Hatred will never conquer injustice–here’s why

Hatred will never conquer injustice; it will just create another form of hatred.

If there’s one thing that took Mahatma Gandhi beyond the scope of other peace-makers, it was his clear and abiding stand that we must love those who inflict injustice upon us.

You’re probably saying to your self, "My life is free of any injustice. I live freely, and without fear of my government. You must be talking about someone else’s life."

But my friend, a thought to consider: If anyone else experiences injustice, then we all do–we are not separate, we are connected. Those who benefit from the abuse of others are likewise suffering, though not so apparently.

Gandhi showed us that those who inflict pain and misery upon others are suffering too, and he admonished his followers and colleagues to hold the so-called enemies in respect, with politeness and courtesy, for they were the same as Gandhi’s circle.

So if we fall into hatred, we fail to see both the other person’s humanity, but we lose touch with our own capacity for love, compassion and courage. Hatred isn’t courageous, it is fear-based, because we hate that which we can’t connect with, or fear will hurt us.

We hate that which is different from us.

So to hate creates more distance, and thus more hate. It’s a vicious circle in every way, and we can’t escape the effects of such a circle when we’re in it.

A wonderful example in film story is Yoda’s admonishen to Luke Skywalker to not hate, to not fall into the ‘dark side’. Same message as Gandhi (Yoda actually looks a bit like Gandhi, doesn’t he?).

Hatred, anger, revenge, power and greed–all connected, all the same root: the ‘Other’ has something that I want, and I’m going to get it no matter what it takes!

Follow your hatred to it’s central core, with honesty and self-compassion, and you’ll find it always leads to greed–which is just more fear, in essence.

Love conquers all, and always will. "For a time tyrants and murderers seem invincible, but they always fall. Think of it: always."

With Love,

Don aka Gandhi Guy

Creating Your Practice of ‘We’: Step 6: Loving Bigger and Bigger

My Dear Friend,

I love you.

No, I really do. And I don’t mean that is some schmaltzy, touchy-feely kind of way. I don’t mean it in some woo-woo New-Agey smiley face of being nice.

Nice is silliness, and mostly unreal and insincere.

When I say I love you, I mean it from my heart. I hold you in my heart and soul, and send you love, compassion, kindness and generosity of spirit. I send you the love I feel for you. I do so from my heart to yours.

You are free, as I am, to love as big as you wish to love. And I mean big, giant love. Or, as my friend Eileen Meier says in her music as her name for The Infinite, for God/Goddess:  Big Giant Love.

You can love everyone you meet, and all you have to do is send them love from your heart. Anyone can send love to another, anytime you wish to. It takes nothing from you, in fact it actually multiplies your own sense of love and connection when you do this.

I love you. I send you that love, and to be perfectly honest and somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it’s none of your business that I love you. It’s my action I’m taking, to share that love with you, to hold you in my heart as I do.

Loving bigger is part of the Personal Practice of ‘We’. It involves you letting go of your worries about others, your prejudgments of others, your fears of others, and just loving. It involves courage, and one thing that Gandhi spoke about more than anything else is that this path of love, this "Way of We" as I call it, involves courage. As he said,

   "Non-violence is not a weapon of the weak. It is a weapon of the strongest and the bravest"

In the "Way of We", we have to step into our own courage, our own bravery. We have the power over our own lives, and we are in charge of us. No one else can take away our self-respect, our ability to love, nor our sense of our own selves. We are in charge of us.

So we can immediately change our fears, worries and prejudices into courageous steps of love. All we have to do is have the courage to let go of our hesitation to love, and step into sending love to the person or persons we’re dealing with. And a simple yet powerful way to do this in this "Way of We" is to simply see the love pouring out of your heart into the heart of the other person.

To be clear, what I mean is to actually imagine love pouring from your heart into the heart of the person you are having trouble with, that you are afraid of, or that you see as someone who is different and thus needing to be wary of at this moment. Visualize that love in a beam of light, shooting from your heart into the heart of this other person. Then watch what happens. You’ll be astounded by the shift in the connection you have with this person, you really will.

