Fwd: nonviolence in parenting

[Guest guest]

What an incredibly beautiful story. Thank you, Victor. jerry

[Guest guest]

This is great.

 

May peace and peace and peace be everywhwere.

 

Love,

 

Victor

 

 

dzogchen , Bob Gould <bobgould@o...> wrote:

The Power of Nonviolence - Dr. Arun Gandhi

 

Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the M.K.

Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, in his June 9 lecture at the

University of Puerto Rico, shared the following story as an example of

nonviolence in parenting: "I was 16 years old and living with

myparents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside

of Durban, South Africa, in the middle of the sugar plantations. We

were deep in the country and had no neighbors, so my two sisters and I

would always look forward togoing to town to visit friends or go to

the movies. One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an

all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance.

 

Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she

needed and, since I had all day in town, my father asked me to take

care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced.

When I dropped my father off that morning, he said, 'I will meet you

here at 5:00 p.m., and we will go home together.'

 

After hurriedly completing my chores, I went straight to the nearest

movie theatre. I got so engrossed in a John Wayne double-feature that

I forgot the time. It was 5:30 before I remembered. By the time I

ran to the garage and got the car and hurried to where my father was

waitingfor me, it was almost 6:00.

 

He anxiously asked me, 'Why are you late?' I was so ashamed of telling

him I was watching a John Wayne western movie that I said, 'The car

wasn't ready, so I had to wait,' not realizing that he had already

called the garage.

 

When he caught me in the lie, he said: 'There's something wrong in the

way I brought you up that didn't give you the confidence to tell me

the truth. In order to figure out where I went wrong with you, I'm

going to walk the walk home 18 miles and think about it.'

 

So, dressed in his suit and dress shoes, he began to walk home in the

dark on mostly unpaved, unlit roads. I couldn't leave him, so for

five-and-a-half hours I drove behind him, watching my father go

through this agony for a stupid lie that I uttered. I decided then

and there that I was never going to lie again.

 

I often think about that episode and wonder, if he had punished me the

way we punish our children, whether I would have learned a lesson at

all. I don't think so. I would have suffered the punishment and gone

on doing the same thing. But this single nonviolent action was so

powerful that it is still as if it happened yesterday. That is the

power of nonviolence.

 

Copyright Dr. Arun Gandhi

--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

, GCWein1111@a... wrote:

> What an incredibly beautiful story. Thank you, Victor. jerry

 

Yes Jerry, it is. Great lesson here.

 

May peace and peace and peace be everywhere. May love bloom

everywhere.

 

Love,

 

Victor