In today’s Daily Metta video, Michael continues onward in Search for a Nonviolent Future on the question of nature vs. nurture within the broader context of the history and science of nonviolence. Please add your comments below. About Daily Metta Stephanie Van Hook, the Metta Center’s executive director, launched Daily Metta in 2015 as a… read more
Tag Archives: Nonviolence
Spring Bounty: Newsletter
The Season of Hope & Renewal The spring season brings us many new beginnings: daylight savings time, the spring equinox, flower blossoms, the planting season—not to mention the start of the Metta Center’s 6-month Certificate in Nonviolence Studies. This edition of the newsletter includes some incredible resources. Plus, you’re not going to want to miss… read more
Unconquerable: Daily Metta
“The proper way to view the present outburst of violence in the world is to recognize that the technique of unconquerable non-violence of the strong has not been at all fully discovered as yet.” ~ Gandhi, Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 147 Gandhi made this statement close to the end of his life, in 1948.… read more
Power is of two kinds: Daily Metta
“Nonviolence is who we are.” Michael discusses a quote from Gandhi where he says, “Power is of two kind: fear of punishment or love” as a starting point for understanding nonviolence. Please add your comments below. About Daily Metta Stephanie Van Hook, the Metta Center’s executive director, launched Daily Metta in 2015 as a way… read more
Seeing the Shadow Side: Daily Metta
In this talk, Michael addresses the very common misconception about nonviolence, only slightly less common than it was in 1906, that it is the absence of violence purely and simply, and therefore a very weak force, if a force at all. Please add your comments below. About Daily Metta Stephanie Van Hook, the Metta Center’s… read more
Are we ignoring the lesson of nonviolence? Daily Metta
“We are seeing nonviolence working all the time and we are ignoring the lesson.” When nonviolence happens, do we notice? Michael relates two stories: Nurse Joan Black and Antoinette Tuff, and examines how the media interpreted them, and emphasizes that if our understanding of nonviolence were richer, we would learn something powerful about our capacity… read more
Beyond crisis-mode–Daily Metta
“We are lurching from crisis to crisis.” In today’s video, Michael, continuing on from February 6, underscores how our common way of thinking has no way to understand the dynamic of Karen Ridd’s heroic act and its effect. He adds a contemporary example of how the prevailing worldview, or “old story,” prevents us from acknowledging… read more
She saved her friend’s life–Daily Metta
“Nonviolent actors have to find the residual humanity in their opponent and awaken it.” In today’s Daily Metta, Michael analyzes a dramatic story that took place in El Salvador when a Canadian volunteer with Peace Brigades International risked her life and ended up saving herself and her friend. Add your comments below. About… read more
Living the Gita: Daily Metta
“It has been my endeavor, as also that of some companions, to reduce to practice the teachings of the Gita as I have understood it.” ~ Gandhi, The Gita According to Gandhi, p. 126 In Gandhi’s religious tradition, not just anyone offers a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. Usually, this task is reserved for someone… 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
