Author Archives: PK Willey

PK Willey, Ph.D., is an American, a Gandhian scholar, author and entrepreneur, who has delved deeply into Gandhi's Earth Ethics. Willey seeks to enhance philosophical discourse around the world where globalization has altered ethical values, particularly in the USA. Willey finds Gandhi's ideas, thoughts, and example, to be invaluable in this effort. Currently, besides numerous articles and book projects, Willey is developing a new framework for qualitative research that employs Earth Ethics, guided by a Gandhian compass and Weibust's Transformative Paradigm.
A transgender God?

Transgender or No Gender? The Indian Ethos

A friend of mine recently sent me this article on the honouring of transgender people in India.

I am grateful that Indian philosophy has progressed in the ways that it has. It leaves a lot of room, as well as a lot to think about, in that inner ever meshing, threshing dialogue that we all engage in, some more consciously than not.  I find that the deep honouring of the differences between the genders in India has allowed each to blossom in ways that are not threatened by the other.   Here in the US,  gender debate does not even begin to encompass the natural and wonderful differences that our Creator has endowed us with, but seems a reaction to the valuing of men and women by an economic system that has no use for positive feminine qualities, as they are known. Continue reading →

A standing bulb of dried garlic, the loosening sheaths of the cloves in clear relief

Surprise Harvest

This is a guest post by Jeanne Allie.

This afternoon, I was preparing the bed to plant my garlic. I plant my garlic in the late fall; in late winter or early spring, before the snow has even finished melting, we’ll see the little green spears thrusting themselves through the soil…the first green of the season. So, my fall garlic planting is truly a treat I plan ahead for myself, to welcome all of us into spring after the long dreary winter. Today, God had another kind of surprise in store for me Continue reading →

A clear view of the Woodstock Campus from afar

In the Heart, Valentines Day 2016

Reflecting on my memories and feelings for someone, I wanted to call ______ and say, “There is always a room in my heart for you.”

Not room in my heart. Not a space. But, an actual room, a place.

Is this what is meant by that idea, expressed by that beautiful idealist, “My Father’s mansion has so many rooms” ?

Reflecting further, I see that for everything, each and all that I have ever touched in open love, a room in my heart has been created.

How many rooms we each have in our heart!

They can be for places too.i

It was a few years ago when this line of thinking began surfacing softly in me. As a child I had spent a few years in the Himalayas.

Continue reading →

Calling Your Muse

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Green Mountains under rising Fog, VT, USA Gandhi’s Birthday, 2016

There are gentle thoughts that come

to each, during a day

To take us further,

make us broader,

deeper, maybe wiser,

on our way

These are mine, I post them here

To find my Loves, both far and near

And if such musings come to You

Do let me know, too.

 

Picture of Gandhi and Kasturba

Looking with Gandhi at Advancing Common Sense: the Necessity of Devotion, and the Role of Death

Individual liberty is allowed to man only to a certain extent. He cannot forget that he is a social being and his liberty has to be curtailed at every step. – Gandhi[i]

Common Sense, the Social Aspect of Conscience

Human civilization shares a great commonality of understanding that transcends religions, creeds, cultures, and politics: our common sense. To advance common sense is the socially functioning aspect of our conscience. Behind every exercise of common sense is a tie to conscience. The role of conscience in advancing common sense, is to seek the fulfillment of love from within us, for all life.

For example, corporate person-hood: common sense tells us that a business is not a human being, and does not deserve the rights of a human being. Furthermore, a real person is accountable for their actions. The anonymity of corporate person-hood means that no specific person(s) is responsible for corporate actions. Common sense sees no person who can take accountability. Conscience finds the role of business is to serve the welfare of society. Greed at the expense of other people’s welfare is hurtful for genuine harmony, peace, and the fulfillment of love. Continue reading →

An Open Letter to Arundhati Roy by an American (Clarifying Gandhi #s 3, 4, 5. & 6)

© P.K. Willey Ph.D.

Dear Arundhati Roy,

Greetings! I have been peripherally following your writings, interviews, and efforts since 2008, when first introduced to your 1999 essay, “For the Greater Common Good,” via the Narmada Bachao Andolan website. That was my first awareness of your brilliance as a writer, your wry sense of humour, your sheer, fearless pluck, your social daring, and your patently sincere good intentions. I am touched and inspired by your profound concern for India and for human justice.

In this essay, I saw also your view on Gandhi – frankly a school girl’s view. Following your activities, I now see that a misinformed view of his thought and action has led you to misrepresent Gandhi unfairly to the public around the planet. Continue reading →

Clarifying Gandhi #2: the Machine and the Village

One of the big areas of confusion about Gandhi, are his views on technology and machines, and how they relate to his ideals. This angle on Gandhi, like the food-chain, finds building-blocks with duty, varna (social ordering), trusteeship, his vows of non-possession and non-stealing, education, and much more. Indeed, to paraphrase one of our great American sages, John Muiri, it is difficult to pull out a single subject in Gandhi’s thought, without finding that it is hitched to everything else.

For Gandhi, his views on machines were guided by his certainty that:

“God of truth and justice can never create distinctions of high and low among His own children.”ii

At age 55, Gandhi returned to India in 1915, after nearly 27 years abroad in UK and South Africa. Industrialization had dawned heavily in the western nations, noisily processing the spoils of resources and labor from the colonies. His two community experiments in South Africa had shown him the value of communal living in pursuit of high ideals, bodily labor for the common good, simplicity, austerity, and a close relationship with Nature. Continue reading →