Day 13: Humble Effort

Each one of us holds a piece of the truth, and none of us has the whole truth.

The humility we may feel in recognizing this limitation in ourselves is part of the spiritual growth that nonviolence requires of us and which has a salutary effect on the other parties.

1. Go deeper: Read Stephanie Van Hook’s paragraph on the truth of effort below.

2. Practice: Pick a situation in the news. Notice and reflect on the multiple perspectives and points of view that are held about it. Describe the truth that arises from acknowledging one point of view that you disagree with.

Nonviolence is never about changing another person directly. It’s always about changing ourselves in order to see more directly into the heart of a conflict and effect transformation there, which can, in time, change others. Truth be told, we simply can’t get to the root of conflict if our hearts and minds are agitated. We can get there with a higher image of others and ourselves, an image that interestingly enough, satiates a part of our minds. Living in a state of agitation, such as of paranoia, of suspicion, is only possible when we hold others in low esteem or feel that we ourselves are violating some rule or law, and are therefore afraid of the consequences—in other words, hatred and fear rule the day. In nonviolence we have to have trust in ourselves first. We have to see that whatever others offer us, we have the inner tools to take it on. These of course need to be systematically developed. Not surprisingly, Gandhi’s call to trust actually requires quite a bit of effort.