A Day of Quotes

Gandhi Quote of the Day:"The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance must disappear before the rising sun of suffering without anger and without malice."

Thoughts of Nelson Mandela: "I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

More Mandela: "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background,or his religion.People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

After many many days over 100 degrees the desert southwestern U.S. is having a beautiful cloudy and rainy day. The desert springs to life. For everyone else I wish for you to have a sunny day. Fine Art and Gems.

Dr. King Finds Gandhi

Martin Luther King Jr. on his introduction to Gandhi and nonviolence.

Like most people, I had heard of Gandhi, but I had never studied him seriously. As I read I became deeply fascinated by his campaigns of nonviolent resistance. I was particularly moved by the Salt March to the Sea and his numerous fasts. The whole concept of "Satyagraha" (Satya is truth which equals love, and agraha is force; "Satyagraha", therefore, means truth-force or love force) was profoundly significant to me. As I delved deeper into the philosophy of Gandhi my scepticism concerning the power of love gradually diminished, and I came to see for the first time its potency in the area of social reform. Prior to reading Gandhi, I had about concluded that the ethics of Jesus were only effective in individual relationship. The "turn the other cheek" philosophy and the "love your enemies" philosophy were only valid, I felt, when individuals were in conflict with other individuals; when racial groups and nations were in conflict a more realistic approach seemed necessary. But after reading Gandhi, I saw how utterly mistaken I was.
Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale. Love for Gandhi was a potent instrument for social and collective transformation. It was in this Gandhian emphasis on love and nonviolence that I discovered the method for social reform that I had been seeking for so many months. The intellectual and moral satisfaction that I failed to gain from the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill, the revolutionary methods of Marx and Lenin, the social-contracts theory of Hobbes, the "back to nature" optimism of Rousseau, and the superman philosophy of Nietzsche, I found in the nonviolent philosophy of Gandhi. I came to feel that this was the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.

Thought for today: "Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding, and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals."[Martin Luther King Jr.]

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Hate The Sin, Not The Sinner

Gandhi For Today :The Deed, not Doer

'Hate the sin and not the sinner' is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practised, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.

This ahimsa [nonviolence] is the basis of the search for truth. I am realizing every day that the search is vain unless it is founded on ahimsa as the basis. It is quite proper to resist and attack a system, but to resist and attack its author is tantamount to resisting and attacking oneself. For we are all tarred with the same brush, and are children of one and the same creator, and as such, the divine powers within us are infinite. To slight a single human being is to slight those divine powers, and thus to harm not only that Being but with Him the whole world.

Man and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked, always deserves respect or pity as the case may be.

Those who seek to destroy men rather than manners adopt the latter and become worse than those whom they destroy under the mistaken belief that the manners will die with the men. They do not know the root of the evil.

It is the acid test of nonviolence that, in a nonviolent conflict, there is no rancour left behind, and in the end the enemies are converted into friends.

Thought for today: We often think that our affairs, great or small, must be tended continuously and in detail, or our world will disintegrate, and we will lose our places in the universe. That is not true, or if it is true, then our situations were so temporary that they would have collapsed anyway. [Maya Angelou]

Have a sunny day. Fine Art and Gems.

The Character of Nonviolence

Gandhi For Today:Character of Nonviolence
Nonviolence is the law of the human race and is infinitely greater than and superior to brute force.
In the last resort it does not avail to those who do not possess a living faith in the God of Love.
Nonviolence affords the fullest protection to one's self-respect and sense of honour, but not always to possession of land or movable property, though its habitual practice does prove a better bulwark than the possession of armed men to defend them. Nonviolence, in the very nature of things, is of no assistance in the defence of ill-gotten gains and immoral acts.
Individuals or nations who would practice nonviolence must be prepared to sacrifice (nations to last man) their all except honour. It is, therefore, inconsistent with the possession of other people's countries, i.e., modern imperialism, which is frankly based on force for its defence.
Nonviolence is a power which can be wielded equally by all--children, young men and women or grown-up people, provided they have a living faith in the God of Love and have therefore equal love for all mankind. When nonviolence is accepted as the law of life, it must pervade the whole being and not be applied to isolated acts.
It is a profound error to suppose that, whilst the law is good enough for individuals, it is not for masses of mankind.
For the way of nonviolence and truth is sharp as the razor's edge. Its practice is more than our daily food. Rightly taken, food sustains the body; rightly practised nonviolence sustains the soul. The body food we can only take in measured quantities and at stated intervals; nonviolence, which is the spiritual food, we have to take in continually. There is no such thing as satiation. I have to be conscious every moment that I am pursuing the goal and have to examine myself in terms of that goal.

Thought for today: There is no end to a prayer. It echoes on forever in your soul. Long after the visible demonstration has been made and forgotten, the prayer that produced it continues to work for your spiritual advancement, for the creative power of a God thought is unlimited and eternal. [ Emmet Fox.]

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No Faith in Violence

Gandhi Quote of the day:"I object to violence because, when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."

Thought for today: More Gandhi. "No Faith in Violence"
It is an unshakable faith with me that a cause suffers exactly to the extent that it is supported by violence. I say this in spite of appearances to the contrary. If I kill a man who obstructs me, I may experience a sense of false security. But the security will be short-lived. For I shall not have dealt with the root cause. In due course, other men will surely rise to obstruct me. My business, therefore, is not to kill the man or men who obstruct me, but to discover the cause that impels them to obstruct me and deal with it.
I do not believe in armed risings. They are a remedy worse than the disease sought to be cured. They are a token of the spirit of revenge and impatience and anger. The method of violence cannot do good in the long run.

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Conviction

Gandhi Quote of the day: "On your side you have all the mighty forces of the modern State, arms, money, a controlled press, and all the rest. On my side, I have nothing but my conviction of right and truth, the unquenchable spirit of man, who is prepared to die for his convictions than submit to your brute force. I have my comrades in armlessness. Here we stand; and here if need be, we fall." Far from being a craven retreat from difficulty and danger, nonviolent resistance demands courage of a high order, the courage to resist injustice without rancour, to unite the utmost firmness with the utmost gentleness, to invite suffering but not to inflict it, to die but not to kill.

Thought for today:
An old love
the fuel of feeling.
A new love
Fueled by the heat
of the moment.
An old love
how'ed it last?
A new love
destroys the past.

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Nonviolence and Conflict Resolution

Gandhi On Nonviolence :

Ahimsa [nonviolence; love for all living things] is the highest ideal. It is meant for the brave, never for the cowardly. To benefit by others' killing and delude oneself into the belief that one is being very religious and nonviolent is sheer self-deception.
A so-called votary of nonviolence will not stay in a village which is visited by a leopard everyday. He will run away and, when someone has killed the leopard, will return to take charge of his hearth and home. This is not nonviolence. This is a coward's violence. The man who has killed the leopard has at least given proof of some bravery. The man who takes advantage of the killing is a coward. He can never expect to know true nonviolence.
In life it is impossible to eschew violence completely. The question arises, where is one to draw the line? The line cannot be the same for everyone. Although essentially the principle is the same, yet, everyone applies it in his or her own way. What is one man's food can be an other's poison. Meat-eating is a sin for me. Yet, for another person, who has always lived on meat and never seen anything wrong in it, to give it up simply in order to copy me will be a sin.
If I wish to be an agriculturist and stay in the jungle, I will have to use the minimum unavoidable violence in order to protect my fields. I will have to kill monkeys, birds and insects which eat up my crops. If I do not wish to do so myself, I will have to engage someone to do it for me. There is not much difference between the two. To allow crops to be eaten up by animals in the name of ahimsa while there is a famine in the land is certainly a sin. Evil and good are relative terms. What is good under certain conditions can become an evil or a sin under a different set of conditions.
Man is not to drown himself in the well of Shastras [Hindu Scriptures] but he is to dive in their broad ocean and bring out pearls. At every step he has to use his discrimination as to what is ahimsa and what is himsa. In this there is no room for shame or cowardice. The poet has said that the road leading up to God is for the brave, never for the cowardly.

Happy Independence Day to everyone in the U.S. and have a sunny day. Gems and Fine Art

Be Still

Gandhi Quote of the day:"No religion taught man to kill one another because he held different opinions or was of another religion."

Thought for Today:"Be still, and know that I am God."This is just the very last thing that we want to do when we are worried or anxious. The current of human thought, the carnal mind, is hurrying us along to it's own ends, and it seems much easier to swim with it by accepting difficulties, by rehearsing grievances, by dwelling upon symptoms, than to draw resolutely away in thought from these things, and contemplate God, which is the one way out of trouble.

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Right Thinking

Gandhi Quote of the day: "All your scholarship, all your study of Shakespeare and Wordsworth would be vain if at the same time you do not build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your actions."

Thought for Today: A Meditation from Emmet Fox.

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Righteousness means right thinking, and I know that to think rightly about any condition means healing and safety. The Good Shepherd is now guiding me in the path of Right Thinking; so all will be well. The nature of God is all-power-ful omnipresent good, boundless love. I know that this Boundless Love is now taking care of me, and arranging all my affairs.

Hope this post helps you to have a sunny day. Fine Art and Jewelry .

Thought For Today: Guard against Fear

Gandhi Quote of the day: The propagation of truth and nonviolence can be done less by books than by actually living on these principles.

Guard against Fear.What are you afraid of?What is your fear? To be afraid is to be mentally and emotionally disturbed in advance of an incident. What is the result of this state of mind? From a study of Mental Science above we have learned that to fear a thing is definitely to assist its coming to pass, which you must admit is an action of amazing stupidity. Another result of this state of mind is that you have decidedly reduced your powers of resistance.If I am to have a tough fight tomorrow morning, shall I sit up all night in fear and trembling and greet my adversary with hollow eyes and a wobbly fist? Or shall I sleep soundly and well, and arise in the pink of condition and ready to take on anything ? The reply is obvious.So, apply to your thoughts this test. Is my thought on this subject constructive or destructive? If it is constructive, take heart and go forward with renewed vigour, knowing positively that Almighty Power is with you. If it is destructive, take yourself in hand severely and change your thoughts. It will be difficult at first and you will be clumsy at it, but eventually constructive thought will become, in an everyday phrase, second nature to you.Now, when a problem is presented to you, bring your imagination into play at once. In your imagination see the job completed and the problem solved. That is the first thing to do. Why? Because by doing so you present to your subconscious mind a complete and detailed picture of what is wanted, and Universal Mind, the all-Powerful, will know exactly what is required and what must be done to bring that mental picture to materialisation.
Thoughts on the Mental Science by Emmet Fox.

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