Mahatma Gandhi - Seeing God in What Persists

"There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses. But it is possible to reason out the existence of God to a limited extent...

"I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever-changing, ever-dying, there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and re-creates. That informing power or spirit is God. . . . For I can see that in the midst of death, life persists; in the midst of untruth, truth persists; in the midst of darkness, light persists. Hence I gather that God is life, truth, light."

Mahatma Gandhi, as quoted by his grandson

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On Taking Care of Our Hearts as Social Activists

"As social activists we must be careful when exorcising demons, not to push away some part of ourselves that is crying out for attention and healing.  Or to become what we oppose.

We must be watchful of narcissistic anger if we are to remain balanced in the midst of attached concern for another’s well-being.

The Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Desmond Tutu point out that it takes more than a sense of injustice and the righteousness of anger that often accompanies it to fight “the good fight;” it takes peace.

Even though we may comprehend the cause of suffering—even how pain can become suffering—there can remain beneath it all the righteous anger of the hungry ghost.

Gandhi reminds us our resistance needs not be passive, only non-violent.  In any act of resistance we must remain vigilant of the difference between aggressive protection of those in need  and the quality of hostility that may arise from impotent rage that lies uninvestigated beneath the level of awareness.  A latency that can obscure the heart’s intuition for healing solutions."

Stephen Levin from Turning Toward the Mystery

For more in-depth dharma articles and instruction, visit:  METTA REFUGE

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