What’s your golden rule, your guiding principle on how you treat yourself and others? How do you find your true North amidst life’s chaos? How do you stay true to yourself? The other day while I was scrolling through Pinterest for inspiration, I came across a picture of a card titled ‘the golden rule’.
I’ve always maintained that there is one God, one power, one energy, one everlasting, one creator/maker. I’ve always argued that the message is the same whatever religion one might adhere to, with the exception of Christianity claiming to be the only way, a proclamation I find problematic in its many facets but choose not to grapple with as I confess that my mind cannot comprehend how the God that made the universe operates.
But finding this card gave me some assurance in my belief that God’s intention or directive as one might have it, has always been universal and all encompassing -that we are our brothers’ keepers. I’ve never swayed from this belief, that when we take care of each other, we heal as a society, we bond as a community, we advance as a nation, and we thrive as the human race. Below I share the typology on the card.
The Golden Rule
- Buddhism: hurt not others with that which pains yourself
- Christianity: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
- Hinduism: Treat others as you would yourself be treated
- Islam: Do unto all men as you would wish to have done unto you
- Judaism: What you yourself hate, do to no man
We see that each of the main five religions in the world have a verse expressing the same sentiment in their distinctive sacred writings. Native Americans’ golden rule is to ‘live in harmony, for we are all related’. The Sacred Earth’s text reads, ‘Do as you will, as long as you harm no one’.
We hem and haw about religion, about God, about what he wants, about our differences, yet God spells it clearly in the hearts of men what he wants of us -to care for each other as we’d want to be cared for ourselves. ‘Love your brother as you love yourself’, his word proclaims in the same text from the Christian Bible.
This Christmas season is a chance to assimilate this notion and practice this idea that we each are our brothers’ keepers. It’s the season for giving and receiving. So let’s give. Let’s give the benefit of the doubt to other religions, to our brothers, even to ourselves. Let’s walk softly, kindly and lovingly. Let’s embrace the true spirit of Christmas as the season unfolds. Cheers, Grey ღ