Gems of Wisdom – Nonviolence Principles

Practices of Peace To Awaken Mind and Heart from Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service website

Gandhi’s Nonviolence Principles

  1. All life is one.
  2. We each have a piece of the truth and the un-truth.
  3. Human beings are more than the evil they sometimes commit.
  4. The means must be consistent with the ends.
  5. We are called to celebrate both our differences and our fundamental unity with others.
  6. We reaffirm our unity with others when we transform “us” versus “them” thinking and doing.
  7. Our oneness calls us to want, and to work for, the wellbeing of all.
  8. The nonviolent journey is a process of becoming increasingly free from fear.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Principles of Nonviolence

Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.

  • It is active nonviolent resistance to evil.
  • It is assertive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
  • It is always persuading the opponent of the justice of your cause.

Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.

  • The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation.
  • The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community.

Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.

  • Nonviolence holds that evildoers are also victims.
  • Nonviolence holds that voluntary suffering can educate and transform.
  • Nonviolence willingly accepts the consequences of its acts.
  • Nonviolence accepts suffering without retaliation.
  • Nonviolence accepts violence if necessary, but will never inflict it.
  • Unearned suffering is redemptive and has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities.
  • Suffering can have the power to convert the enemy when reason fails.

Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.

  • Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as of the body.
  • Nonviolent love gives willingly, knowing that the return might be hostility.
  • Nonviolent love is active, not passive.
  • Nonviolent love does not sink to the level of the hater.
  • Love for the enemy is how we demonstrate love for ourselves.
  • Love restores community and resists injustice.
  • Nonviolence recognizes the fact that all life is interrelated.
  • Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.
  • The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win.