Gandhi, Jesus

and the work of peace within

In his excellent book The Beatitudes of Peace, the prominent peace activist Fr John Dear recalls visiting Gandhi’s ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in India.

He writes of how he spent a whole morning sitting in silence on the floor of the veranda just outside Gandhi’s simple room with its tiny wooden desk, his spinning wheel and a large white pillow, overlooking the river and desert landscape that Gandhi loved. And how, as he sat there, he felt, ‘a profound peace and a renewed inner strength.’ (1)

Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu, Fr John has spent many decades exploring what it means to live the Gospel as a path of nonviolence – not as an idea, but as a way of being. He recognises, as Gandhi recognised, that the work of peace does not begin in the world around us, but within us.

Peace does not arise by accident.

Along with the Bhagavad Gita, Gandhi considered the Sermon on the Mount the greatest writing on nonviolence in history. He read the Sermon nearly every morning and evening for over forty years. Though not a Christian, he said its words went ‘straight to my heart.’ ‘The gentle figure of Christ – so patient, so kind, so loving, so full of forgiveness… I thought this was a beautiful example of the perfect human being.’ (2)

Gandhi and the teachings of Jesus

Gandhi allowed the teachings of Jesus to disarm him, change him, help form him into the peacemaker he became. It’s said that he once commented on the work of peace beginning within, before the work in politics or activism:

‘I have only three enemies. My favourite enemy, the one most easily influenced for the better, is the British Empire. My second enemy, the Indian people, is far more difficult. But my most formidable opponent is a man called Mohandas K. Gandhi. With him I have very little influence.’ (3)

If we want to know more peace in our lives, if we want to bring more peace to the world, the work begins within ourselves, right here, right where we are.

When our most formidable opponent is ourself, what might we do about this? As this charming saying of the Desert Fathers tells us, peace is not found by simply running off somewhere quiet, away from everything, away from everyone we might find annoying:

A brother was restless in his community and he was often irritated. So he said, ‘I will go and live somewhere by myself. I will not be able to talk or listen to anyone and so I shall be at peace, and my passionate anger will cease.

He went out and lived alone in a cave. But one day he filled his jug with water and put it on the ground. Suddenly it happened to fall over. He filled it again, and again it fell. This happened a third time. In a rage he snatched up the jug and smashed it.

Coming to his senses he knew that his anger had overcome him, and he said, ‘Here I am by myself, and it has beaten me. I will return to the community. Wherever you live you need effort and patience and above all God’s help.’ So he got up and went back.

All we need is close at hand

The Christian contemplative tradition—alongside all the great contemplative traditions of the world—teaches that the source of peace is always present; all we need is already close at hand.

Despite all appearances to the contrary, despite all we may have been told about ourselves and about each other, the source of the peace we seek, which the world so badly needs, must be here. It is always present because it is the very ground and essence of who we are. As such, it can never be anywhere else. It can only be hidden from our view.

Surprising discoveries

In the early seasons of meditation practice, we may be surprised by what we encounter, by what we discover. The beginning of the journey involves meeting our own internal mental noise. Perhaps for the first time, we see the deep patterns of reactivity and habit that direct and constrain our lives.

We discover our tendency to tell ourselves stories—often negative ones—about ourselves and about life, and how quickly we become embroiled in them. We meet our restlessness and distractedness, so often symptoms of unacknowledged fear and anxiety.

But there is no need to be overly concerned. Even if we have spent many years building and defending partitions within ourselves, the gentle wisdom and healing processes of meditation can loosen and dissolve our internal knots and obstructions, and bring us into greater harmony.

Greater harmony within ourselves facilitates greater harmony with those around us.

The peace that is always present

As we learn to meet our thoughts and feelings with greater silence and compassion, we are brought into an entirely new relationship with life. We find ourselves able to meet the world from a more grounded and peaceful place.

And as the partitions within ourselves begin to soften and dissolve, so too do the partitions we may have built within ourselves, between ourselves and others. Internal walls of fear, judgement, resentment – all that contributes to separating us from each other – begin to give way. The peace that has always been present within us is unveiled.

In a striking passage in the Gospel of John, Jesus tells a Samaritan woman drawing water from a well that everyone who drinks that water will thirst again, but those who drink the water he gives will never thirst again—for that water will become in them a spring welling up to eternal life (John 4:13–14).

A little later in John’s Gospel, Jesus says, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink. Whoever has trust in me… “Rivers of living water will flow from within them”’ (John 7:37–38).

Despite all appearances to the contrary, despite what we may have been told about ourselves and about each other, the source of peace which the world so badly needs—and which we may need in our own lives—is right here, within us. It cannot not be here. Because God is our being. And God is peace.

The invitation of meditation is Christ’s invitation to drink from the well of peace within: to know this peace, and so become bearers of peace for others.

This blog is based on one of the teachings given in a recent online meditation group gathering. You are warmly welcome to join one of our future gatherings.

From the Introduction in The Beatitudes of Peace: meditations on the Beatitudes, Peacemaking and the Spiritual Life by John Dear (Twenty-Third Publications, 2016).
Ibid.
Soul Food: Stories to Nourish the Spirit and Heart, edited by Jack Kornfield and Christina Feldman (Harper One, 1996), page 55.