The Golden Rule

I, Robot

I like to think of all this as though we are all fingers, but can only perceive that. How ridiculous that one fingure should argue with or steal from another!! With illumination the fingers suddenly "see" that they are actually just different parts of a hand.
V

Fascinating that you should say that, V.

I remember reading that analogy almost 50 years ago now, in the story called "Catch that Rabbit" in I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.

<a class="go2wpf-bbcode" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_that_Rabbit "> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_that_Rabbit

My all-time favourite book that; just to think that Isaac wrote it when he was just 24 years old, a recent emigre from Russia, struggling to find the funds complete his University studies.

<a class="go2wpf-bbcode" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov "> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov

He didn't know it, I believe. But he has illustrated the core of Sanatana Dharma like no other writer I have read.

Regards.

Prashna

Hi,

I hadn't had time before to get back to this, but I love your comments below P & V:

Originally Posted by Prashna

There is no "other".

There is only one....

Therefore, it is impossible in Sanatana Dharma to do unto "others"!

I understood this well as I'm sure all of us did from Prashna:

...this is really the underpinning and rationale behind the Golden Rule. If the above were not true, we needn't necessarily "do unto others as ... " for as different beings, perhaps we are better than them, and deserve more?

This of course is part of the 'human condition', that we (and especially the non-spiritual) can indeed feel separate, so it's the basis of all thieving, crime, anger, war, etc. And that's why the Golden Rule is important: is reaches people where just about everyone is.

Prashna's "There is no other" reminds me of when I was at a meeting for young Christian Scientists and thought I had some free time following a talk but as I was leaving someone said to me "The discussion group you are leading Judy, is in room 1" Panic! Somehow someone had forgotten to tell me and I always want to prepare for such things.

As I was rushing back to my room to grab my books and laptop, I passed a saintly lady who was our resident healer. I told her what had happened and that I wasn't prepared and she asked "What is the topic dear?" "How to explain Christian Science to others." She smiled. "Are there others?" and the discussion was the best ever!

But I digress. Venetian's words are so true too, that "there is no other" is "really the underpinning and rationale behind the Golden Rule." We are all also agreed that love also underpins the Golden Rule and that in turn reminds me of the beginning of the wonderful little book on Paul's words on love in I Corinthians 13, written by Henry Drummond in 1874, titled The Greatest Thing in the World

EVERY one has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the modern world: What is the summum bonum--the supreme good? You have life before you. Once only you can live it. What is the noblest object of desire, the supreme gift to covet?

We have been accustomed to be told that the greatest thing in the religious world is Faith. That great word has been the key-note for centuries of the popular religion; and we have easily learned to look upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong. If we have been told that, we may miss the mark. I have taken you, in the chapter which I have just read, to Christianity at its source; and there we have seen, "The greatest of these is love." It is not an oversight. Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says, "If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. "So far from forgetting, he deliberately contrasts them, "Now abideth Faith, Hope, Love," and without a moment's hesitation, the decision falls, "The greatest of these is Love."

And it is not prejudice. A man is apt to recommend to others his own strong point. Love was not Paul's strong point. The observing student can detect a beautiful tenderness growing and ripening all through his character as Paul gets old; but the hand that wrote, "The greatest of these is love," when we meet it first, is stained with blood.

Nor is this letter to the Corinthians peculiar in singling out love as the summum bonum. The masterpieces of Christianity are agreed about it. Peter says, "Above all things have fervent love among yourselves." Above all things. And John goes farther, "God is love." And you remember the profound remark which Paul makes elsewhere, "Love is the fulfilling of the law." Did you ever think what he meant by that? In those days men were working their passage to Heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they had manufactured out of them. Christ said, I will show you a more simple way. If you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten things, without ever thinking about them. If you love, you will unconsciously fulfil the whole law. And you can readily see for yourselves how that must be so. Take any of the commandments. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." If a man love God, you will not require to tell him that. Love is the fulfilling of that law. "Take not His name in vain." Would he ever dream of taking His name in vain if he loved Him? "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Would he not be too glad to have one day in seven to dedicate more exclusively to the object of his affection? Love would fulfil all these laws regarding God. And so, if he loved Man, you would never think of telling him to honour his father and mother. He could not do anything else. It would be preposterous to tell him not to kill. You could only insult him if you suggested that he should not steal -.how could he steal from those he loved? It would be superfluous to beg him not to bear false witness against his neighbour. If he loved him it would be the last thing he would do. And you would never dream of urging him not to covet what his neighbours had. He would rather they possessed it than himself. In this way "Love is the fulfilling of the law." It is the rule for fulfilling all rules, the new commandment for keeping all the old commandments....

Love and peace,

Judy

Hi Judy,

That's great. Thanks for posting it. I've a very minor technical point of interest to make, and that's all it is. 🙂 It seems that the wonderful letter of Paul in which he makes that simply poetic and famous 'speech' about Faith, Hope, and Charity (Love), and concluding that Love is "the greatest" was in fact Paul copying from a manuscript he had. The words were apparently Christ's own.

