Altruistic service in life helps those at both ends of the actions. The Golden Rule is the real thing. It gives us a firm foundation on which to build a solid structure of ethical living and moral behavior. It immediately sweeps away the cynical "What’s in it for me?" attitude, "do anything to get ahead" philosophy, and cheating, lying, and hurtful behaviors.
Although many people in the western world may have heard the phrase
“reverence for life,” there are probably few who understand the deep
meanings and implications of it, and undoubtedly fewer still
practice it to a very great degree. Yet there is nothing very mysterious
about it. An understanding of the idea can go a long way in helping one to
simplify and clarify one’s whole attitude and manner of living, thinking,
and acting.
The phrase “reverence for life” was originated by Dr. Albert
Schweitzer (French theologian, philosopher, and missionary
physician, 1875-1965) to describe his belief that life has value.
Life can be a worthwhile experience of development for all who partake of
it; there is no such thing as a worthless life. Still, in some situations,
we may be faced with having to choose and weigh the relative value of two
forms of life. Schweitzer said, “To the truly ethical man, all life is holy,
even that which appears to us from the human standard as the lowest. He
makes distinctions only under the force of necessity, namely, when he finds
himself in situations where he must choose which life he must sacrifice in
order to preserve the other. He knows that he must bear the responsibility
for the sacrificed life.”
Dr. Schweitzer thus assures us that reverence for life is not some
fanatical form of absolutism but really a highly ethical scale with which to
balance any given situation, a yardstick against which to measure
our daily activities. Similarly, such means of measurement have been given
in the major religious and philosophical teachings in all parts of the world
throughout the ages. Probably the greatest and most universal is The Golden
Rule: that we should act toward others as we would wish them to act toward
us.
Many people—and the author is definitely among them—believe that we
generally plant what we will harvest and that we can expect to reap
what we have sown in life. In eastern philosophies, this natural
phenomenon is known by the term “the law of karma.” Karma literally means
action, but in this sense, it means a natural law of action and reaction,
that for every action there is a corresponding reaction. This does not
necessarily mean a system of “crime and punishment” such as the human mind
might devise to mete out justice or vengeance. Karma is more of an automatic
working of cosmic equity, to afford each individual the opportunity to learn
the lessons in life that one must learn for one’s own progress and
development and perhaps to get closer to ultimate perfection.
Its workings are not difficult to understand. If you have a radio tuned to a
certain channel, it will receive only a station broadcasting on that
frequency. If you change the setting, it will receive another program and
play a different tune. Those people who go through life with their
mentalities tuned in to hatred, friction, strife, and discord will
experience these unpleasant factors in life and in whatever there
may be beyond—we will leave such speculations about the future to the
reader’s sense of theology or agnosticism.
Such people have a knack of bringing into their lives the oddest
calamities by their own attitudes to life. It is a vale of tears,
and so they are tearful. It is a jungle, so they act like the worst of
beasts. And in so doing, they influence others around them to act in a
similar manner. We broadcast by words, deeds, and examples until everyone so
influenced or tuned in on a pattern of thought and action turns that part of
the world where they live into a jungle worse than any ever devised by
nature.
Then they lament that only the “law of the jungle” can apply to life, that
civilization is governed only by jungle law. Kill or be killed, rob or be
robbed, and exploit or be exploited are the valid rules that one must have
to get by in this life. They make a miserable world for themselves and
others who fall for this line of reasoning. They never seem to understand
that it is of their own making.
However, we also see people who go their way through life in a
relatively calm manner, helping others, not asking for reward or applause,
doing good because it needs to be done. I want to emphasize that this is the
right motive for right actions: performing good work for its own sake and
not out of fear of punishment or expectation of any reward.
The Golden Rule does not set up a system of favors granted for goods
delivered or works performed. It lights the path for us; it guides us to a
superior way of acting. This is enough. Good that is done for the
sake of self-gain defeats its own purpose insofar as the doer is concerned:
good done for its own sake should be the rule, rather than the exception in
life.
The person who has a mind that is controlled and serene, a pleasant and calm
disposition and a ready and sincere smile for others will find others
smiling right back. To such a person, the world is a school in which all
manner of great lessons are to be learned, and one accepts the education
willingly, eagerly. We should recognize several advantages of good actions:
Thus we may easily understand that the practicing of The Golden Rule helps to bring about harmony and happiness in others and in oneself. Altruistic service in life helps those at both ends of the actions.
The Golden Rule is the real thing. It gives us a firm foundation on which to build a solid structure of ethical living and moral behavior. It immediately sweeps away the cynical "What’s in it for me?" attitude, "do anything to get ahead" philosophy, and cheating, lying, and hurtful behaviors.
Excerpted from the book Powerful Vegan Messages by H. Jay Dinshah,
founder of American Vegan Society.
Posted on All-Creatures: December 24, 2024
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