A Meditation on the Golden Rule | James Ford – Patheos

Im currently reflecting on the nature of the spiritual life. This pushes me into a consideration of whether there is a common thread to religions, or whether its a bunch of wildly different religions, each contending to be the only true

The smart money seems to be that its all chaos.

But, I dont think so. For several reasons. One is the Golden Rule.

Now, most, maybe none consider it their primary teaching. But they all have it, near as I can tell. And they all consider it pretty important.

Most of us here in English speaking North America know in its formulation in the Gospel of Luke, in the King James version, as do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The golden rule goes way back and, as Ive observed, it is found all around. As far as written records go some see it as far back as two thousand years before the common era in the Egyptian story the Eloquent Peasant. Reading that story, frankly, I find that a stretch. The Odyssey, which might trace as far back as seven hundred years before the common era, has the goddess Calypso tell Odysseus shell be as careful for him as for herself, because she knows what is right and fair. Among the pre-Socratic philosophers of Greece both Thales and Pittacus of Mytilene, call us to not do that which we would not have done to us. And, while the rule isnt particularly obvious in Socrates, Plato or Aristotle (although I thank them deeply for that other bit of gold, the Golden Mean), the current continues to pop up among the Greeks here and there.

The Hebrew scriptures with strata that approach the Eloquent Peasants composition although as we understand the text more likely written closer to four or five hundred years before the common era in Exodus we are admonished to not oppress the foreigner, and in Leviticus to straight out love your neighbor as yourself. It is found in the hadith, the recorded sayings of the prophet Mohammed, and throughout muslim and particularly Sufi literature.We can find the Golden Rule in the Dhamapada, a collection of sayings attributed to Gautama Siddhartha, the Buddha of history. Confucius, from about the same period, tells us in his Analects not to do to others, what you would not want them to do to you. And the list just goes on and on. There are Muslim, Jewish, and Christian version, there are Hindu, Jain, and Buddhism versions, there is a Zoroastrian version. The gold rule abides among them all.

Even in our more secular era, we see it continue to be presented. For instance, some see a philosophical variation in Immanuel Kants categorical imperative, Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law. And for me, even more intriguing, Charles Darwin, writing in the Descent of Man opines that the social instincts the prime principle of mans moral condition with the aid of active intellectual powers and the effects of habit, naturally lead to the golden rule. As ye would that men should do to you, do ye to them likewise, and this lies at the foundation of morality.

And it may be even reflect natural patterning. Donald Pfaff, author of the Neuroscience of Fair Play: Why We (Usually) Follow the Golden Rule, tells how he read a paper by William Hamilton and Robert Axelrod showing that they could teach computers to behave in a according to what you could call reciprocal altruism, a fair-play principle.

Im moderately confident that the intuition that gives us the Golden Rule, and incidentally the Golden Mean, are built in, about as close to the hard wiring of our humanity as it gets. I am pretty sure it has something to do with our being mamas and herd animals. Although there is more to it, as the fact a computer can find a fair-play principle, suggests. Cooperation is critical to our survival.

All rather wonderful.

And, yes, shall we say, of course theres a fly in the ointment. This sense of fair does indeed seem to be built into our human consciousness. Generally we dont need an admonishment for something we all do. And, at about an equal level of strength so is a predilection to cheat, to advance ourselves over others. Human beings constantly are doing things that hurt others.

And, of course, we need that sense of self and that impulse for survival and advancement. Both of these goods, taken to extremes become destructive. Although, frankly, while absolutely see people who miss that the care for one another also means themselves, the excess that is more common, and dangerous in many directions is the preservation of ones self at all costs.

So, of course, the reality is we human beings live within a tension between these poles of our hearts.

And I suspect we may be looking at the deep structures of something else common among religions here. That is the problem of evil. Here we see something else common among the religions, a condemnation of the strong preying upon the weak.

While there have always been a handful of people who value selfishness, Im looking at you Ayn Rand, these have always been outliers. The overwhelming majority of human beings and our religions rest upon a foundation of cooperation, of looking out for ones neighbors, of treating the other as we would treat ourselves.

Even as we have an urge to cheat. This conflict between selfishness and altruism seems to endure within the human heart. In some religions it becomes a cosmic war. And while in most good eventually prevails, I can think of at least one example where the forces of chaos eventually wins. The tension runs deep.

A common thread for us all

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A Meditation on the Golden Rule | James Ford - Patheos