We all know that many great gospels were not included in the Bible (along with more questionable ones of course). Possibly the greatest gospel to me that's not in the Bible is the one translated by Edmond Szekely. Published usually as "The Gospel of Peace of Jesus Christ". It's actually more about healing than anything, but in it Christ himself speaks those very words, and just slightly even more poetically than the version St. Paul must have had by his side. It's a superb gospel I recomend to anyone, and has sold I think by the millions.

In my copy, from the opening of the gospel until my page 26, Jesus makes a simply huge speach (compared to the length of those in the Bible), and just a portion of this is word-for-word what Paul quotes:

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal...." (Etc.) It's well-worth reading the bit Paul quotes in the context of what comes before it and after it. It's a cosmological 'treatise' by Christ on healing.

This gospel is accepted by almost all scholars as authentic, and was written down in Aramaic. So how wonderful - Paul's words are in fact those of Christ, and Paul must have had "The Gospel of Peace" with him.

V

I just realised that most things are online these days. I found The Gospel of Peace so here's a portion. It's all at:

I didn't BTW recall that the writing down of this gospel is attributed to St. John:

---------

FOR YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER IS LOVE.
FOR YOUR EARTHLY MOTHER IS LOVE.
FOR THE SON OF MAN IS LOVE.

"It is by love, that the Heavenly Father and the Earthly Mother and the Son of Man become one. For the spirit of the Son of Man was created from the spirit of the Heaven Father, and his body from the body of the Earthly Mother. Become, therefore, perfect as the spirit of your Heavenly Father and the body of your Earthly Mother are perfect. And so love your Heavenly Father, as he loves your spirit. And so love your Earthly Mother, as she loves your body. And so love your true brothers, as your Heavenly Father and your Earthly Mother love them. And then your Heavenly Father shall give you his holy spirit, and your Earthly Mother shall give you her holy body. And then shall the Sons of Men like true brothers give love one to another, the love which they received from their Heavenly Father and from their Earthly Mother; and they shall all become comforters one of another. And then shall disappear from the earth all evil and all sorrow, and there shall be love and joy upon earth. And th en shall the earth be like the heavens, and the kingdom of God shall come. And then shall come the Son of Man in all his glory, to inherit the kingdom of God. And then shall the Sons of Men divide their divine inheritance, the kingdom of God. For the Sons of Men live in the Heavenly Father and in the Earthly Mother, and the Heavenly Father and the Earthly Mother live in them. And then with the kingdom of God shall come the end of the times. For the Heavenly Father's love gives to all life everlasting in the kingdom of God. For love is eternal. Love is stronger than death.

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Though I tell what is to come, and know all secrets, and all wisdom; and though I have faith strong as the storm which lifts mountains from their seat, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and give all my fire that I have received from my Father, but have not love, I am in no wise profited. Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not envious, works not evil, knows not pride; is not rude, neither selfish; is slow to anger, imagines no mischief; rejoices not in injustice, but delights in justice. Love defends all, love believes all, love hopes all, love bears all; never exhausts itself; but as for tongues they shall cease, and, as for knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we have truth in part, and error in part, but when the fullness of perfection is come, that which is in part shall be blotted out. When a man was a child he spoke as a child, understood as a child, thought as a child; but when he became a man he put away childish things. For now we see through a glass and through dark sayings. Now we know in part, but when we are come before the face of God, we shall not know in part, but even as we are taught by him. And now remain these three: faith and hope and love; but the greatest of these is love.
"And now I speak to you in the living tongue of the living God, through the holy spirit of our Heavenly Father. There is none yet among you that can understand all this of which I speak. He who expounds to you the scriptures speaks to you in a dead tongue of dead men, through his diseased and mortal body. Him, therefore, can all men understand, for all men are diseased and all are in death. No one sees the light of life. Blind man leads blind on the dark paths of sins, diseases and sufferings; and at the last all fall into the pit of death.

"I am sent to you by the Father, that I may make the light of life to shine before you. The light lightens itself and the darkness, but the darkness knows only itself, and knows not the light. I have still many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them yet. For your eyes are used to the darkness, and the full light of the Heavenly Father would make you blind. Therefore, you cannot yet understand that which I speak to you concerning the Heavenly Father who sent me to you. Follow, therefore, first, only the laws of your Earthly Mother, of which I have told you. And when her angels shall have cleansed and renewed your bodies and strengthened your eyes, you will be able to bear the light of our Heavenly Father. When you can gaze on the brightness of the noonday sun with unflinching eyes, you can then look upon the blinding light of your Heavenly Father, which is a thousand times brighter than the brightness of a thousand suns. But how should you look upon the blinding light of you r Heavenly Father, when you cannot even bear the shining of the blazing sun? Believe me, the sun is as the flame of a candle beside the sun of truth of the Heavenly Father. Have but faith, therefore, and hope, and love. I tell you truly, you shall not want your reward. If you believe in my words, you believe in him who sent me, who is the lord of all, and with whom all things are possible. For what is impossible with men, all these things are possible with God. If you believe in the angels of the Earthly Mother and do her laws, your faith shall sustain you and you shall never see disease. Have hope also in the love of your Heavenly Father, for he who trusts in him shall never be deceived, nor shall he ever see death.

