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Dr. Mercola
June 05 2008
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Spiritual Giant’s 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World

gandhi, spiritual, fundamental, changing the world, self improvement, authority, moral, schopenhauer, truth, stages of truth Mahatma Gandhi needs no introduction. Everyone knows about the man and his legacy. Here is some advice he gave worth noting:

1. Change yourself

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think, then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change.

2. You are in control

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions.

3. Forgive and let it go

“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

Fighting evil with evil won’t help anyone. Forgiving and letting go of the past will do you and the people in your world a great service.

4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

Without taking action very little will be done. However, taking action can be hard. And so you may resort to preaching, or reading and studying endlessly. But you have to take action and translate that knowledge into results and understanding.

5. Take care of this moment

“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”

Stay in the present as much as possible, and be accepting. When you are in the present moment you don’t worry about the next moment. And the resistance to action comes from imagining negative future consequences or reflecting on past failures.

6. Everyone is human

“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

When you start to make myths out of people, you run the risk of becoming disconnected from them. Keep in mind that everyone is just a human being no matter who they are.

7. Persist

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Be persistent. In time the opposition around you will fade and fall away.

8. See the good in people and help them

“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”

If you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive.

9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

When words and thoughts are aligned then that shows through in your communication. People tend to really listen to what you’re saying. You are communicating without incongruence, mixed messages or phoniness.

10. Continue to grow and evolve

”Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”

You can pretty much always improve your skills and habits, or re-evaluate your evaluations. You can gain deeper understanding of yourself and the world.



Dr. Mercola Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Gandhi is one of my personal heroes. His inspiring message of non-violent action (the third alternative) and his courage to stand by his convictions despite virtually impossible circumstances is quite an example to follow. 

Many forget that Gandhi held no formal authority -- no position of power. And yet, because he had moral authority, he had influence. Gandhi changed the lives of over 300 million people using nothing but his personal convictions and moral authority.

If I had to select a favorite from his pearls of wisdom above, it would be:

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

I see this all the time, especially in the arenas of healthcare and science. It’s also virtually identical to another often quoted statement by Schopenhauer, who pointed out that each newly discovered truth has to pass through three stages:                                                    

  1. First it is ridiculed
  2. Then, it is violently opposed
  3. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident 
I keep this in mind each and every day as I move forward in my own mission: to catalyze a transformation in the way health care alternatives are provided to the population.

It’s impossible to predict who or what group will be ultimately responsible for this inevitable change, but to me that’s a moot issue. The central challenge is to facilitate the change, and it’s clear to me that this will occur through the collaborative efforts of like-minded individuals merging forces to effectively address the multinational drug giants.

With the help of this newsletter and readers like you, ever increasing numbers of people are seeking, and finding, the truth about health, and are standing up against the misinformation that is still so widespread.

I believe we are well on our way. You see, it only takes 10 percent of the public to become conscious of the truth before it tends to spread like wildfire through the population. Once that percentage of people has accepted the truth, change is inevitable and unstoppable.

As Gandhi said, "In a gentle way you can shake the world."

And that’s exactly what is happening as millions of people around the world make the decision to take control of their health.
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Community Comments ( 52 )
 		Comment on this Article
  
  
tsmethers
 [ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on May 20, 2008 ]
6 Points        
   
 
Novice User
It seems to me that Gandhi's idea that “An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind” is a particularly negative one.

It focuses on the end result instead of the starting point. If you realize that your inattention, carelessness or direct actions toward others will result in the same loss to yourself, you would take more care in your personal relations and your actions with others.

But more than that, like most people, he ignores the context for the original quote. It is referring to the actions to be taken against a person who gives false testimony against another in a court of law. Whatever the punishment would have been for the accused is to be done to the false witness.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
An-Ra
 [ Joined on 06/08 ]  [ Posted on June 6, 2008]
2 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Actually, YOU missed the point, not Ghandi.  Think about it.
  
  
libertyvalance
 [ Joined on 11/07 ] [ Posted on June 5, 2008 ]
4 Points        
   
 
Novice User

The official story is the Mohandas Gandhi and his non-violent movement expelled the tyrannical British from India.   As usual, the "official story" needs to be taken with a grain of salt.   First, on the Brits, they were extreme brutes.   For example they cut off the thumbs of extremely skilled weavers, because their goods were superior to the cloth which was forcibly imported to India from Lancaster in England.    They did that and equally horrible things.   As for their expulsion, many Indians give credit to Subash Chandra Bhosh, a general in the WWII Indian Army.   He made deals with both the Germans and the Japanese that Indian soldiers would surrender on various battlefields and be re-armed and repatriated to India to fight the British.   THAT was what led to their being kicked out of India.   Non-violence works against humans if the humans have a heart and a soul.   All too often, world leaders don't.   The British monarchy is part of the ruling class of what I call the Super Mafia.   Their position is far from just figureheads.   They are ruthless, psychopathic, mass-murderers and serial killers.   Hitler and Stalin were the figureheads!   The real criminals are the banking families headed by the still functioning Royalty.  If anyone believes that these sadistic reptiles respond to non-violence they are sadly mistaken.   They are like crocodiles and they consider the other six billion people on this planet to be expendable livestock.  That is why the United Nations and other agencies have such a fanatical program to instigate gun control, more properly known as "Victim Disarmament."  Criminals love it when their prey are helpless.  Let the sheep try non-violence against the crocodiles and see how far they get.  

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
bpfsa
 [ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on June 5, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

You are clearly a disciple of Lyndon LaRouche, I see, LibertyValence.

