by Julius-Kei Kato, SSL, PhD
[1] Personal Context | I teach biblical and religious studies at King’s University College, a liberal arts college that is part of a public university in Ontario Canada. Among the courses I regularly teach is an advanced seminar on religious pluralism. One of our goals in that course is learning to work together for the common good in order to shape a brighter future despite being members of different religious communities or not at all.
[2]
Strategies for Finding Common Ground | To that end, at a certain point in the
course, I introduce students to some possible strategies for ‘finding common
ground among religions’ in our current societies (especially in the West) which
are characterized by diversity, pluralism, and secularism. The last time I
taught the course (Fall of 2023), these were the four strategies that I
introduced to my students: (1) the
Perennial Philosophy (By this I mean: developing a spirituality that might lead
to finding commonality even among people who have different religious/faith
traditions); (2) The Global Ethic promoted by the Parliament of the World’s
Religions; (3) The Charter for Compassion advocated by well-known historian
of religions and prolific author, Karen Armstrong; and (4) The Principles
for Dialogue formulated by prominent Catholic ecumenist Prof. Leonard Swidler
of Temple University (Philadelphia).
All four, I’m convinced, are excellent strategies for finding common ground among different spiritual-wisdom traditions but here I would like to focus my reflections on the third strategy, namely, the value and force of compassion, expressed in a declaration called “The Charter for Compassion” formulated by historian of religion Karen Armstrong. This so-called Charter for Compassion is in turn fundamentally based on the Golden Rule which, as you know well, is found at the heart of, and advocated by practically all world religions. I will also add this important observation: the effort to deepen this spirituality (of compassion) in individuals and communities is not only a narcissistic, selfish self-development program but is connected deeply with the advancement of the common good in society because it involves a deeper awareness that we are truly all interconnected with each other. That will hopefully lead to concrete practices and strategies for ‘working together for a brighter future’. I would also like to suggest that the value and practice of compassion should be given more priority in all the groups that are included in the category “civil society”.
[3]
Compassion and The Golden Rule | There is a TED talk given by
Armstrong entitled “Let’s revive the Golden Rule.” It is an excellent piece, and
my reflections here will follow closely what she says in that manifesto-lecture
on compassion, its relation to the Golden Rule, and how compassion can be made
a force for the common good in society and how it can help people from different
backgrounds and traditions to work for a brighter future.
[see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhHJ4DRZNZM ]
It
is very clear that compassion has a central place in all the major
spiritual-wisdom traditions of the world. (“Spiritual-wisdom traditions” is how
I often call the various religions of the world.) If you dig into these
spiritual-wisdom traditions, you will surely meet with a version of what is
called “The Golden Rule,” formulated either in a positive or negative phrasing.
For
example, the words of Jesus expressing the Golden Rule found in the Gospel of Matthew
(7:12) is an example of a positive formulation: “Do unto others what you
want them to do unto you.” While the version that the Chinese sage Confucius
(credited by some as the first who formulated the Golden Rule) is usually put
in the negative form: “Do not do to others what you would not like
them to do to you.”
[a
quote from Karen Armstrong’s work] Confucius was the first, as far as we
know, to enunciate the Golden Rule. This was some five hundred years before
Christ. His disciples asked Confucius, “Master, which of your teachings can we
put into practice all day and every day? What is the central thread that runs
through all your teachings?” And Confucius said tsu [shu 恕],
“likening to the self.” You look into your own heart, discover what gives you
pain, and then refuse under any circumstances to inflict that pain on anybody
else. Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you. Confucius
believed that if we did that consistently—all day, every day—then we would
gradually leave ourselves behind, because compassion requires you to dethrone
yourself from the center of your world and to put another there. [See: https://www.lionsroar.com/the-golden-rule/]
I’d
like to emphasize by way of commentary what Confucius seemed to be explaining.
It seems, he was trying to communicate the following: Look into your heart;
find out what gives you pain; then resolve under any circumstance not to
inflict that pain to others. Moreover, Confucius taught that this has to be
done “all day and every day!” And not just, say, once a day, in order to
fulfill what is sometimes called “our good deed of the day.”
