On my rare visits to LA, I am always impressed (negatively) by the blatant violence of the billboards advertising films and TV. This past weekend was no exception. Apparently, there are fashions in violence. A while back it was crime, then a particularly sick one: the dead – zombies slouching toward you every other street.… read more
Tag Archives: human image
Transforming War culture: Daily Metta Video
War, Nagler offers, is not just an institution; it represents a culture. What happens when we insert nonviolence into our culture? Can it help to end war? About Daily Metta Stephanie Van Hook, the Metta Center’s executive director, launched Daily Metta in 2015 as a way to share Gandhi’s spiritual wisdom and experiments with nonviolence.… read more
What makes us human-Daily Metta
“We are very limited in our ability to grasp what nonviolence is by the limitations on our image of who we are.” Having no agreed upon definition of who we are creates a vacuum and so a very reductionist image comes in as the lowest common denominator. The discovery of nonviolence and the rebuilding of… read more
“Our dignity, our unity”–Daily Metta
“It turns out our dignity is closely linked to our unity.” In today’s Daily Metta, Michael tries to get us to look beyond the surface of hatred toward any particular group to the issue of hatred itself. What causes that and what can we do to challenge it, for the good of everyone? … read more
“More than India’s freedom”–Daily Metta
December 28: “Our struggle does not end so long as there is a single human being considered untouchable by his birth.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, Vol. 3, p.239) If anyone still thought that Gandhi was only a strategist wanting political freedom from the British, these words of the Mahatma should put that idea to rest. Hi… 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
“I ask you to give up nothing.” –Daily Metta
August 24: ”I don’t ask you to renounce any of your pet pursuits–poetry or music or literature. No, I ask you to give up nothing. All I want from you is to add to your occupation half an hour of spinning. Nobody has ever pleaded before me that he cannot spare even that half hour.”… read more
“Teaming up”–Daily Metta
August 10: “If it is [our] privilege to be independent, it is equally [our] duty to be interdependent.” –Gandhi (Young India, April 25 1929) A friend recently offered an approach to peacebuilding and nonviolent resistance that I thought fascinating: working together in teams of two. The idea is ancient, he said, thinking about the Jewish… read more
Why Being Human Matters, for the People of Gaza and the World
Published on Saturday, August 02, 2014 by Waging Nonviolence By Stephanie Van Hook The Xhosa concept of ubuntu, combined with the Arabic word intifada — as seen in this graffiti on the “separation” wall in Bethlehem — roughly translates to mean: uplifting human dignity through nonviolence. (WNV / Van Hook) Dr. Mona El-Farra, medical doctor… read more
