What Works?

Are we getting the results we intend?

Is there incongruence between our thoughts and actions?

It seems to me that we, as Americans, are getting the results we never intended.

We are on a path of the destruction of democracy. No one intended that.

We are more divided than we ever have been. No one intended that.

We feel hatred and animosity from fellow Americans everyday. No one intended that.

Our enemies are increasing around the world and also within our borders. Fellow Americans are creating enemies and monsters right next door even though it may not be true.

If we keep on doing what we have been doing, we will never get a different result but we will continue to get the result we have been getting. That’s the way life works.

Who are we as human beings? Who are we as Americans?

Why are we so divided? Why do we have so much fear and hate?

What are we afraid of? Who and why do we hate?

This is not who we are. We have forgotten who we are.

But what can we do? It always begins with me.

In a world of such complexity and confusion, there is a defining principle, a clarifying question that may help us cut through all of the ideas and beliefs that we choose to follow.

We choose to follow certain principles because they are taking us where we want to go, to accomplish what we want to accomplish. We choose to follow, we follow, then we lose our way.

One way of sorting this out this is to remember that as human beings, we are defined by our actions, by our love, by our visible ‘fruits”, by the impact of the lives we live on others, in the same way that a tree is identified by its fruit. If we see an apple on a tree, we do not call it a peach tree. We know by what is seen that it is definitely an apple tree. 

Compassion First

Compassion First???

A requirement and priority for being human 

as well as a test of the authenticity of all the religious as well as the nonreligious.

It seems we have forgotten.

We must remember what we’ve always known.

If we are to live together as human beings, then we must learn to put love central to our politics and our religion.

As the Dalai Lama says,  “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

"Rather than take religious views and teachings to be ultimate statements of absolute truth, they might be better understood as skillful means to liberate the mind. Instead of pitting one view against another, we might let go of rigid attachment to any view, and ask the very pragmatic question, “Is this teaching leading my heart and mind to greater wisdom and peace, to greater kindness and compassion? Or does it lead to more divisiveness, to more selfishness, to more violence?” ("Mindfulness, Compassion & Wisdom: Three Means To Peace" by Joseph Goldstein)

“A compassionate city is an uncomfortable city!
A city that is uncomfortable when anyone is homeless or hungry.
Uncomfortable if every child isn't loved and given rich opportunities to grow and thrive.
Uncomfortable when any group anywhere in the world is marginalized or oppressed.
Uncomfortable when as a community we don't treat our neighbors as we would wish to be treated.”
(Karen Armstrong, Charter for Compassion)