satyagraha.” ~ Gandhi, My Early Life 1869-1914, Mahadev Desai, Ed. (Oxford, 1949) “Blowback” is a… read more
Tag Archives: good and evil
Intent to Heal: Daily Metta
“A Gujarati didactic stanza likewise gripped my mind and heart. Its precept, return good for evil, became my guiding principle.” ~ Gandhi, Autobiography, Chapter X When Gandhi uses terms like “good and evil,” we have to be clear about what he means. “Evil” does not apply to people, it means the energy behind an action:… read more
Habit: Daily Metta
“Habit is not nature.” ~ Gandhi, The Gita According to Gandhi, p. 187 If our nature is good, then why do we do things that harm ourselves and others? Because there is a difference between habit and nature. We might acquire a negative habit—of judgment rather than mercy; of condemnation rather than forgiveness; of self-centeredness… 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
“Gandhi and the Problem of Evil”– Daily Metta
July 2: “If you feel tempted to regard anybody as evil, the odds are that the evil is within you.” –Gandhi (Harijan, April, 28, 1946) Gandhi had very few possessions: a pair of glasses, two pairs of homemade sandals for different occasions, some books, a spinning wheel, and little else. Each item has a story… read more
