Clear Vision
“Look to
your own heart, discover what it is that gives you pain and then
refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on
anybody else.”
Karen
Armstrong
The golden rule made
plain. In thinking about what gives me most pain, I believe it is seeing
children caught up in a web of violence that they cannot escape, and
did not create. Whether they reside in our own country, or in some
foreign land, my heart hurts when I see the mistreatment of children.
I'll bet yours does, too.
Karen Armstrong has said,
“Here in America, religious people often prefer to be right rather
than compassionate. They've lost the Axial Age vision of concern for
everybody.” That seems especially true at the moment, with our
“America First” president shutting us in with walls and tearing
down bridges to our open hearts. He, at least, has little concern for
the pain he may be causing others. This chest thumping not only is
not supported by our religious values, but is also grossly damaging
to our political power and standing in the world. No one likes a
bully.
Karl Jaspers described
the Axial Age as one that produced great spiritual thinkers such as
Confucius, Lao Tzu, Buddha, the writers of the Upanishads, the Jewish
prophets and Jesus. It was a pivotal age, “an interregnum between
two ages of great empire, a pause for liberty, a deep breath bringing
the most lucid consciousness.” The current backward gazing, with
its attitude of powering over others, and squashing dissent, is the
opposite of such an age.
Here is my prayer: that
people of true conviction will oppose going backward on any grounds
whatsoever. We have worked too hard and come too far in our faith,
compassion and consciousness to sacrifice it to a temporary tyrant.
Let us move ahead with steady resolve, keeping open hearts and clear
vision.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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