6/17/2020

Non-violence

“My presence acted as a check
upon petty bickerings.” ~ Gandhi
"There is a famous sutra in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a classic text on meditation and its effects from somewhere around the Second Century BCE, that states (and I paraphrase): 'In the presence of one in whom nonviolence is established, hostility drops away' (III.35). That does not mean, of course, that all we have to do to resolve a conflict is show up—or even all that Gandhi had to do. But it does mean, as Gandhi said, that there is a 'living force' within us which is 'invisible in its effects'
but always works to bring peace to those around us,
to the extent that we have, as the sutra says,
managed to establish nonviolence within us.
Modern science is beginning to find ways to measure
at least the effects of this force and the physical mechanisms within us that respond to it."