PREFACE
The impetus for this booklet is a workshop I offered titled Love and Nonviolence. It explored how the Christian understanding of love informs Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s social and political activism. The workshop also referenced how Traditional Yogic teachings guided Mohandas K. Gandhi to similar approaches in his Satyagraha work in India.
While in the early stages of writing the first draft of this booklet I was listening to a recorded speech by James Baldwin. Addressing the topic of racism, he spoke to the fact (and I’m paraphrasing) that racism is not the main problem. Neither is injustice or the various forms of oppression that continue to dominate the landscape of life in America, and perhaps the entire world. It is no coincidence that many gains in addressing these have either decayed or been overcome by new forms of these problems because we have not addressed their roots. These major problems emanate from a far more pressing problem that King explicitly acknowledges: humanity’s inhumanity to humanity. (King says “man’s inhumanity to man” but I intentionally use non-gender specific terms when speaking of all of humanity.)
So if inhumanity -- in deed, thought, life orientation, etc. -- is the main problem, we would be remiss to address its emanations without addressing the root itself. Although the work of King and others in the Civil Rights Movement tends to be reduced to addressing social evils, at the root of their work is an explicit response to the root of inhumanity: an engaged commitment to love. Love in action, which various spiritual traditions describe in diverse ways, lays at the essence of what it means to be a human being. Some say the essence of humanity is love. Yet the significance of King’s living example (actions) and calls for others to love are often diminished by reducing his life to mere addressing the outgrowths of inhumanity. For example, many describe his life in terms of just fighting racism, economic inequality, militarism -- not engaging these as part of a larger battle to have humans return to love.
This informs the purpose of this booklet: to use an article King wrote which presents a basic overview of Nonviolence to illustrate how his approach is rooted in the stream of love. And how this stream became the basis of addressing the outflows of humanity’s inhumanity. I combine King’s teaching with guidance from Gandhi. Between these two, we may see how Nonviolence emanates from spiritual traditions that seek to guide us to the realization of humanity’s true purpose: Ultimate Reality itself. And surely, love in action plays an essential role in this purpose.
Since this booklet quotes extensively from King and Gandhi, some of the language and use of terms will lack uniformity. For example, whereas I capitalize and do not place a hyphen in the term “Nonviolence,” King and Gandhi often do not capitalize it and sometimes place a hyphen in the term. There are also the literary tendencies of their times: using male-gender terms to refer to humanity as a whole (e.g. man, mankind) or as a general singular pronoun (“he” for a person of male or female gender whereas I use the term “one.”) There is also King’s use of the term “Negro” which he uses to refer to Black people; a device I do not subscribe to. Therefore, there may be noticeable shifts in language between my words and the quotes. But I feel it is important to present King and Gandhi’s words as they are, particularly for those who wish to reference the sources of the quotes.
Also, in other writings and presentations I refer to Jesus by his Jewish name: Yeshua. But King and Gandhi use Jesus. To avoid confusion, in this writing I use Jesus for the sake of consistency.
nashid
March 2016
