Do No Harm
Commonly Known as The Golden Rule
In November, Americans gather on the Fourth Thursday to be grateful for this, that, or the other. We call it Thanksgiving. The roots of this tradition are problematic, and I no longer will participate in the excess food, excess jocularity, excess political conversations, excess obsession on American football.
For many years, I’ve wondered why we (humans, especially Americans) don’t express gratitude regularly. Why must we wait for the fourth Thursday in November? Starting this month, every Fourth Thursday is a day of reflection and gratitude.
Given the polarized atmosphere of politics, religion, nations, wars, gender, education…well the world…infusing a bit of gratitude for the things that matter is non-negotiable. This month, I focus on something that matters to everyone, no matter your politics, race, ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, or religion:
Compassion. According to Merriam-Webster, compassion is “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.”
Everyone experiences distress. A bad day at work. A bad grade on an exam. A flat tire. The loss of a loved one (pets included). A lack of funds to pay the bills, to buy food, to get health insurance. War. Abuse. Trauma with capital and lower case T/t’s. The first part of compassion is easy: many people recognize another’s distress and most often are sympathetic towards it.
The tricky part of compassion is the “desire to alleviate it” because we’ve become afraid to get involved. Involvement can get messy, cause more problems, raise more questions, create dependency.
At our very core, we are all the same. We all bleed. We all laugh and cry. We hunger and thirst. We want love and understanding. This is called the human experience. Faith systems and the great thinkers through time have coined phrases with the same message many of us call The Golden Rule, which calls on us—ALL OF US, even you, my agnostic and atheist friends—to be kind and merciful to one another.
Said another way, Do No Harm.
Many websites list the variations of the Golden Rule. Do an internet search for yourself, or trust me to share this site, Golden Rule Project. If you don’t want to click through, see below, for an abbreviated list. Because I’m not a theologian, I welcome any corrections to the individual faiths’ rules and their sources.
The Golden Rule should not be a Fourth Thursday philosophy. It should be an every-fucking-day philosophy. You can not call yourself a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Confucianist, Taoist, Hindu, or human if you don’t abide by the Golden Rule. Period. Full stop.
And if you see someone doing harm to another, don’t be selfish. As long as your life is not in danger, act on your desire to alleviate another person’s distress. Be the compassion you would want others to show you if you were in the same distress.
Hinduism: One should not direct towards someone else what is unpleasant to oneself (Mahabharata Udyoga Parvan 39.57)
Judaism: Love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18)
Confucianism: Do not impose upon others what you yourself do not desire. (Analects 15.24)
Buddhism: Hurt not others with what pains yourself. (Udanavarga 5,18)
Taoism: Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your loss. (Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien)
Christianity: So whatever you wish others would do to you, do also to them. (Matthew 7:12)
Islam: None of you will have faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. (Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad)