iB::Question::What is the message to us today from Mahatma Gandhi?

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Question: What is the message to us today from Mahatma Gandhi?

CPNN Administrator

Posted: Dec. 31 1999,17:00

David Adams

Posted: Aug. 10 2012,08:59

Gandhi gives us so many lessons, we should spend our lives learning them. Here are just some examples that have influenced me.

I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one's opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy.

In fact, Gandhi teaches us that there are no enemies, only opponents whom we have yet to convince of the truth. And what is truth?

Gandhi teaches us that truth is a mountain:

There are many paths to Truth, many relative truths, many diverse paths or ways to climb the mountain.

I think of this lesson when I meet others whose path I do not understand at first. Are there places where our paths cross as we climb the mountain?

Hate the sin but not the sinner

We must never reject the person, but rather criticize their actions if we think they are harmful and try to change their behavior. Again, no one is our enemy, even if they are in conflict with us. It is a question of trying to understand and transform the conflict. And what should be our motivation? Why not anger?

I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that can move the world.

Anger is the natural human response to injustice; Let us learn from the child who cries out in frustration: "That's not fair!"

0 replies since Aug. 10 2012,08:59