[Ailist] Nonviolent Communication

[Paul Andrews]

Dear Folks,

Thanks for sparking a great conversation, Rob. My inbox has rarely filled up quite this fast.

In naming the practice of nonviolence, and the way of inner and outer living it implied, Gandhi himself used the word "satyagraha", roughly translated as "truth force" -- the struggle to live ever closer to the inner truth of things, and to bring that truth to bear consistently on one's outer surroundings and circumstances. From Wikipedia:

Mahatma Gandhi coined the term Satyagraha to describe his philosophy of nonviolent resistance. In his words,

"None of us knew what name to give to our movement. I then used the term passive resistance in describing it. I did not quite understand the implications of passive resistance as I called it. I only knew that some new principle had come into being. As the struggle advanced, the phrase passive resistance gave rise to confusion and it appeared shameful to permit this great struggle to be known only by an English name. Again, that foreign phrase could hardly pass as current coin among the community. A small prize was therefore announced in Indian Opinion to be awarded to the reader who invented the best designation for our struggle. We thus received a number of suggestions. The meaning of the struggle had been then fully discussed in Indian Opinion and the competitors for the prize had fairly sufficient material to serve as a basis for their exploration. Shri Maganlal Gandhi was one of the competitors and he suggested the word Sadagraha, meaning firmness in a good cause. I liked the word, but it did not fully represent the whole idea I wished it to connote. I therefore corrected it to Satyagraha. Truth (Satya) implies love, and firmness (agraha) engenders and therefore serves as a synonym for force. I thus began to call the Indian movement Satyagraha, that is to say, the Force which is born of Truth and Love or non-violence, and gave up the use of the phrase passive resistance, in connection with it, so much so that even in English writing we often avoided it and used instead the word Satyagraha itself or some other equivalent English phrase. This then was the genesis of the movement which came to be known as Satyagraha, and of the word used as a designation for it."


There's something thrillingly brisk, even blunt, in that phrase "truth-force" -- a fierce, prophetic energy that is not afraid to stir things up and pivot things in a whole new direction. And the very same phrase can also call to mind an image of deeply centered stillness -- the kind of stillness that radiates transforming force to everyone nearby, and that re-centers us again and again on solid ground. 

I love that both images are there. And in both cases, I think the stress on truth is powerful -- because whether our love/compassion is in the service of social or personal transformation, the struggle for truth keeps our deep love fierce, and gives our sentimental love the force it needs to grow into its true nature as mature soul-passion.


Paul Andrews






-----Original Message-----
>From: Rob Voyle <rob at voyle.com>
>Sent: Jan 31, 2007 8:48 AM
>To: ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
>Subject: [Ailist] Nonviolent Communication 
>
>Hi Folks
>
>This one has me stumped.  What is a positive alternative to non-violent
>
>One of the things I discovered recently is that is impossible to create in 
>consciousness a negateted image of oneself.  
>For example, based on your experience of yourself create in your mind a picture 
>of yourself as judgmental.
>Now create a picture of being non-judgmental
>Now create a picture of being accepting.
>
>When I do this with people most will say that the judgmental picture and the 
>accepting picture feel "real" but that the non-judgmental picture feels unreal.
>On closer examaniation of people who say they can create a non-judmental 
>picture is that they have already converted it to a positive image of being 
>accepting or some other similar state but label it non-judgmental.
>
>One of the reasons why negative goals don't work is that they are impossible to 
>create in consciousness and therefore are impossible to work toward.
>
>When people are being non-violent, what are they being and what are they 
>imagining.  I fully support the concept of non-violence but haven't found the 
>language that expresses the dynamism of people like Dr. Martin Luther King.
>
>Rob 
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>Robert J. Voyle, Psy.D.
>Director, Clergy Leadership Institute
>For Coaching and Training in Appreciative Inquiry
>http://www.clergyleadership.com/
>503-647-2378 or 503-647-2382
>
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