“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Book of Luke
I have been examining how my relationships are affecting my spiritual growth. This has led to view the Golden Rule from a different perspective. Usually I treat it as a guideline affecting my behavior. When I am aware of my actions, I use the rule to guide my interactions with others before I actually I say or do something. When I am distracted, the rule serves as a reminder after the fact that I need to improve how I am acting. When my priorities are really out of whack, I use the Golden Rule as a source of guilt that distracts me from achieving my goals.
What if I have gotten the Golden Rule backwards? Maybe the rule is not a guideline for my actions but a description of how I will naturally act when my relationship with God is strong. The significance of this shift is that my focus switches back towards my relationship with God and away from trying to satisfy external guidelines. It is almost as if I am a child removing training wheels from my bike so that I can go faster. I may fall occasionally but that is a small price to pay. This is not to say that the Golden Rule is not valid or valuable but that we must grow beyond using it as a crutch.
The trick for me was to realize that my relationship to God is not defined just by prayer time in a quiet setting or attending church on Sunday. I must consider every moment as a chance to improve my relationship with God. It is just as important that I am truly present to my neighbor whenever and wherever I encounter him or her. Being present means presenting ourselves as we truly are. It is only when our thoughts, feelings and actions are united that we can have our deepest relationships with others and consequently with God.
Golden Rule Examples
Christian
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12, King James Version.
Buddhism
Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” Udana-Varga 5:18
Hindu
This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you. Mahabharata 5:1517
Islam
“None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” Number 13 of Imam “Al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadiths.”
Native American
“All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.” Black Elk
For more examples of how the Golden Rule is expressed in different worldviews and religions access the following web site:
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Good point about focusing on your relationship with God.
When that is the focus, positive growth happens.
When that happens, everything else improves.
It’s the difference between the target and the fruit.
God is the target – everything else, including our relationships with others, is the fruit.
When we make the fruit the focus, it becomes the target.
And nothing is a better target than God.
Good point. It can be a fine line between enjoying the “fruits” of a job well done and making your job achieving those “fruits”.
It seems like a good idea to focus on our own behavior, as the Golden Rule reminds us to do, but let the underlying motivator for that be our spiritual connection. Our behavior naturally unfolds in a compassionate way when our connection to the Divine is sustaining us.
Do you think focusing on my relationship with God could become too selfish and as a result not translate into actions that follow the Golden Rule principles? In the short run I feel that it can be selfish, but maybe that improves over time once you have developed a strong relationship. ??