There are five things each of us can do to recover a saner image of who we are, whether we think of ourselves as peace activists or not. We can all do them, every day, and thus they answer somewhat to Gandhi’s famous charkha, or spinning campaign at the heart of his work to reform and liberate India. Organizations and campaigns will grow out of this kind of personal change.

The film "Faith Under Fire," which tells the true story of a woman who prevented a school shooting, is a reminder that nonviolent approaches to conflict resolution remain largely unknown.

We bow our heads in reverence to all those who have given their lives in witness to the truth, or had it taken from them in that effort; who upheld peace and justice in the face of persecution and oppression, often without any warrant of success for their effort but because they could do no differently; for those who have done all they could, often at great personal sacrifice, to keep the banner of human dignity aloft in times of turbulence and violence – like our own.

If we forget, in our movements, to treat each other as human beings we may succeed to dislodge a bad regime but will lack secure foundations for a better one.

On my rare visits to LA, I am always impressed (negatively) by the blatant violence of the billboards advertising films and TV. This past weekend was no exception.

Science has become a powerful ally in creating a vitally needed "new story" for our culture which will greatly facilitate the transition to a world of peace and justice.

For an action to become a campaign and a campaign a movement (thanks to thoughtful activist George Lakey for those terms) it must have a credible path forward from the “effervescence of the crowd,” as we call it, step after step, to victory.

At the very beginning of his presentation, Michael shares a preview of the documentary the Metta Center is working on with Lou Zweier

There is everything we can do, with enough time and determination, about the underlying cause of all shootings, which is the culture of violence that has become so much the ‘woodwork’ of our ‘entertainment,’ our unconsciously preselected and slantingly presented ‘news,’ and yes, our foreign policy, our mass incarceration, our gross inequality and the disintegration of civil discourse.

Not every action is going to be effective, especially if we are walking into a situation where the level of dehumanization is extreme — where people are prepared to harm or kill others. How then can we draw from the power of nonviolence in a situation of escalating violence?

Nonviolence can be a safe, effective and lasting way to defeat injustice, but like any other science it takes knowledge, courage and determination.

In addition to the way nonviolence has been growing in several dimensions other than just size – the collaboration of many communities, the expansion of research and education, etc. – we have noted with great appreciation the signs of greater sophistication here and there across the growing movement.

To ask the kind of questions posed here is therefore an essential, culturally subversive act; to answer them somewhat along the lines suggested is to stake out a position on the far side of the “Great Turning” or cultural paradigm shift that must happen to save our democracy and our future.

...we need to be as well organized and at least as determined as the disruptors, embracing them as people while pointing out the fallacy or their assumptions and decidedly keeping their methods out of our actions. This, among other things, is essential as we struggle to bring the world’s oldest democracy back to life.

We have noted with great appreciation the signs of greater sophistication here and there across the growing movement. These include recognizing the need for all the points just listed, the relaxation of the rigidity of certain ideologies, for example that against any kind of leadership, and doubtless others that will manifest in the coming months.

It occurs to me more and more as I listen to the arguments and discussions stirred up by the current crisis that in order to make sense of this crisis for ourselves and to one another we need to start much earlier, from something very basic. We need to ask ourselves, each one of us, three questions

What is the affinity between nonviolence and democracy? This is quite an important question, because there’s an intuitive resonance between those two great concepts but many people remain enthralled by the widespread myth that “freedom” must be won and kept by force.

The successful resistance has long held an important place in the canon of successful nonviolent actions catalogued by Gene Sharp in his pioneering works on nonviolence. Though it was marred by some fighting (and had a violent aftermath, as communists and labor unions tried to take over) it was in fact a classic example of the power of civil resistance to protect a democratic order from takeovers or invasions.

Meditation practices differ in how they attempt to master the suppression of the thoughts, feelings, ideas and memories that constantly crop up. Elsewhere you can read about focusing thoughts on the breath, for as Ramana Maharshi says, “Breath is the gross form of mind.” What we are going to present here is the technique of concentrating on the words of an inspirational passage, akin to the medieval practice of lectio divina, Latin for “divine reading.”

Unwavering respect for one’s opponent is not only the most effective persuasion, but lays the groundwork for lasting change, because human dignity is the basis of all justice and peace.