Walking with Gandhi

Workshop # 39
Chris Moore-Backman

Mohandas Gandhi is far and away the most oft-cited teacher of nonviolent resistance. Do we actually understand the essence and demands of his profound instruction?  Join us in a workshop experience designed to invite the mahatma down from his pedestal, so we can get busy with the nuts and bolts of real-life nonviolent transformation.

Percentage of time:
Worship/worship-sharing 20; Lecture 30; Discussion 35; Experiential 15

Open to all

Mohandas Gandhi provides Quakers and other people of faith a most compelling yet often misunderstood set of marching orders for the Lamb's War.  This workshop is designed to liberate Gandhi from the pedestal we reserve for him, in order that we may turn to the nuts and bolts of nonviolent transformation, both personally and collectively.

Gandhi's teaching holds great relevance for today's Quakers, and our enlivened response to his "marching orders" could bring our lives and communities to a new level of faithfulness.  In this workshop we will settle into a deep, prayerful consideration of the essence of nonviolence, and identify concrete steps forward.  

The workshop will give special focus to Gandhi's threefold program of personal transformation, "constructive programme", and political action.  Each of these mutually supportive aspects of the Gandhian approach can and should be translated for our particular context.  Our efforts to articulate a Gandhian strategy will help prepare us for the battles at hand, and the battles ahead.  

What would personal reformation - along the spiritual lines of lived nonviolence - look like in my life?  What would a Gandhian "constructive program" of social renewal look like in my community and in our greater society?  What would truly faithful, integrated nonviolent resistance look like - and what would it ask of us - in our present context, right here, right now?  

Our sessions will:

• begin and end with silent worship

• be very participatory - including whole group and small group discussion, worship sharing, other forms of group reflection

• draw on the wealth of participants' own experience with nonviolent transformation, and/or insights and connections related to Gandhi

• include some time for personal writing and reflection

• include presentation about relevant history and concepts,

• include some segments of video and selected writings

• respond to the needs and suggestions of participants

• foster positivity, playfulness, and humor

Recommended readings in advance of the workshop:

• Gandhi the Man, by Eknath Easwaran, Nilgiri Press.  A very readable account of an amazing life.  A good historical and spiritual sketch.  This book would do well to get us all on the same general page.

Either or both of these, for a step further into Gandhi's philosophy of life and his science of nonviolence.

• Gandhi on Non-Violence, by M.K. Gandhi with an excellent introduction by Thomas Merton, New Directions.

• All Men Are Brothers, M.K. Gandhi, various editions available.

And, highly recommended to get a sense of Gandhi's spirituality, which was the basis of all he did and taught:

• The Way to God, by M.K. Gandhi (with an excellent introduction by Michael Nagler), Berkeley Hills Books.