The Golden Rule… backwards
“Nothing sounds as good to the soul as truth.” - Martha Beck, Harvard trained sociologist, author, and life coach.
In downtown Chicago, The Parliament of the World’s Religions has a small office above The Billy Goat Tavern*.
*not the original Billy Goat Tavern, the one near Millennium Park.
Every few years, they host a gathering to promote global dialogue of faiths. The first meetings coincided with The Chicago World Fair of 1893, and people came. And they dialogued. And The Parliament of the World’s Religions is still around today, over 125 years later.
The 1993 Parliament was their 100th anniversary, and they met at Palmer House in Chicago. The Dalai Lama spoke. So did the American Catholic Cardinal Joseph Bernadin. Attendees included Jains, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, American Indians, Muslims, Unitarians, Baha'is, Spiritualists, and Christians.
The fruit of the 1993 Parliament was a document called Towards a Global Ethic, drafted and endorsed by over 200 faith leaders representing 40 world religions. It’s a statement of basic ethical commitments shared by all of humanity, religious or not.
Two fundamental ethical demands anchor the document, and one of them is The Golden Rule.
What you wish done to yourself, do to others.
It’s a pretty good rule. A principle almost universally embraced by religions and ethical frameworks for thousands of years.
Martha Beck is an American author and sociologist. She went to Harvard three times. For her BA, MA, and her PhD. And she’s best known as Oprah’s life coach.
Beck likes the Golden Rule. She says it’s a good start, but we also need to flip it.
Elur Nedlog
The Golden Rule backwards is…
Don’t do unto yourself anything you wouldn’t do unto someone else.
Reflect, but don’t beat yourself up. Sacrifice, but don’t make yourself miserable. And don’t let others take advantage of you in the name of being kind or agreeable.
We should try to be on good terms with everyone. But not by compromising our principles. Our integrity.
Have enemies? Good. That means we’ve stood up for something.
Elur Nedlog.