Mercola
  
Sonny Moonie
 [ Joined on 12/07 ]  [ Posted on June 6, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

The story about the British cutting off thumbs is a modern historical slander. It appears to be based on a misreading of the following passage:

"Weavers also, upon their inability to perform such agreements as have been forced from them by the Company's agents, universally known in Bengal by the name of Mutchulcahs, have had their goods seized, and sold on the spot, to make good the deficiency: and the winders of raw silk, called Nagaads, have been treated also with such injustice, that instances have been known of their cutting off their thumbs, to prevent their being forced to wind silk."

Considerations on India Affairs, William Bolts, 1772, page 194, available on Google Books

Obviously that was an allegation that a few silk winders cut off their <b>own</b> thumbs, to escape being forced by someone to fulfill contracts with British East India Company agents for wound silk.

Whether that happened as alleged, there is no evidence. You might assume that no one ever told a lie or reported an allegation that turned out to be false in writing before the Internet, but I don't. It seems likely to me that some Indians in the textile industry lost thumbs accidentally, and someone started the story by saying at least that got them out of being forced to work for the British.

The sepoys (Indian soldiers under British command) were the ones who actually used force against the textile workers. I believe the correct method of change is to undo the propaganda that keeps soldiers and police fighting against their own people and against other people who've never done them any harm. Economic agents, monarchs, dictators, and party leaders are just powerless talkers without soldiers and police to enforce their orders.
  
  
Robubba
 [ Joined on 03/08 ] [ Posted on May 19, 2008 ]
4 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User
I disagree with #2 quote sometimes.  Sometimes you just aren't in control, and you just have to deal with it.  Yes, you can definitely choose your own reactions, which is something I will always believe in.  But sometimes you cannot control your own thoughts, and sometimes you cannot control your own inner emotions.  You can control how much of your emotions you express, but on the inside, something someone else says can and probably will effect you. The "sticks and stones" philosophy is far from the truth.  When someone says something bad it most likely will hurt you.

I sometimes have trouble with number three, but your interpretation is much better.  I definitely believe you should ALWAYS forgive when someone is repentant and actually feels SORRY.

Other than those two things, which is completely dependent upon the interpretation of the quote, I think that they are all really really good cliches that have yet to be fully embraced.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Alaskadood
 [ Joined on 02/08 ]  [ Posted on May 19, 2008]
10 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola
Embracing #3 will take care of #2.
Mercola
  
Nathan210
 [ Joined on 03/07 ]  [ Posted on May 19, 2008]
5 Points        
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola
I disagree with you. A person can learn to control their thoughts and inner emotions the same as they can learn to develop a skill or talent, it only takes practice. The "Sticks and Stones" philosophy can also work, but only if the person believes it firmly.

Nathan210
Mercola
  
technologist
 [ Joined on 05/08 ]  [ Posted on May 20, 2008]
6 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola
I think #2 means that you are in control of yourself, not of the situation.
Mercola
  
qualitygeek
 [ Joined on 10/07 ]  [ Posted on May 21, 2008]
3 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
There are only two things in this life that you have absolute control over, (unfortunately, they do not include your spouse or your children):

1) your attitude toward "opportunities to excel" presented to you
2) your reactions to the myriad of curveballs life throws at you
Mercola
  
Lelia
 [ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on June 5, 2008]
4 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

I need to be in control of me.  Many people try to be in control of others not themselves.  When something others do triggers a reaction in me that is about something I believe or an emotion I need to deal with.
  
  
TWS500
 [ Joined on 05/07 ] [ Posted on June 5, 2008 ]
3 Points        
   
 
Novice User

The Mahatma had some good ideas for peace-loving people with a soul and a conscience...oftentimes the principles would work and improve conditions for law-abiding citizens...   Spiritual giant...?...no...   Good man...yes...   I'll stick with the teachings of The Master Teacher who offers not only peace and love in this life, but beyond.

 [ Reply ]
  
  
seg
 [ Joined on 11/06 ] [ Posted on May 20, 2008 ]
3 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
Reminds me of the 10 commandments.......Excellent, excellent self explanatory ideas.........And imagine what the world would be if we can adopt at the very least, some of the fundamentals here......Great, ideas from an equally giant of a man......
 [ Reply ]
  
  
kotare
 [ Joined on 01/08 ] [ Posted on June 5, 2008 ]
2 Points        
   
 
Novice User

Getting a bit off subject, but I agree with libertyvalance that 911 was an inside job.

Non believers watch Zietgiest. (On youtube in several parts). No suitable for christians. No doubting that Ghandi was a great man, but there are probably many sides to the story. For starters, the British don't want their evil streak to become common knowledge. Like many others of British roots, I used to believe that we are the good guys. Tell that to the people of Dresden, or Diego Garcia. Churchill was no less a mass murderer than Hitler. But history is written by the winners. BTW, no.2 refers to emotional hurt, not physical. Checkout EFT or cnvc.org/

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
helpingheart
 [ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on June 8, 2008]
       
   
Savvy User
  Mercola

This post is SPAM.

-

It bashes other peoples religions with false info.
Mercola
  
Watchman55
 [ Joined on 10/07 ]  [ Posted on June 9, 2008]
2 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

9/11 was an inside job but the prospect of it being truth is so horrible that most people don't want to entertain it.  I have heard the phrase "ignorance is bliss" more times than I care to count - not just on that subject but also how our food supply has been poisoned.  If people think that the truth of 9/11 is too monstrous to accept, that is just the tip of the iceberg.  Examples of other horror stories: The Manhattan Project; drugs administered to our soldiers during Vietnam War.  How quickly we forget.