Whakaaro: “What the world needs now is love…”
Never more so than now. What we really need is compassion.
“Compassion?” Literally, “to suffer with.”
Some of the leaders of the world’s major religions and philosophies came together a few years ago and came up with something that I believe could be hopeful for our human race. Could be. If enough of us care and really want to work at making our world a better place, a safer place for our children and our grandchildren.
These leaders agreed that the “Golden Rule” is found in one form or another in all the world’s major religions. It is found in Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, to name but a few. The Golden Rule: “Treat other people as you would like them to treat you” is one way of expressing it.
So, these leaders came up with something hopeful: The Charter for Compassion.
I was telling Neil Wilson about this on Tuesday morning, 22 February. He told me to go home and start writing 600 words for The GB Weekly. Then, just after I had begun typing on that fateful Tuesday, the news came through of Christchurch’s devastating earthquake.
Throughout New Zealand and, within seconds, throughout the world, there came messages of sympathy. And hard on the heels of shock and sympathy there came offers to help. Immediately we were seeing that compassion lies within the hearts of many, even of most people.
Hopefully, in the weeks and months ahead, we will see the relevance of this charter.
“Not simply a statement of principle, the charter is above all a summons to creative, practical and sustained action to meet the political, moral, religious, social and cultural problems of our time.”
Karen Armstrong is one of the charter’s chief architects (look her up). She has written a challenging book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. This title tells us that the task ahead of us is very challenging.
I cannot overemphasise the importance of this document. May it prove to be effective. May it come to stand alongside the Magna Carta, the US Bill of Rights, the abolition of slavery, the Women’s Suffrage Movement, the US Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that followed the abolition of apartheid in South Africa, and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights as history-changing movements of the human spirit that can motivate us to act heroically and compassionately for justice, truth and peace.
Such movements of the human spirit as these have always met tough resistance: the psychological resistance to change. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Elizabeth Fry, Jesus of Nazareth and many more great leaders suffered death and imprisonment. They challenged especially the rich and powerful. Throughout the Middle East we are seeing a resurgence of peoples’ struggles against oppression.
But the Charter for Compassion is urging us as people, as nations, as members of the human race, to think and act compassionately in every situation. To think and act compassionately in our relations with every single human being irrespective of race, nationality, every child, every woman, every man. It is a great and difficult challenge.
Are we up for it?
In the meantime there’s stuff on You Tube to help us understand some of the background to the Charter. The Google thing has plenty, too. (Almost unbelievably I also found a conservative Christian (?) link attacking the Charter!)
This is the website address: www.charterforcompassion.org
Charles Naylor
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 polarised 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 indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.
Names of people affirming the Charter: June Baker, Albie & Fil Burgers, Sheila Climpson, Wendy Croft, Peter Creevey, Sue Janke, Helen Kingston, John Lee, Jenny Maclaren, Charles Naylor, Angela Pack, John Pemberton, Pam Pruden, Judith Richards, Moira Tilling, Jocelyn Tracey, Tonie Watts, John Weston, Neil Wilson.
