Daily Quote
Equality is the soul of liberty, there is. in fact, no liberty without it”
Frances Wright
Day 53
“The golden way is to be friends with the world and to regard the whole human family as
one. He who distinguishes between the votaries of one’s own religion and those of another
miseducates the members of his own and opens the way for discord and irrelegion.” M. K.
Gandhi
This message seems especially appropriate in today’s world. We live in a time when religion
has once again become the most divisive issue in our world. Otherwise intelligent, and even
apparently spiritual, people demonize other religions. The tenor of the current religious
discourse, like that of the political, makes it impossible for religion and spirituality to serve
its true function, utilizing peace and love as path to Oneness. It can, and should be, a
calming balm for an injured and heartsick world.
Instead, those who serve fear, anger and violence seize upon the words of the Koran to
prove malevolent intent on the part of, or to induce violence in, all Muslims, ignoring the
love poems of the Sufi movement. In the same way, the words of the Old Testament of the
Christian Bible are used to justify “an eye for an eye”, ignoring the words of peace and
forgiveness taught by the central figure in that religion, Jesus. At the same time, those who
deny the validity of any spiritual path, point to all this as proof that religion is the problem,
not the answer. The result is a religious environment that is truly the path to violence – not
nonviolence.
Gandhi is urging us all, no matter where we fall on the religious spectrum, to accept that
we are all on the same path. Only the love, compassion and tolerance inherent in any true
connection with the Divine can bring the healing the world desperately needs. Once we see
that we are all, in our way, on a spiritual path to our Oneness, only then can we truly walk
the path of nonviolence. Whether we seek it through a connection with God, or a
connection with life, is irrelevant, for this is the golden way to nonviolence.
Affirmative Practice
Today, I will meditate on how I live the “golden way”. Today, I will see how my spiritual
path, whatever it may be, can contribute to love, peace and nonviolence in the world. This
is the path to nonviolence.