When Gandhi was writing regularly in his newspaper Young India during the Indian Freedom Struggle, he would often receive letters from critics which would be somewhat insulting. His response to these critics would typically begin, “This letter seems to be intended as an insult. However I choose not to take it as such,” and he would… read more
Nonviolence For Daily Living
Cultivating a Spiritual Practice
“As vast is the infinite world beyond is the world within the lotus of the heart.” -The Chandogya Upanishad A spiritual practice is a powerful tool for the integration of nonviolence on a daily basis. Spiritual here does not mean ‘religious’ or ‘dogmatic’; it means rather an ‘inner awareness’ or an integrated perspective on… read more
Combatting cyber-bullying with a higher image of people
A high school senior combats cyber-bullying through cyber-nonviolence and a higher image of his peers. *** Check out any Hollywood movie set in high school and you’ll see the football captain portrayed as a dumb, arrogant jock who’s either a bully or a bystander, someone who passively watches other students get verbal and physical smackdowns. But… read more
How one man lived his nonviolence in the face of a threat
From NPR, March 28, 2008: see it on their website here. Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner. But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train… read more
Nipun Mehta on TedX Berkeley: Designing for Generosity
“What would the world look like if we designed for generosity? Instead of assuming that people want to simply maximize self-interest, what if our institutions and organizations catered to our deeper motivations? This compelling TEDx talk explores this question and introduces the concept of Giftivism: the practice of radically generous acts that change the world.… read more
Study by Chenoweth and Dugan: Punishment not effective response to terrorism
DENVER, July 31 (UPI) — The consensus politically is that terrorism must be fought, but U.S. researchers said conciliatory tactics are more effective than punishment. Study co-authors Erica Chenoweth of the University of Denver and Laura Dugan of the University of Maryland said the study used data from the Center for the Study of Terrorism and… read more
Food People Power: Mandela Market Place
“For many years, people living in West Oakland had accepted eating unhealthy food as a way of life. That is, until a small group of people decided to change their community through Mandela MarketPlace, a non-profit that partners with local residents and rural, minority farmers to bring fresh agricultural produce to their local corner stores.… read more
A higher image of human being
Nonviolence works from a much higher image of the human being than is normally presented in the mass-media, namely conscious beings as capable of compassion and self-sacrifice as we are of selfishness and cruelty. This is in fact a choice with which we have been endowed by evolution.… read more