Everytime I do this, it feels like a miracle to me. It’s not of course, for this is who we are. We depend on our relational connections with others, as we are such social beings. Anytime we ‘oil’ those connections with love, the other person immediately picks up on that love, and they soften. Then, we do too, and then the love gets bigger. And bigger. And still bigger.

Nothing mysterious about this. Sages of all religions, both men and women, have spoken about our ability to send love to others, to love bigger than we do, to be the change we wish to see in the world. Well, if you want peace, if you want more love, perhaps you can simply take the step to actually GIVE MORE LOVE than you normally give!

It does take courage, for sure. We have to be willing to admit that perhaps our way of feeling and thinking might not be the best way. We have to admit that we are guided perhaps by fears, worries and prejudices, and in so doing, we make the other person less than the person they are, and turn them into some monster that we have to be afraid of for our lives.

Don’t worry, we all do it. I do it, everytime I meet someone new, or walk into a new situation. It’s okay, it’s a survival mechanism, scientists have shown us. When we lived for millions of years on the African plains, we had to have loyalty to our own group in order for our group to survive, and thus in order to survive ourselves.

And, we can step beyond that millions-of-years of genetic tendency, and see the ‘Other’ as what they truly are: the same as us, not different. Blacks, whites, Asians, browns, all the same. Nationalities across the world, all the same. Men, women, gay, straight, all religious denominations, all the same.

We are all Us. There is no difference anymore that we have to be worried about. That is the shift we are making as a race, and that we each have to make individually. We are all Us. We belong, all together. And together, we will survive these trying times.

The "Way of We" waits for us now. All we have to do is take a deep breath, and join in through loving the "other" as ourselves. Send love, be the love you wish to see in the world, don’t wait for anyone else. It’s up to you, it’s up to us, it’s up to All of Us.

I love you.

Don, aka Gandhi Guy

Creating a Personal Practice of “We”: Step 5: Finding your niche for peace

Don’t worry about finding your path of "We". 

So many people I talk with in my portrayals of Mahatma Gandhi express being discouraged, unhappy, frustrated with many political realities, and unable to grasp what they should do. This lack of direction then leads to more discouragement, more disconnection and frustration, and the circle of concern begins to become a spiralling force downward.

Of course, from one perspective, there is a lot to be discouraged about: In the USA, we have had an administration that has been bent on destroying our economy, fighting an unjust war, torturing human beings, and reducing our rights to those of totalitarian regimes–in other words, no rights at all.

One could get very depressed if we allowed ourselves to be.

There is a way out of such depressive feelings.

We must first accept that we are feeling bad, and find the story we’re clinging to that leads us to that state of mind. It often has to do with seeing the political scene as unassailable, frightening, and too big to deal with ourselves. So, we shut down, walk away, and go watch TV.

You can’t let this happen anymore to you! Not if you want a life of vibrancy, love of life, and contribution.

Yes, I said ‘You can’t let this happen’. And that’s what I meant to say. The power for your own satisfaction in life does not rest in the hands of some politicial figure, a bad economy, or the state of your countries’ policies. The power for your own sense of happiness lies solely within your own hands. And that is what we’re going to talk about today, how to bring that power back into your hands in your Personal Practice of ‘We’.

Of course the cards are stacked. Some people are aligned with forces far beyond your control, and seem to have the ability to dabble in benefitting themselves and all of their rich associates financially, status-wise, and politically. But they aren’t in control of your heart and mind, your self respect. Only you can hand that over to them, and only you can be in charge of you.

The word ’sin’ has been defined as the sense of being disconnected from Spirit,  from The Divine, from  Love & Life. Sin is thus a name for being discouraged, for feeling that sense of disconnection and lack of direction. Here’s how to get your sense of connection back in your own hands:

Find your niche for peace.

