Call it procrastination or maybe even research, I’ve been spending a bit of time over the past week catching up on YouTube, RSA, TED Talks and general online initiatives connecting with my interests in peace, justice, environmental sustainability, technology and holistic worldviews.
Today I stumbled across the Charter for Compassion:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wktlwCPDd94[/youtube]
I remember author and scholar Karen Armstrong’s TED Talk, which won the 2008 TED Prize.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJMm4RAwVLo[/youtube]
Armstrong talks about how the Abrahamic religions — Islam, Judaism, Christianity — have been diverted from the moral purpose they share to foster compassion. But Armstrong has seen a yearning to change this fact. People want to be religious, she says; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help her build a Charter for Compassion — to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine.
The Charter activates “the Golden Rule” around the world.
Over the next few days as we celebrate Christmas and the summer or winter solstice with friends and family, it’s is a good time to reflect, sign and share the Charter for Compassion.
The text of 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.
SIGN AND SHARE THE CHARTER: http://charterforcompassion.org/sign-share-charter
How can we add compassion in our work places, in our homes, in our investments, in our engagement with media and politics, and other areas of our lives, and help move toward a more just and peaceful global community in 2014?
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