The Struggle Within

“The only devils in our world are those running around in our own hearts, and that’s where all our battles ought to be fought.” Mohandas Gandhi

To truly practice nonviolence, you have to learn to regard your enemies kindly. Gandhi knew that if he couldn’t hold those he was fighting in the spirit of ahimsa, then he was still holding violence in his own heart. In nonviolence, the only true victory is one in which you win the hearts of your opponents. “It is the acid test of nonviolence,” Gandhi said, “that in a nonviolent conflict there is no rancor left behind, and in the end the enemies are converted into friends.”

At Seeds of Peace, a camp in Maine, teenagers come from all over the world to live, play and work with other teens from opposite sides of wars and conflicts – literally, their enemies. In talk sessions, which often fall into shouting matches, the young people share their anger, their fear, their hatred. If they listen long enough, they come to see that those on the opposite side have many of the same experiences and feelings. Eventually, some discover that, as one camper put it, “We are not fighting each other; we are fighting the masks of the devil we have painted on each other’s faces.”

When the campers leave, they return to war zones, to communities full of fear and hatred. Nothing on the outside has changed. But inside, for many of the Seeds, everything has changed. And that is the hope they bring home with them, that they have learned to care about those who are called their enemies. This is not an easy thing to do. It’s the change that comes inside your own heart and mind. It may be the work of a lifetime.

“You cannot make peace with your enemy until you have gone to war with yourself.” Seeds of Peace camper