June 21: “The object of the various exercises [of Hatha Yoga] was to strengthen and purify the body in order to secure control of the mind.” –Gandhi (Harijan, October 13, 1940) Before yoga was a quasi-spiritual, multi-billion dollar global industry of pants and other products, it was a sacred practice, developed to move the body… read more
Tag Archives: shanti sena
“Nonviolent alternative to military and police”–Daily Metta
April 30 “The Congress should be able to put forth a non-violent army of volunteers who would be equal to every occasion where the police and military are required.” –Gandhi (Harijan, 3-26-1938) If we can train people in violence to serve in fighting and war, does it seem so impossible that we can train them… read more
Building the Peace Army: Research and Practice
“Armed peacekeepers are 12 times more likely to be killed in the line of duty than unarmed peacekeepers.” –Randy Janzen sharing some of his research on unarmed peacekeeping on this show… In today’s show we go into the concept of unarmed peacekeeping and its expression of building a “peace army” or “shanti sena” through nonviolence skills… read more
National Peacemakers Summit Meeting Leads to Creation of Shanti Sena Network
By Mary Hanna Portland, OR –Seventeen people from across the United States and Canada, committed to nonviolence and teaching the tools of third-party nonviolent intervention, gathered this weekend at the Whitefeather Peace House in Portland, Oregon to discuss unifying their efforts to create a nonviolent response to violence in their local areas. The three-day… read more
The “Real Wheel”
That man came back from South Africa, having realized God, and quietly set about solving every problem in the modern world. When Michael Nagler heard this quiet, dramatic statement by his meditation teacher, Sri Eknath Easwaran of the Blue Mt. Center of Meditation, it changed his life. These two pictures are an attempt to illustrate… read more
Vinoba Bhave
Vinoba Bhave (1895-1982) was widely regarded as Gandhi’s spiritual heir. The Mahatma appointed Vinoba to be a “Satyagraha of one” in 1940. At the time Gandhi wanted to show the British raj that he was still in open resistance to its rule but did not feel it was proper to launch full-scale Satyagraha because the… read more
Shanti Sena
Shanti Sena, or peace army, was Gandhi’s proposed solution for the management of conflict through nonviolence, as opposed to the more traditional “threat power” employed by officers of the law and the State. His idea was to have trained volunteers living in the communities they would serve acting as trusted third parties. The volunteers could,… read more
Third Party Nonviolent Intervention
Third Party Nonviolent Intervention (TPNI) is the term that has arisen for the age-old practice of an outside party intervening in a conflict in an effort to open the space for reconciliation and peacemaking. Some services of TPNI actors can include witnessing, accompaniment, monitoring, interposition, offering good offices, and rumor abatement. Because nonviolent interveners are not… read more