Right now on Earth there exists the largest movement of humankind ever to be assembled in all of history. It is a leaderless movement geared toward creating a just world for all, freedom and equality for every group, peace around the planet, and a sustainable future for our children and their children. Never before in our history have so many millions of people joined so many small, grassroots organizations that feed their values, and their values feed the organization.

There is no shortage of work to do in these important areas, and no shortage of groups working on them. So, all you have to do, if you feel discouraged about our present situation, is to follow this process:

    First, feel your feelings of discouragement, and let it be okay that you’re feeling them.

    Second, take total responsibility for those feelings being in your life.

    Third, go to www.wiserearth.org and search for a group that touches your heart and soul in it’s mission.

    Fourth, join that group and become active.

Don’t let the sin of discouragement be in charge of your life. The world needs you now, and you’re being called to rise to the occasion, to be more of who you are, and to share yourself and your gifts with everyone.

I know, I’ve been called too. I know right where you are, right this moment, in reading this post.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. Be it in all of your fiber, all of your being. Stretch your energy for compassionate action, for contribution, for peace all the way into your heart, and all the way out through your own actions in the world.

You can do it. I know you can. I believe in you.

With Love and Peace,

Don, aka The Gandhi Guy

Creating a Personal Practice of “We”:Step 4: an idea whose time has come: Step 3

The Way of We is an idea whose time has come. We can no longer afford on this planet to see others as different from us, to see ourselves as separate from the Earth and it’s ecology. As Suzuki said, "We are the ecology. There is no distinction".

So The Way of We has to follow. We are connected, each of us, one to another, in an inexorable matrix that is constantly in flux, consistently powerful in its scope, and never-ending. There is no room for isolation nor the thoughts that come with isolation:

                I don’t matter.

                I make no difference.

                I can misuse this resource and it won’t effect anyone else.

                I can misuse my power for my own benefit and my small tribes’ benefit, and it doesn’ t matter what the consequences for others are.

None of those thoughts are justified anymore. And as time goes on, and what is being called the "Green Revolution" continues, we will all begin to speak out against such thoughts when others speak them, we’ll apologize when we slip ourselves and utter these words, and we will gently and lovingly move the conversation, and thus the world, back on track when we stray from The Way of We.

The true revolution in our time is conversation. The Way of We will be that conversation, from here on out, for all of us.

It will take time, and practice. The Way of We is strewn with obstacles at first, friends, family and colleagues who are holding on to the ideas of greed, fear, us-against-them, and power domination. Our current administration in the White House seems filled with such people, and their communications are rife with the scorn of such thoughts, in all the words they utter. But they too will find their path to The Way of We, as we’re beginning to see now, with Mr. Bush’s declaration that we should move toward energy sustainability. A little move, and a late one, but a move nonetheless.

The Way of We pulls us into It, and every time we resist Its movement to include us, we are but delaying the inevitable. "Resistance is futile", as the Borg said, and it is so. Greed and destructive seflishness will become first unpopular, then looked down upon, then impolite, and finally it will become history.

The Way of We is coming, and coming strong. It truly is an idea whose time has come. As you begin to make room in your life for It, your life will change. You’ll stop shopping for needless trinkets, you’ll stop charging on credit cards, you’ll find a stable financial path, you’ll see where you can bring Nature, compassion, generosity, and social sustainability into your own life. You’ll notice that you’re becoming happier, that you won’t be able to stand by silently when others speak from fear or greed, and you will think repeatedly when you’re about to take some questionable action, "How will this effect Us, everyone of Us?"

Then you’ll be on The Way of We. It will become your path, too.

So begin this week by asking yourself as often as you can remember, "How will what I’m about to do effect all of Us"?

Start The Way of We now. Its an idea whose time has come.

Creating a Practice of ‘We’: Step 2

As we move into creating a practice of "We", we begin to make distinctions. We notice differences between what we used to think habitually in seeing other people as different and to be feared, and what we’re beginning to think might be a better, more fruitful path.

