For my weekly writing spot on this site, see the One-Minute Mystic, with a new meditation posted every Monday. Also see The Village, the story of Misty Longings, England's most beautiful village, posted episode by episode earlier this year.       "Violence is against human nature," said the Dalai Lama, as violence escalates in Tibet. The Chinese government say there is much evidence that "the Dalai clique" is organising everything. True? In many ways, the Dalai Lama is an unlikely source of terror. As the Tibetan spiritual leader – in exile since the bloody uprisings of 1959 – he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1989 for his consistent opposition to the use of violence, and has repeatedly called for dialogue with China: "We should not develop anti-Chinese feelings. We must live together side by side." Having said that, there is a rage within him: "Whether intentionally or otherwise," he observes, "some kind of cultural genocide is taking place." And for Tibetans everywhere, feeling the same rage, the Olympics haven't so much lit the torch, as lit the fuse. So can the spiritual mix with the political? Gandhi was in a similar position to the Dalai Lama – furious about the political conditions, but only really convinced by spiritual answers. Both in South Africa and India, Ghandi called for satyagraha – "truth force", which was the name he gave to non-violent resistance. He was interested in power, only if it was power gained in the right manner: "A thing acquired by violence can be retained by violence alone." To this end, Gandhi angered his own Hindu community, quite as much as he angered the British. He was much taken with the thoughts of Tolstoy, for instance, and they corresponded briefly. Outrageously, the ageing novelist-turned-spiritual-visionary blamed the Indians for their own political enslavement – spineless slaves to their own inner violence, in his opinion. When their inward desires were cleansed, and they knew only love, then they would be fearless indeed, slaves to no one, unconquerable, ungovernable – and yes, worthy of self-rule. Gandhi asked permission to make a tract from his words, and Tolstoy agreed. It was a spiritual solution to a political situation, and an approach Gandhi advocated world wide. England, for instance, should allow Hitler in, and take the consequences freely and joyfully. You may be killed – but don't worry: the truth lives on! And in South Africa, where he cut his protest teeth, he'd seen it work: "You desire victory by self-suffering alone," said a South African official to Gandhi during one of his many imprisonments there. "And that is what reduces us to sheer helplessness." Because Gandhi required all political activists first to become spiritual masters, he spent much of his life disappointed by outcomes; the former state is rather easier to acquire than the latter. He did not celebrate when India conquered the British Empire – for they had not conquered them selves. Gandhi was a spiritual genius and a political misfit; a shining star but in a parallel universe. Whether the Dalai Lama will fare better, time will tell. Violence may be against human nature – but its how most of us do business. More writings © Simon Parke