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: 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)

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

Faith as Ethical Alchemy

The Bronx Zoo - New York City

Learning to Live Compassionately

The vase where this verbena’s dying

Was cracked by a lady’s fan’s soft blow.

It must have been the merest grazing:

We heard no sound.  The fissure grew.

The little wound spread while we slept,

Pried deep in the crystal, bit by bit.

A long, slow marching line, it crept

From spreading base to curving lip.

The water oozed out drop by drop,

Bled from the line we’d not seen etched.

The flowers drained out all their sap.

The vase is broken: do not touch.

The quick, sleek hand of one we love

Can tap us with a fan’s soft blow,

And we will break, as surely riven

As that cracked vase. And no one knows.

The world sees just the hard, curved surface

Of a vase a lady’s fan once grazed,

That slowly drips and bleeds with sadness.

Do not touch the broken vase.

~ The Broken Vase, By Sully Prudomme 

Translated by Robert Archambeau

The epistles of Paul, those actually attributed to him anyways, are filled with love for people.  He taught we can endure all manner of trial including being crucified as martyrs, have faith capable of moving mountains but if we lack charity, none of that matters.

Surprisingly, true religion is not about believing things.  It is said the Jewish rabbi, Hillel, an older contemporary of Jesus, was once approached by a group of pagans.  They said they would convert to Judaism if he could recite the entire Tora while balancing on one leg.  He responded with, “Do not do unto others what you would not have done unto you.  That is the Tora.  The rest is commentary.  Go and learn it.”  (Babylonian Talmud - Shabbat 31a)

Beyond the dogma, endless meetings, planning and herding the faithful, there is an underlying element in Mormonism, and many other religions for that matter, that often goes under appreciated; service.  I’m beginning to understand what religion tries to convey at its best.  It really doesn’t matter what you believe.  Religion is about doing things.  It’s about living in a compassionate way that changes you.  Instead of creeds and beliefs, Judaism and Islam place the emphasis on a collection of practices... like giving alms, prayer, fasting, worship.  These observances are designed to change our inner world.  Each is an opportunity to encounter God.

You also see this in the Gospels.  There is very little doctrine as we now know it.  Jesus isn’t going about giving dissertations on the Godhead, original sin, divinity, or other finer points of doctrine.  He’s going out visiting sinners, traitors, the nonbelieving and unclean... people beneath contempt.  He seemingly valued practice over ideas... much like Buddhism does today.

Religion is a form of ethical alchemy.  As we strive to behave in compassionate ways, it changes us.  Egotism and greed keep us from a knowledge of the divine.  It's not the believing of creeds or the undertaking various sacraments but compassion that allows us the perspective to apprehend the sacred.

The Buddha said that the practice of compassion can introduce us to Nirvana. Jesus said that on the last day, it's those who have visited people who are sick and naked, hungry and in prison, looked after them, who will enter the kingdom of God.  They are the ones who enter God's presence, not those who necessarily have the "correct" theology or the "right" sexual ethics.

So many different faith traditions have come to the conclusion that compassion is the test... it’s the key to exaltation.  I do not believe they all came to this same conclusion out of happenstance.  They came to it because it really does work.

We are at our most creative and wonderful when we are ready to give ourselves away... when we are in the service of others.  Equally, we are the most dangerous, the most unimaginative when we only seek ourselves and our own benefit.  It is in the service of others that we ultimately find ourselves.  When we find ourselves, we find God... not the other way around.