The Golden Rule

Hindu Faith: "This is the sum of duty: do naught to others that which if done to thee would cause pain."
Jewish Faith: " What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow men. That is the entire Law; all rest is commentary."
Zoroastrian Faith: "That nature is only good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not good for its own self."
Buddhist Faith: "Hurt not others with that which pains yourself."
Christianity: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Islam: "No one is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself."
Baha'i Faith: "Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself."

I have heard people say that the religions of the world will never agree because they are so different. The Golden Rule is present in all religions. It is the basis of faith and the basis to creating a united world. If all believers of the world adhered to this law we would not have the religious prejudice that is so prevalent in our society, nor would we see religious wars. This thought leads to a deeper one of not judging a religion based on the actions and behavior of its followers. We must be just in our evaluation and search independently for the truth.
Our Friday night deepening was on this subject. It was a very interesting evening, during which we decided that each one of us played a part in creating a world in which everyone abided by the Golden Rule. We discussed the challenges that we would face, particularly facing those who do not return our kindness, and then to put some of this into practice, we split into groups to create skits.
What would you do if a new kid came to school with a bit of a "strange style"?

Help her out of course!

What would you do if someone came up to you with the latest, juiciest gossip?

What would you do if someone bumped into you in the street and started looking for a fight?

What would you do if someone you tried to be nice to ignored you? Just keep being nice...they'll give in eventually.


Lesson Learned: the creation of a peaceful and united society will not be easy, but it is a process that we all play a part in. We must become cognizant of this in order to begin the process. World peace (as corny as those two words now sound thanks to "Miss Congeniality") is inevitable, but the amount of time it will take to achieve it and the amount of suffering we will undergo before we attain it depends entirely on us and the amount of effort we put into it.