The path of ‘We’ could be described as a shift in being in our lives, in this world, away from seeing others as different, and instead we’re moving toward a view, an experience, even a life that allows us and engages us in seeing others as the same.

The cry of all people who suffer oppression, from those Chinese people who practice Falun Gong and are murdered for doing so, to the Palestinians who want a land of their own, to the Tibetan people who want a peaceful country to live in, to the Lakota of western America who have declared their independence from the United States, the cry of all oppressed people has always been the same: We are people here, too!

That is how we move into a practice of "We". We begin to see that all people across the world love their children, desire peace and tranquility, want to create a life and contribution they can call their own, want to contribute to their community in some shape or form. All of Us hurt when a loved one dies, feel hunger when We haven’t eaten, cry when a Beloved decides to leave Us and move on. There is no difference between any of Us, there never has been.

So one way to begin to follow the distinctions between old hateful tribal thinking and your new ‘Way of We’, is to notice when others talk about people from other countries, or other groups, and see if the way they speak is inclusive and engaging, or off-putting and divisive.

Then, see how you respond. Do you seek more connection and engagement, or do you mimic their call for division and mistrust, hatred and fear-mongering? What kind of person are you, in your conversations with others? Are you actually being the person you envision you CAN BE, or are you falling short and parrotting the splitting that others are promoting?

Our last seven years here in the U.S. have seen an administration bent on splitting groups so that they will hate each other. The purpose of this tactic has been obvious: they can get us distracted on foolish issues of division, while they set about stealing the country right from under our noses. And they’ve largely succeeded, too, in the guise of protecting us.

We must practice our ‘Way of We’ daily. Seek the connections, the similarities, the love and harmony between others and yourself. Sure, you can always find the discord, that’s easy to do. Who cares? What good has it ever done you to look for how the ‘other person’ is wrong, worse than you, different and therefore to be feared?

Seek the Way of We. We’ll find it together.

Yours, Ours, Forever,

Don, aka The Gandhi Guy 

Creating a Personal Practice of “WE”: Step 1

My Friends,

My deepest thanks to Sarah, who read this passage to me last night as we climbed into bed. I thought it was so powerful that I asked her if I could share it with each of you. Thank you, Sarah.

It has inspired me to consider more deeply the taking on of a personal practice of “WE”, in as fully a way as I can. I invite you to join me in this consideration, as “WE” explore what it means to consider in all of our thoughts, feelings and actions, the greater good of all concerned.

Here’s the sharing from Sarah, from the book, "The Art of Possibility" by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander:

    More often than not history is a record of conflict between an Us and a Them. We see this pattern expressed across a broad spectrum: nation to nation, among political parties, between labor and management, and in the most intimate realms of our lives. What framework will transform us AND those whose claims on resources, territory, and the ‘truth’ are irreconcilable with ours? What can we invent that will take us from an entrenched posture of hostility to one of enthusiasm and deep regard?

    To begin the inquiry, we have distinguished a new entity that personifies the ‘togetherness’ of you and me and others. This entity, the WE, can be found among any two people, in any community or organization, and it can be thought of, in poetic terms, as a melody running through the people of the earth.

    It emerges in the way music emerges from individual notes when a phrase is played as one long line, in the way a landscape coalesces out of the multicolored strokes of an Impressionist painting when you get some distance, and in the way a ‘family’ comes into being when a first child is born. The WE appears when, for the moment, we set aside the story of fear, competition, and struggle, and tell ITS story.

    The WE story defines a human being in a specific way: It says we are our central selves seeking to contribute, naturally engaged, forever in a dance with each other. It points to relationship rather than to individuals, to communication patterns, gestures, and movement rather than to discrete objects and identities. It attests to the in-between.

    Like the particle-and-wave nature of light, the WE is both a living entity and a long line of development unfolding. This new being, the WE of us, comes into view as we look for it–the vital entity of our company, or community, or group of two. Then the protagonist of our story, the entity called WE, steps forward and takes on a life of its own.

    By telling the WE story, an individual becomes a conduit for this new inclusive entity, wearing its eyes and ears, feeling its heart, thinking its thoughts, inquiring into what is best for US. This practice pints the way to a kind of leadership based not on qualifications earned in the field of battle, but on the courage to speak on behalf of all people and for the long line of human possibility.

    The steps to the WE practice are these:

        1. Tell the WE story–the story of the unseen threads that connect us all, the story of possibility.

        2. Listen and look for the emerging entity.

        3. Ask: "What do WE want to have happen here?", "what’s best for US?" — all of each of us, and all of all of us.

                    "What’s OUR next step?"

Wonderful and powerful these thoughts are, as we pursue our GandhiGuy.com Story of WE.

Thanks for all you do in your life for peace, love and harmony!

Yours,

Don

 

Creating a Personal Practice of “WE” . . .

In the power of peace, we often find those before us who’ve mastered looking beyond their own tribal customs, seeing all others as sisters and brothers within God and Nature. So many wise and wonderful sages have landed in this place, that it seems that we can follow their footsteps, each one of us, and find our way to our own sense of connection, peace and loving kindness for all. [Read more]

When I despair . . .

For sure there are times when we all get discouraged. Over the last seven years or more, there has been plenty to be discouraged about in America, with the current people who took over not just he White House, but the whole US government, and seemingly every check and balance that we’d installed in our country to make sure they never could do what they’ve done.

It’s been a source of madness, an unjust and murderous regime in our country.

Can we call it anything less than a tyrrany? There is no doubt that there has been surface justification for Mr. Bush’s actions: His ‘primary job to protect the American people’; the threat  of more killings like the 9/11 attacks; the upheaval in Iraq and Iran, (caused in large measure by our own unjust invasion there); the shifting of global resources.

Perhaps some American citizens, foreign leaders, and Saudis can say it is a ‘just tyrrany’. All I know is that if it walks like a tyrant, quacks like a tyrant, it’s a tyrant, justified or not.

And we aren’t supposed to be having tyrants here in America. We are a free and sovereign people unto ourselves, and we elect our leaders, not place ourselves subject to them. We’re subjects of nobody, and never will be.

That is the whole point of the dream of America, to never be fooled again into thinking that some person, or family, or government, is somehow more sovereign than we are.

Mahatma Gandhi said this about tyrants:

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it–always.

I think it’s beyond dispute that Mr. Bush and Co. have tried to create an American Empire, and to place himself and his cronies at the top of this empire, to establish it as the new way of "America" across the world, and do so without any justification or impunity upon himself or his friends.

The question for us now is: can we find our way through the despair that their actions have caused for us, reclaim our purpose and direction and return to an America that is finding its way toward our own ideals?

There are millions of people around the world leading this kind of journey, together and individually, leaderless and with passion. There’s no shortage of courage and determination to find a non-violent, sustainable path toward a just future. When humans get stepped on for so long, as this horrible administration has done around the world to so many, we will ultimately rise up and reclaim our humanity.

We are people here, too!

It’s time for our humanity to shine! As Gandhis said so eloquently,

 There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it–always.

This regime will fall as well, and I predict that they will fall hard. Their savagery has been overwhelming, from illegal wars to torture, from murders and justified assasinations to the ellimination of basic freedoms, from the destruction of environmental safeguards to intimidation of whole populations, this group of men and women will stand out in history as one of the most blood-thirsty, short-sighted, and power-hungry to ever take the reins of a country. Ever.

And they will fall.

We continue here at GanghiGuy to hold that non-violence is the path to take, that truth-telling is what’s necessary, and that love and harmony will always win in the end.

Come join us in that quest.

In Peace,

Don, aka ‘Gandhi Guy’

 

The New Math: Love Mr. Bush, Support Our Troops, End the War in Iraq

 

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good.

Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep.