The Golden Rule – Engaging Peace

A plea for sanity and virtue, Part 2

Posted on May 1, 2019May 5, 2019 by kathiemm

by Stefan Schindler

Is the sun rising or setting on all of us?
Kathie MM

Part Two: Resurrecting the Wisdom and Spirit of Helen Keller, Dorothy Day, Molly Ivins, Martin Luther King, and Howard Zinn

In The United States of Amnesia, governed by Weapons of Mass Dysfunction, we daily witness America’s devolution into barbarism.

Therefore, it is better to swim against the current than to be swept over the cliff.

Collective Awakening is ever more necessary for the restoration of sanity and virtue in a republic apparently intent on self-destruction.

Insofar as the Republican Party is now wholly lost to the forces of sexism, racism, militarism, sophistry, empire, xenophobia, economic apartheid, ecological suicide, fear mongering, war making, science denial, and religious extremism – i.e., a polymorphous perversity of elephantiastical greed, bigotry and delusion, committed to the total overthrow of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal for the American people – and insofar as multi-party pluralism in a two-party system sold to the mega-wealthy is now and in the near future off the table, our best hope for a brighter future is for the Democratic Party to regain its heart and soul; both of which were lost at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, when it betrayed the Civil Rights and Peace Movements it was obliged to embody in the spirit of our assassinated hero, Robert F. Kennedy.

Karl Marx urged egalitarian economics, arguing that each person has a right to the material security which allows for self-realization and creative service, free from oppressive constraints. Buddha taught the same.

Which is why the Dalai Lama consistently teaches “a common religion of kindness,” committed to nuclear disarmament, global peace, ecological pragmatism, economic security for all, and lifelong free education in a planetary community where the institutions of society serve schools (and not, as at present, the other way around). What the Dalai Lama urges and teaches is nothing less than a Global Enlightenment Project.

Also, it might be worthwhile to remind people that if they have a Social Security card, they are a card carrying socialist.

There are today strong voices in Congress urging a restoration of sanity and virtue. They remain too few, and the forces arrayed against them are strong indeed; but those voices are a beacon of hope, and they deserve our support because they recognize the following:

People before profits = The Sermon on The Mount = The Golden Rule at the heart of The Torah = Heart Centered Rationality = Ahimsa = “Right Vocation” in Buddha’s 8-Fold Path = Covenant = universal health care = Ecosocialism.

Enlightenment and Social Hope, Part 1

Posted on April 6, 2018May 11, 2018 by kathiemm

Searching for Enlightenment by Kathie Malley-Morrison

By Stefan Schindler

In his 1784 essay on the nature of Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant declared: “Enlightenment is liberation from self-imposed immaturity.” He also noted that, if I may be so bold as to paraphrase, “We live in an age of enlightenment, but we do not yet live in an enlightened age.”

Kant’s observations ought to give us pause. They are worth pondering. They are as relevant today as they were in the late 18^th century. To reflect upon them with the seriousness they deserve, we might begin by noting that one hundred years later, another German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, said of the same Prussian country in which Kant wrote his revolutionary Critique of Pure Reason: “This nation has made itself stupid on purpose.”

Nietzsche’s observation applies to America today. So does the maxim by George Santayana: “Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” Let us then pause a moment to reflect upon the possibility – indeed, the necessity – of what Richard Oxenberg calls “heart-centered rationality.”

Heart-centered rationality is a way of referring to The Golden Rule, revived by Martin Buber in the Kantian-based ethics of his book I and Thou. Kant and Buber argue for the innate dignity of every person; a dignity worthy of respect. In order, then, to put an end to what the post-Kantian philosopher Hegel called “the slaughter-bench of history,” we need an ethical, educational, and cultural revolution; one in which cooperation has primacy over competition, and which embraces what the Dalai Lama calls “a common religion of kindness.”

Accordingly, we must recognize that our collective survival now depends upon a global commitment to what might best be called The Enlightenment Project. This, of course, returns us to Kant’s definition of enlightenment, which I will elaborate on in my next post, with reference to other major figures in the history of philosophy and the pursuit social justice.

Meanwhile, we might begin by noting that during America’s wars on Puerto Rico and the Philippines, Mark Twain declared: “America’s flag should be a skull-and-crossbones.” And when Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilization, he replied: “I think it would be a good idea.”

Co-founder of The National Registry for Conscientious Objection, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a recipient of The Boston Baha’i Peace Award, and a Trustee of The Life Experience School and Peace Abbey Foundation, Dr. Stefan Schindler received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston College, worked one summer in a nature preserve, lived in a Zen temple for a year, did the pilot’s voice in a claymation video of St. Exupery’s The Little Prince, acted in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” and performed as a musical poet in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York City. He also wrote The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Awards for Howard Zinn and John Lennon. He is now semi-retired and living in Salem, Massachusetts. His books include The Tao of Socrates, America’s Indochina Holocaust, Discoursing with the Gods, and Space is Grace; his forthcoming book is Buddha’s Political Philosophy.

The Dalai Lama vs. The New World Disorder

Posted on January 30, 2017January 29, 2017 by kathiemm

by Stefan Schindler

There is now clearly a battle for the soul of civilization. Civility is losing, but there is still hope. The battle might be titled: “The Dalai Lama versus The New World Disorder.”

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14^th Dalai Lama – spiritual leader of Tibet, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize – is the most famous person on the planet. Not since Muhammad Ali has a single individual been so recognized and admired on every continent as a global voice for sanity, equality, and peace.

The Dali Lama offers the world “a common religion of kindness.” His offer is urgent because our survival depends on awakening from – in James Joyce’s all too apt depiction – “the nightmare of history.” The Dalai Lama reminds us that Martin Luther King was right: “Wealth, poverty, racism, and war – these four always go together.” That means so does their solution. Meanwhile, religion is all too often used as a shibboleth upon which to hang justifications for violence.

So, as the world becomes just too absurd, more people realize: It is better to swim against the current than to be swept over a cliff. The Dalai Lama represents a Renaissance of The Renaissance. A reawakening to life’s enchanting beauty, with peace as the only sure foundation for creative evolution.

The word Buddha means “awake.” Tenzin Gyatso is awake to Buddhist common sense. Enlightened self-interest is taking care of each other and the planet.

Compassion is the path to wisdom, and the fruit of wisdom.

Wisdom and compassion – the “two wings” of Buddhism – find expression in Buckminster Fuller’s observation: “There are no passengers on spaceship earth; we are all members of the crew.” Hence Martin Luther King again: “We must choose between non-violence and non-existence.”

How is it that Tenzin Gyatso, one of the world’s most broken-hearted individuals, is also one of the world’s most equanimitous and cheerful? The answer is partly that Buddhism always involves paradox, and partly that “awakening” is rooted in love-wisdom as the “strong force” of the universe.

Tibetan sage Chogyam Trungpa said: “Buddhism is all about recollecting the sanity we were born with.” That sanity is the jewel in the lotus at the heart of every human; it rings the bell of truth; and it sings with joy and creativity.

The battle for the soul of civilization appears to be reaching a breaking point. Those in control of The New World Disorder – the super-rich, directing the levers of power – consolidate their wealth with armed force. Economic apartheid is the world’s great divide. Modern industrial culture – profit-driven business as usual – cannot survive the strain.

Mike Marqusee, author of astute biographies of Muhammad Ali and Bob Dylan, was prescient: “The battles of the Sixties may someday come to seem merely a skirmish in a war whose real dimensions we have yet to comprehend.”

Must the absurdity of modernity be nothing more than a tragic opera ending in a sea of blood? No, says a global mind change at work, demanding sanity and reform.

The Dalai Lama is a symbol for a great awakening. His message embodies the heart of the Torah; a social gospel of The Golden Rule.

Exiled by Chinese conquistadores from his native Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso offers the world a timely version of Buddha’s political philosophy. That philosophy has edifying overlaps with Socrates, Taoism, Thomas Merton, and social democracy. Worth investigating, don’t you think?

When religions get it right: The Golden Rule

Posted on October 27, 2016 by kathiemm

An Illustration of the Golden Rule by Norman Rockwell used as the cover of the April 1, 1961 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. In the public domain.

by Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D.

The aspirations for peace and justice are as old as written human history, but the behaviors are not commensurate.

Tragically, the Golden Rule is easily dismissed and disregarded when importuned to pursue selfish aims.

If treated as arbitrary, the Golden Rule becomes a deceptive Sunday, Saturday, or Friday night comfort and parody.

Can you hear the plea: “If only they would follow what they preach!” Who preaches, who follows, who lives, who dies, who …….?

Religion at its best promotes the Golden Rule. See the message here, in 11 different religions.

“If you seek justice, choose for others what you would choose for yourself.” (Baha’i)

“One should seek for others the happiness one derives for one’s self.” (Buddhism)

“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” (Christianity)

“What you do not want done to yourself, do not unto others.” (Confucianism)

“Do naught to others which if done to thee would cause pain.” (Hinduism)

“No one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” (Islam)

“We should . . . refrain from inflicting upon others such injury as would appear undesirable to us if inflicted upon ourselves.” (Jainism)

“What is hurtful to yourself, do not do to our fellow man.” (Judaism)

“As thou deemest thyself, so deem others.” (Sikkhism)

“To those who are good to me, I am also good; and to those who are not good to me, I am also good. And thus all get to be good.” (Taoism)

“Do as you would be done by.” (Zoroastrianism)

(Anthony j. Marsella – Adapted and Expanded from Steven Blessman)

Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., a member of the TRANSCEND Network, is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Emeritus Professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii’s Manoa Campus in Honolulu, Hawaii, and past director of the World Health Organization Psychiatric Research Center in Honolulu. He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry. In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 21 books and more than 300 publications noted for challenging the ethnocentricity and biases of Western psychology and psychiatry, and for advocating peace and social justice. He can be reached at marsella@hawaii.edu.