"Love one another, for God is love, and so shall his angels know that you walk in his paths. And then shall all the angels come before your face and serve you."
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V

That's just wonderful V - thanks.

I have read the Gospel of Thomas and a few of the others, but not that one.

What I find fascinating is that God as Mother was used right back then - 2,000 years ago. Of course, throughout ancient religious worship there has been the Mother-figure, but to the Jews, it was very much the father-figure comes through, although, in the Hebrew Scriptures, one of the names for God was El-Shaddai, the breasted One (used 48 times in the OT; including Ps 91)

When Julian of Norwich had her 16 visions of Jesus in 1373 she was very troubled by what was revealed to her as Mother-God as she felt it contradicted the teachings of the Catholic Church, but she wrote them down anyway and put her own spin on it, linking it to the Virgin Mary. And then, in 1875 Mary Baker Eddy was vilified and attacked for also sharing her revelation of God as Father-Mother!

Here are a couple of excerpts from Julian's Revelations of Divine Love:

"...and so I saw that God rejoices that he is our father and God rejoices that he is our mother and God rejoices that he is our true husband and our soul his beloved wife."

The following quotation comes from the final chapter.

"And from the time that it was shown, I often asked to know what was our Lord's meaning. And fifteen years after and more, I was answered in inward understanding, saying this:

'Would you know your Lord's meaning in this? Learn it well. Love was his meaning. Who showed it you? Love. What did he show you? Love. Why did he show it? For love. Hold fast to this and you shall learn and know more about love. But you will never need to know nor learn anything else for ever. So was I taught that love was our Lord's meaning.

And so I saw full surely that before ever God made us, he loved us. And this love was never quenched, nor ever shall be. And in this love he has done all his works, and in this love he has made all things profitable to us, and in this love our life is everlasting.

In our making we had beginning, but the love in which he made us was without beginning, in which love we have our beginning. And all this shall we see in God without end."

From In Search of Julian of Norwich by Sheila Upjohn)
Also see

isn't that so like:

FOR YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER IS LOVE.
FOR YOUR EARTHLY MOTHER IS LOVE.
FOR THE SON OF MAN IS LOVE.

And we also are the son of man! Of course, there will be some here who will object to this anthropomorphism of God, saying that is duality, but to me, it’s speaking in the relative again – that which relates to the human condition and to where we are in our spiritual understanding. Mary Baker Eddy answered this question thus:

Do I believe in a personal God?
I believe in God as the Supreme Being. I know not what the person of omnipotence and omnipresence is, or what the infinite includes; therefore, I worship that of which I can conceive, first, as a loving Father and Mother; then, as thought ascends the scale of being to diviner consciousness, God becomes to me, as to the apostle who declared it, "God is Love,"--divine Principle,--which I worship; and "after the manner of my fathers, so worship I God." (Miscellaneous Writings p 96)

Divine Love is infinite. Therefore all that really exists is in and of God, and manifests His love. (Science and Health p 340)

Therefore, as the manifestation and reflection of the infinite divine, Love, how could we be not follow the Golden Rule?

Love and peace,

Judy

As so many of us have written on HP recently, "it's really another thread" (we should have an acronym such as IRAT 🙂 ), but briefly on Father-Mother God, in the Gospel of Peace (that may just be the title Szekely gave it) Jesus talks about Heavenly Father meaning the purely spiritual aspect of God, and "Earthly Mother" means something like "the energies of the Holy Spirit working in the matter-world". Christianity doesn't really have the terminology for this, but I'd certainly call it prana and the "etheric". So "Earthly Mother" means the energies of God that more actively work through matter.

Given your interest in healing, Judy, if you read this gospel, it's mostly about healing. Whereas the other gospels have Jesus healing by "miracles", in this gospel he uses a variety of methods that would be familiar to the therapists on HP - practical, physical methods such as better diet, colonics, sun-baths, mud-packs, etc. His point here is not to work a "miracle" and walk away, but to teach the crowds how to attain and keep their own health. It's a fascinating find.

V

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I've just heard through my friend Tony's blog that today was Golden Rule Day - so I thought I ought to add that to this thread!

Here's a website called The Charter for Compassion [DLMURL] http://charterforcompassion.org/site/ [/DLMURL] It "is a document that transcends religious, ideological, and national difference. Supported by leading thinkers from many traditions, the Charter activates the Golden Rule around the world."

And here's Tony's blog where he shares how following the Golden Rule blessed him too:

Love and peace,

Judy

This thread hasn't been touched for over 5 years!

I was listening to an audio programme on Christian Science Sentinel Radio today and this week the topic is the Golden Rule, so that reminded me of this thread.

The first interview is lovely - it's the healing, not only of animosity towards a farmer who had carelessly sprayed his field on a windy day, but also of all the trees in the neighbourhood that a day or so afterwards had crumpled, brown leaves and the author was warned that her very young trees would probably not make it.

[url]The Golden Rule: how and why it works [/url]

Love and peace,

Judy