Filed under: Acceptance, Beliefs, Compassion, Good Reads | Tags: Appreciation, Compassion, Karen Armstrong
The books and lectures by Karen Armstrong have consistently opened my mind to astonishing truths about the history of religion and all variety of sacred texts. I admire her a great deal. She left her convent after seven years and knows what it is like to doubt your religion and be at loose ends, starting life over. (She writes about that experience in her memoir, The Spiral Staircase.)
After leaving Catholicism, she didn’t want anything to do with God or religion. But life had other plans and she is now a highly regarded author, lecturer and religious scholar.
Her meticulous comparative study of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam reveals that compassion was at the root of all of these religions. At their beginning each of these faiths organized themselves around the principal of the Golden Rule and the ‘ability to feel with the other.’ The larger purpose of these religions, she says, “was to teach us to dethrone the ego (i.e. remove yourself from the center of your universe) over and over again and place another there.” It is through this practice that faith comes alive and we are able to access the Divine. Buddha said “Compassion brings you to Nirvana.”
Clearly, the original intent of these major religions has been hijacked. Those of us who have been shunned by our families and religions have personal experience with the twisted interpretation of the compassionate counsel “do not judge.”
I agree with Karen’s observation that “any religion or ideology that does not promote a sense of global understanding and global appreciation is failing the test of our time.”
Appreciation goes beyond social or religious tolerance and allows us to transform polarizing ideologies through an increased awareness of our inter-connectedness. I am you and you are me. (You will know your faith is alive if you can even feel appreciation and compassion for those who shun you. And if you can’t quite feel that yet, just wanting to in the future is a good start.)
Last year Karen Armstrong was awarded the prestigious TED Prize (www.tedprize.org) to create, launch and propagate an international Charter for Compassion, which came out of her heart’s desire to do something about our dangerously polarized world. The Charter is a cooperative effort to restore not only compassionate thinking but also compassionate action to the center of our lives.
Over a period of six weeks, 150,000 ordinary people from 180 countries went online and suggested wording for the Charter, contributing their stories of appreciation and tolerance. Then those stories were collected and reviewed by a group of 18 influential religious figures from many faiths (people like Desmund Tutu, Rabbi David Saperstein, and Bishop John Chane).
Beginning with the next paragraph of this post you can read the full Charter, unveiled this month, and if you find it inspiring, follow the link and add your name to the long and growing list of those who affirm it. You can also read over one hundred uplifting stories and contribute your own acts and experiences of compassion. We can learn from each other. Together we are better. There has never been a more important time to energetically align around the act of compassion.
The Charter for Compassion
“The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”
“It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others – even our enemies – is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.”
“We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings, even those regarded as enemies.”
“We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.”
Learn more about the Charter at: http://charterforcompassion.org/
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