The Golden Rule

I am reading Karen Armstrong's "Twelve Steps to a More Compassionate Life".  I posted a quote from that book to Facebook:

Compassion is aptly summed up in the Golden Rule, which asks us to look into our own hearts, discover what gives us pain, and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else.

An excellent discussion ensued. The gist of the discussion was about the tactics of compassion.  The do-unto-others bit makes sense but is not a roadmap.  As Karen Armstrong says in her book, the first question is always, "What do I do next?"

Maybe I will gain some insight on this when I make it past the Introduction of the book.  However, this is how I understand the Golden Rule today.

I should fight to keep my enemies from experiencing what I know to be painful. This is very difficult for me. I fight. I am an American. I believe that this tradition of rugged individualism, of might makes right, of social Darwinism, does not build more than it destroys. So, at the very least, it is ineffective. I also believe this competitive tradition keeps of from defining our nirvana and instead frames our aspirations for us around ownership and self as an abstraction. There is no self outside of community. The act of thinking requires communication which, at the very least, requires a dialogue. Humanity can only be at its best as humanity. There are no heros. There is only us. 

Much love to every one.

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[Conches]

Another fascinating concept from this book has to do with man being created in the image of God. I always saw this as evidence of God's conceit (or man's conceit in his creation of god). However, a much more interesting interpretation is that if man is made in the image of God then disrespecting anyone is an affront to God, is equivalent to disrespecting God. And murder is sacrilege. We have come a long way from this ancient Rabbinic theology to a world where our religious leaders espouse divine justifications for preemptive strikes in war.