The Charter for Compassion

The paleontological record is pretty clear.  We are the product of behavior modification that has continually altered our social systems and spurred cognitive and technological adaptation for as long as our ancestors have been classified as genus homo; latin for human.  All species of the genus, except homo sapiens sapiens, are now extinct.  We are the evolutionary victors from among 15 known in our evolutionary family. Our emerging history of the social evolution is as astonishing as it is enthralling.  Beyond mere "survival of the fittest" shared with all life on earth, there is compelling evidence of cooperation and mutual adaptation among our human cousin species that made us possible.  One example, we owe our amazing immune response to an incredibly rare interbreeding between homo sapiens and two archaic human species among whom our ancestors coexisted; homo neanderthalensis and denisova hominin.

Social evolution has always been characterized by gradual development... that is, until now.  Until the last two or three centuries. most of humankind lived much like their ancestors did for at least the last 10,000 years or so or since the emergence of agriculture.  We now live in a mechanized connected world dominated by rapid developments in technology and communication.  Social evolution has been replaced with social revolution.  In this escalating complexity, human society is undergoing change our biology could scarcely prepared us for.  Some say our very survival depends on how successfully we adapt.

The psychological strain of this unprecedented rate of change can not be overstated.  The fact our populations increasingly struggle to cope is self-evident.  Today, the fastest growing segment of the burgeoning mental health industry is the phenomenon of "pop" psychology and its companion; self-help.  This product is not necessarily esteemed for its credentials as vetted theory by accomplished psychologists, anthropologists, ethologists or neuroscientists but for their widespread reception by the general population.  It is often tailored to appeal directly to the prevailing "common sense" aesthetic of its intended target audience.

Self-help is not always incontrovertibly without value... but caution is advised.  Unchecked, some consumers find themselves running from one popularized concept to the next in a desperate search to find that single silver bullet to right everything wrong in their lives... often in a near addictive state.  However, considered and consumed in a thoughtful manner, some of this material can enhance our understanding and enlighten our perspective.

Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) is a nonprofit dedicated to "Ideas Worth Spreading."  This past June, author Karen Armstrong made her TED prize wish known: The Charter for Compassion.  It has already been affirmed by tens of thousands including His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, His Eminence Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, the esteemed Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr and many many others.

I've long thought of Karen Armstrong as a sort of religious anthropologist; combining spirituality, history and human psychology.  Her book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, is proving to be very thought provoking.  It presents a stunning fact based argument supporting the biological evolution of compassion and human altruism.  But more importantly, it focuses attention on the widening psychological disparity plaguing modern society in the 21st century.

As a solution, Ms, Armstrong suggests a concerted effort to advance the principles of compassion.  She speaks of a collective exploration to achieve a higher level of compassion beyond the generally passable, every day expectation of today.

While the steps outlined seem somewhat obvious and even cliché, I am impressed with her sense of urgency.  It compels me to look more closely at what she is proposing.  Sometimes the best solutions are the most straightforward... even in a complex world.  Cliché or not, I see value in her idea and the necessity for practice.

It may be too idealistic to hope for but lasting change is rarely immediate.  Any transformation, even on a personal level, would be promising.  I have no doubt I will walk away from this experience a little changed.

Good and Evil: Distinctions Blurred and Benefits Realized

Liberty Park - Salt Lake City Utah

Part 2

Moving forward two days; Independence Day!  My recent experiences still never too far from my thoughts, I attended two family functions; my own and that of my dearest friend.  I took great satisfaction enjoying the diversity of personalities.  Some call the quirky jostling "dysfunction" and "harmful."  I imagine unchecked it could be.  It certainly isn't always easy but difficulty isn't a reliable measure of harmfulness.

When we are injured and suffering either emotionally or physically, our ability to recognize and appreciate the miracle of family is often tremendously diminished.  Patience and understanding are always the first to be sacrificed in such situations.  I am all too guilty of this and know this to be true.

I know my family... and in optimal condition, I understand and appreciate them the way they should.  This holiday was nearly optimal for me.  I so enjoyed their company.  Yet, as we said our goodbyes, I regret not all of us were feeling optimal and a poor choice of words set into motion hurt and suffering.  I left beleaguered; not knowing how to help make things right.

Then something extraordinary happened.  For maybe the first time, I found myself in a very familiar setting; comfortably enjoying family... but not my family.  I'm usually quiet and shy and maybe, to a certain degree, I still was but I experienced something unique... at least to me.  I noticed a familiar dynamic.  The players were different yet they shared the same identical personality characteristics I grew up with in my family... except there, they were totally redistributed as if like a deck of cards where they were shuffled and all dealt new hands.  I could see aspects of my parents, sisters, brother, nieces and nephews all represented in unique combinations.  The reactions and interactions played out in familiar ways... right down to the moments of hurt and suffering.

I think what was so extraordinary about the experience was which personalities acted and reacted.  Like watching a familiar movie shot from completely different angles, it provided some much needed insight into the inner-workings of my own family because I wasn't emotionally vested in any of the outcomes. Too often we take for granted our abilities to weather criticisms and judgements.  Too often we take for granted our abilities to read and anticipate the moods and reactions of those so near and dear to us.

Our most intimate relationships are our families.  They are both the safest and most dangerous of all relationships in an emotional sense due to their profound nature.  Mormon doctrine teaches we foresaw our lives, our living conditions, our life companions, and we "lept for joy" in anticipation for our earthly existence.  I share that belief.  But I also have the nagging suspicion that these intimate relationships we call family are far far more complex and older than we dare imagine.

I believe in a cyclical process of life and learning where we live again and again until all of life's lessons are learned; perhaps not reincarnation in the common sense but something.  Those we know as family follow us from probation to probation.  We continue to play profound roles in each others lives... because we have unique lessons to learn from one another.  Our bond truly is eternal.

Popular psychology likens healthy living to cleaning out one's garage.  In their opinion, it is a garage filled with the junk of our own making where choice pieces may be dusted off and repurposed but the majority of seemingly broken and useless trash should be quickly and unceremoniously tossed in the garbage and carted off for disposal.  Some even espouse, for the sake of a clean garage, to just torch it and all its contents and move on rebuilding a new garage without looking back.

I view my garage differently.  It's something inherited where I was promised I could find all the needed tools and supplies for successful and healthy living.  Sure, I may have added a few things in my time as owner... the dust bunnies, a few discarded burrito wrappers and the occasional cup and straw but the shelves remain relatively untouched.  You see, the previous owner was something of a MacGyver.   In his case, he had eons of creative experience and an intimate knowledge of who I am.  Turns out those shelves of seemingly eclectic trash aren't worthless after all... and the act of sorting and cataloguing the multifarious collection provides me with the increased ability to respond effectively and creatively to all of life's challenges.

Our families, for good and especially bad, help us learn to respond effectively and creatively to life's ups and downs if we but take the time to properly sort and catalogue.  We glean real experience and practical knowledge from the high pressure interactions of such an intimacy that only family can provide.  Only then will we not take for granted those tools and supplies we were given.  It is a difficult task that takes a lifetime of struggle... with no hope of complete success.

In short, we inherit a pile of junk from our parents.  Spend a lifetime trying to sort it all out.  Then end up passing it on to the next generation.  Like it or not, this is the beauty and continuity of cyclical progression.

"If you don't have the right equipment for the job, you just have to make it yourself." 

~ MacGyver

Good and Evil: Where do we place the bar?

Pražský Orloj - Prague Czech Republic

Part 1

"Are there, infinitely varying with each individual, inbred forces of Good and Evil in all of us, deep down below the reach of mortal encouragement and mortal repression -- hidden Good and hidden Evil, both alike at the mercy of the liberating opportunity and the sufficient temptation?"

~ William Wilkie Collins

I had a very thought provoking holiday weekend.  It started Saturday at my building's swimming pool with my nephews noticing something at the bottom of the deep end...

The actual act of swimming down, turning over, noticing the near severed tongue, staring into the wide lifeless eyes of someone still 9 feet below the surface, then cradling his cold discolored body, pushing through to the surface cheek to cheek, feeling no pulse or life... there was something oddly peaceful and reassuring in that moment; a palpable sense of the continuity of both life and spirit.  The imagery was uncomfortable at first... because it was unfamiliar.  I've had to process it and accept it.  However, the accompanying behavior and reaction from the poor man's family continue to trouble me.

As we broke the surface of the pool, I called out for help.  They snorted and asked if I was kidding yet still couldn't be bothered to pull themselves up from their lounge chairs.  I struggled to push him out onto the deck.  They looked on with only mild interest letting two young men rush in to help.  As my friend and mother approached to start CPR only then did one of them venture close to curb her morbid curiosity.  Realizing it was her brother, she went completely bizerk hysterical.  Soon the man's adult daughters and his wife joined in.  In all my life, I have never seen such a transformation from complete indifference to human life to an unspeakable level of insanity.  Wailing, pounding, screaming, howling, pushing, flailing, tossing things about... it caused indescribable panic and fright among the small children present.  So horrifying in ways no dead body ever could be, the young had to be whisked away in states of shock and disbelief.

I watched my mother, whom I adore with all my heart, struggle in her failing elderly body to do what she could to save that man.  I imagined in that moment it was her lying there and asked myself if I could ever have reacted like this man's family... to scoff at pleas for help, to decline involvement in a stranger's moment of desperate need, and then have a complete disregard for the safety and wellbeing of the young in a moment of grief.  I realize these people were under extreme duress but does that excuse their actions?  Like someone who instinctively hides behind a child during a shootout, there's something not quite right... something fundamentally broken.

It seems such behavior is now considered the norm... and excusable.  "We all react to emergency situations differently."  "They were in shock."  "You can't really blame them given the circumstance."  And my personal favorite, "How would YOU feel?!!!"  Really?  Is this really ok?  Are we excused to act like this now?  What does this say about our evolving human sensibilities?  What does this say of us as a civilized people and of our culture?

I am terribly troubled by ordinary acts of compassion and human decency being considered extraordinary while shameful acts of cowardice and selfishness are considered acceptable and even normal.  Returning someone's lost valuables isn't noble... it's proper!  Pulling someone from a pool isn't courageous... it's decent!  Protecting those who can't protect themselves whether they be young, old, infirm or just unaware isn't heroic... it's humane! We shouldn't be astonished by good behavior.  We should be horrified by bad.

(To be continued)

Bloom Where God Planted You

Illustration from "The Conference of the Birds"
Photographer Unknown

Embrace Fate

"Since love has spoken in your soul, reject 

The Self, that whirlpool where our lives are wrecked; 

As Jesus rode his donkey, ride on it; 

Your stubborn Self must bear you and submit - 

Then burn this Self and purify your soul; 

Let Jesus' spotless spirit be your goal. 

Destroy this burden, and before your eyes 

The Holy Ghost in glory will arise." 

~ Farīd ud-Dīn ‘Attār (Persian Muslim Poet, 1145 - 1221 CE)

I'll be quite honest.  I'm usually not one to enjoy "marathon" poetry.  Penned in 1170 CE, the Mantiqu 't-Tayr, or The Conference of the the Birds, is an epic Persian poem of about 4500 lines.  While translations differ, I found the story extraordinarily insightful.  As the best known allegory in the West next to The Thousand and One Nights of Aladdin fame, it really is worth a read.

It recounts the arduous journey of a large group of birds desiring to go and know their beloved king, Simorgh in the far off land of Simorgh.  (Simorgh being a well known flying creature in Iranian mythology.)   The birds are led by the passionate and enthusiastic hoopoe who answers the many objections and questions the other birds have regarding their journey.  Often, the birds are identified by species and have a corresponding human type.  For example, the nightingale symbolizes the lover and the finch, the coward.  Many of the hoopoe's answers include several stories to illustrate the particular point being made.  At first reading, these illustrations seem very obscure.  This is intentional.  The reader is being asked to look at some problem in an unfamiliar way.

Eventually, one by one, the birds abandon their journey.  Each giving particular excuses as to why they can not go on.  Ultimately, the group numbers thirty birds.  In Persian, "thirty birds" is si morgh.  These thirty meet the final challenges represented in the seven valleys traversed; Talab (Yearning), Eshq (Love), Marifat (Understanding), Istighnah (Independence and Detachment from Desire), Tawheed (Unity of God), Hayrat (Bewilderment) and, finally, Fuqur and Fana (Selflessness and Oblivion in God).  Ultimately, they arrive in Simorgh.  They find no mythical king.  They only see each other and their reflections in a vast lake... they, the si morgh or thirty birds, are the Simorgh!  They now understand the true nature of God, their king.

I suppose God could have kept those birds close at hand... in the land of Simorgh but without the struggle to reach him, those birds would never have recognized him.  We are all placed where we are for a reason.  Particular struggles, designed to teach us exactly what it is we need to learn to reach our required level of understanding, have been provided by the Almighty.

Instead of regret for things we didn't have the foresight to change, or dissatisfaction for things we hadn't the power to make different, we need to embrace our fate and, as the fundamental Pentecostal motto goes, learn to "bloom where God planted you."

Freedom of the Mind

Columbia River Gorge - Oregon

From This All Other Freedoms Spring

I'd like to share a few quotes from what is now considered the final testimony of Elder Hugh B. Brown.  Elder Brown served in the LDS Quorum of Twelve Apostles from 1958 to 1975, and in the First Presidency from 1961 to 1970 under President David O. McKay. The excerpts below come from the final chapter of An Abundant Life; The Memoirs of Hugh B. Brown and affirms the worth of education and open-minded free thinking.


"Some say that the open-minded leave room for doubt. But I believe we should doubt some of the things we hear. Doubt has a place if it can stir in one an interest to go out and find the truth for one's self."

"There are altogether too many people in the world who are willing to accept as true whatever is printed in a book or delivered from a pulpit. Their faith never goes below the surface soil of authority. I plead with everyone I meet that they may drive their faith down through that soil and get hold of the solid truth, that they may be able to withstand the winds and storm of indecision and of doubt, of opposition and persecution. Then, and only then, will we be able to defend our religion successfully. When I speak of defending our religion, I do not mean such defense as an army makes on the battlefield but the defense of a clean and upright and virtuous life lived in harmony with an intelligent belief and understanding of the gospel. As Mormons, we should do with religion as we do with music, not defend it but simply render it. It needs no defense. The living of religion is, after all, the greatest sermon, and if all of us would live it, we would create a symphony which would be appreciated by all."

"One of the most important things in the world is freedom of the mind; from this all other freedoms spring. Such freedom is necessarily dangerous, for one cannot think right without running the risk of thinking wrong, but generally more thinking is the antidote for the evils that spring from wrong thinking.

More thinking is required, and we should all exercise our God-given right to think and be unafraid to express our opinions, with proper respect for those to whom we talk and proper acknowledgment of our own shortcomings. We must preserve freedom of the mind in the church and resist all efforts to suppress it. The church is not so much concerned with whether the thoughts of its members are orthodox or heterodox as it is that they shall have thoughts. One may memorize much without learning anything."

These days, many find comfort in the "surface soil of authority."  The institution of church, not the gospel itself, seems to constrict our "God-given right to think" and substitutes it with copious amounts of sanctioned orthodox material in the form of handbooks, lesson manuals, and so on.  While such material isn't bad in and of itself, it is all too easy to replace the importance of "intelligent belief and understanding" and the hard earned self-discovery that entails with the notion all questions have been sufficiently answered and all worthy mysteries deciphered.  Spiritual growth becomes more a matter of memorization... all we need do is follow the prescribed course of "correct" thinking.  The worthy allegory of scripture, the beauty of self-discovery, the very process of enlightenment itself... they all cease to have any real meaning and are lost in the pages of good intentions and well defined creed.  

Some erroneously conclude that heterodoxy threatens the stability and strength of the community when it really gives us opportunity to test our ideas and convictions; strengthening our resolve and forging a stronger faith.  Orthodoxy is the soft soil of authority.  Heterodoxy is compacted, rocky, and hard... it makes us jostle uncomfortably one with another... forcing us to reexamine and test our convictions again and again... allowing us the opportunity to drive our roots of faith deep so we may be well anchored in times of adversity.

The Dignity of Difference

Arches National Park - Utah

The Most Noble Sanctuary

"O Mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into separate nations and tribes, that you may know one another."

~ Qur'an 49:13

During the process of my philosophical reawakening, I made a surprising discovery; my love for Islam.  I know many westerners cringe at the thought.  Most only know Islam from what they see on television today.  The traditional homeland of the faith suffers from unremitting hostility fueled by extremist fundamentalism and totalitarianism.  The result has been some of the most heinous human rights violations imaginable.  Unfortunately, the very same was said of Christianity during Europe’s Dark Ages.  I tell you now, Islam is in its dark age.  If they are to be judged solely on today, it stands to reason Christianity should never have been allowed to survive to the modern day.  But we knew Christianity to have a solid foundation in Jesus and his chosen apostles.  Likewise, Islam has a foundation every bit as impressive.

It is a familiar and unfortunate human failing to discredit and malign our enemies.  Centuries of unremitting hostilities during the various Crusades, the Spanish Reconquista, the trade wars of the renaissance, and the Western colonial expansion period have left us with a confusing legacy mixed with lies and half truths intended to substantiate and strengthen the Western cause.  Western theologians and historians have only recently begun reexamining Islam in an attempt to separate fact from fiction.  Some of their “discoveries” are astounding and bare testimony to the continuity of the human spirit as our similarities far outnumber our differences.

Muhammad lived in a violent, desperately brutal society and he managed to bring peace to that world. Now this may come as a surprise to some, but he did it through peaceable means not by force.  Suffering persecution in his native Mecca, he was invited by the neighboring waring clans of the large agricultural oasis of Yathrib to mitigate an end to more than a century of devastating tribal blood-feuds.  Drafting the Ṣaḥīfat al-Madīna, Muhammad established a peaceable and diverse democratic federation encompassing the eight Medinan tribes and the Muslim immigrants from Mecca.  This alliance included Muslims, Arabs, Jews, Christians, and pagans... each vested citizens of this new society.

This was an absolutely astounding achievement for its day and did not go unnoticed by Muhammad’s rivals.  For six years, he fought a war of survival against Mecca.  The Meccans, who correctly perceived a threat to their long established power as droves converted to Islamic monotheism and trade began to shift to Medina, were intent on exterminating the Muslim community.  Once the tides of war clearly and irrevocably shifted to the advantage of Medina, Muhammad did the unthinkable.  Instead of bringing Mecca to her knees by an inevitable victory through violence,  Medina switched to a campaign of nonviolence that was not too dissimilar from that practiced by Gandhi and other inspiring leaders. For two long years, they persevered.  Finally, Muhammad rode into Mecca with a thousand unarmed followers and sued for peace... a peace favoring Mecca.  So shocking and contrary to millennia of tribal custom, word spread throughout the region, igniting a social revolution.  Within a few years, Muhammad and his followers were welcomed back into Mecca, not as enemies but as allies.

This isn't to say atrocities were not committed by all sides during the conflict.  They were.  But Muhammad had a lesson to teach.  Compassion was the only avenue open for lasting peace.  This set the tone for Islamic expansion for centuries to come.

Because he comes so much later and there is so much more documentation, we know more about the founder of Islam than we do of almost any other major tradition.  His first biographers really tried to document history, maybe not quite history as we know it today, but they certainly presented the prophet in the most realistic light possible.  The al-sīra and hadith collections are biographies and accounts of the verbal and physical traditions of the prophet... providing a very humanizing glimpse of the man who's name means "praiseworthy." 

They reveal Muhammad sometimes having very real and familiar trouble with his wives. People often assume that he had a harem selected for their beauty and subservience designed to cater to his every indulgence.  Far from it!  The wives were often a headache and undertaken for political reasons.  Many were vibrant, intelligent, and, dare we say, insistent.  Surprisingly, his views of family and marriage more closely match our 21st century ideal than what was common in the 6th and 7th centuries.  He attempted to bring more equality and security to women and tried to overturn millennia of tribal custom.  He viewed his wives as both a challenge and a blessing.  He felt it his duty to learn to love, cherish, honor, and respect them as he knew Allah did.

They show Muhammad playing often with his adored grandchildren, even putting little Hassan and Hussein on his shoulders and running around with them.  They recount him weeping over the deaths of family and friends and speak of the comfort and advice given his beloved daughters.  In short, they detail his struggles, vulnerabilities along with the careful striving and literal sweating to craft and utter the astonishing words of the Qur'an. The poetry of the Qur'an is mostly lost in translation, but the Arabic, I'm told, is an exercise in absolute unsurpassed beauty.  Listening to it, I have no doubt.

Muhammad taught that not only Abraham, but Moses, Jesus, Adam are all revered great prophets.  You cannot be a Muslim and deny the truth they taught.  Your Islamic spirit must include an appreciation of these other traditions.  The People of the Book; Jews, Sabians, Christians, and Muslims are indelibly linked.

It is common for the mystics of Islam, the sufi, to exclaim in jubilation that they are no longer a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian; that they are equally home in a mosque, synagogue, temple or church.  They reason once we touch the divine such man-made distinctions become meaningless and we can leave them behind.  This is both extraordinary and inspiring.

Instead of seeing other traditions as, at best, a mistake, sufism inspires us to see them as positive and enriching.  True Islam can give us a blueprint to explore other spiritual traditions and to draw what inspiration we can from them.

"If God had willed he would have made you one nation. But He did not do so, that he may try you in what has come to you. So, compete with one another in good works; Unto God shall you return; altogether; and he will tell you the Truth about what you have been disputing."

~ Qur'an 5:48

Meting Vengeance

From State Hwy. 128 near the Colorado River - Utah

But Seeking Justice

Justice isn’t always a joyful occasion.  Sometimes, it is painful and solemn... or it should be.

I hold to the belief that all men are inherently good... or at least they start out that way.  We are the divine offspring.  Long before coming here, we were nurtured with unconditional love and perfect wisdom, reared in infinite mercy and empathy.  We communed with the gods and rejoiced in blessings of everlasting life.

Our earthy probation is one of necessary hardship and trial.  It is the refining fire that allows for true and meaningful change in our quest for exalted perfection.  We are challenged physically and spiritually.  Failure is not just common but required... but sometimes, however, that failure can be so catastrophic, even the heavens weep from a broken heart.

This is how I would sum up the life of Osama Bin Laden.  A life that started with such promise, filled with love and anticipation, only to end a tortured soul twisted by fear and hatred into profound wickedness.

I know there are some who would argue points of ideology to find purpose behind his madness but so polluted his thinking in extremes, he would have murdered the world to save it.  There is no rationale, no reason, no purpose large enough, profound enough to justify the path he took.  While still greater evils have been wrought by the hand of man for the sake of lifeless ideology, his was still a work of evil in the end.

All that said, the Lord’s is a perfect love, an unconditional love.  I have little doubt that Osama was met at the vail with loving arms and tears of joy by the Savior.  For His is a perfect understanding of limitless mercy and love.

Justice required Bin Laden be hunted down and executed for his crimes.  But ours is an imperfect justice.  Civilized society could not do to him what he inflicted on us without losing itself in such wickedness.  His was a merciful death by comparison; a pale and meager form of justice.  True justice, it would seem, is only for the gods.

The celebratory gatherings marking his execution speak not of justice but of vengeance.  There is no reverence for the sanctity of life.  No honoring the victims of his heinous crimes.  No acknowledgment of all those still suffering under the evil he cultivated.  No respect for God’s unconditional love for ALL his children.

I find celebrations commemorating the violent death of anyone, no matter how deserving, distasteful and damaging.  They’re sickly misguided and savage.  To say they are understandable really only acknowledges our ability to identify with the most base of human emotions.  It just goes to show how little we have evolved as a people and as a species. “They” who were so different from us on September 11th, 2001 don’t seem all that much different anymore.

My heart is saddened by todays events but relieved that this particular is no longer left undone.  May it bring comfort to the rational who contemplate and mourn.  May it silence the civilly insane who revel and delight.

“He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself”

~Chinese Proverb