“Individual Civil Disobedience among an unprepared people and by leaders not known to or trusted by them is of no avail, and mass Civil Disobedience is an impossibility.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, January 9, 1930 Because we are unschooled in civil disobedience, or almost any dimension of nonviolence, we often rush into actions with only… read more
Tag Archives: michael nagler
Infrastructure of Peace: Daily Metta
Training for military revolt means learning the use of arms, ending perhaps in the atomic bomb. For Civil Disobedience it means the Constructive Program. ~ Gandhi, Constructive Program, forward to 1945 edition, p. iii It is very interesting how Gandhi locates Constructive Program (CP) in a parallel but opposite position to training in the use… read more
Simple Logic: Daily Metta
“The more we punish, the more persistent crimes become.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, April 30, 1925 Exactly this was said by Chief Justice Herb Yazzie of the Navajo Supreme Court: “You will never have enough jail space if your purpose is to punish” (quoted in Navajo Times Dec. 29, 2011, p. A-3). If only we… read more
Political Aspect: Daily Metta
“I would ask you to forget the political aspect of the program. Political consequences of this struggle there are, but you are not to concern yourself with them. If you do, you will miss the true result, and also the political consequences.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, March 19, 1925 It is easy to forget that… read more
Inner Disposition: Daily Metta
“I can conceive occasions when it would be my duty to vote for the military training of those who wish to take it. …It is not possible to make a person or a society nonviolent by compulsion.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, September 13, 1928 There is a fascinating, subtle difference between Gandhi’s vision, or commitment,… read more
It took one hour: Daily Metta Video
What did it take to bring children divided by war together to see one another’s common humanity? Michael Nagler shares this inspiring story in today’s Daily Metta video. 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… read more
No Escape: Daily Metta
“It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one’s acts.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, March 12, 1925 While this may sound harsh—and the context was artificial methods of birth control —there’s a very uplifting assumption behind it, or rather, two: 1) that the universe is not a punishing place but a… read more
Purification: Daily Metta
“(As the Devil takes advantage of our weaknesses) even so does the government retain its control over us through our weaknesses and vices. And if we would render ourselves proof against its machinations we must remove our weaknesses. It is for that reason that I have called Non-cooperation a process of purification.” ~ Gandhi, Young… read more
Love & Hate: Daily Metta
“If light can come out of darkness, then alone can love emerge from hatred.” ~ Gandhi, Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, 417 You would think that this truth were self-evident, that Gandhi and King (“Hate cannot overcome hate, only love can do that”) would not need to insist on it. But the fact is, every step… read more
Recipe for Right Action: Daily Metta
“Under the ideal conditions the barrister and the bhangi should both get the same payment.” ~ Gandhi, Mahatma, v. 8, p. 63 A bhangi is a sweeper, very low in the Indian caste system. Gandhi knows full well that people are born with different capacities, but he also knows that they are “all men born… read more
