Ram Dass, Author Be Here Now and Be Love Now
Ultimately, we all have only one teacher, and that is life itself. Oh, to be sure, many different folks will cross our paths, and books as well... Some, we'll never forget... Others, we'll always regret having met them, read that particular book, or believed that certain dogma...
To be sure, I have my own list of regrets... but, that which I now categorize as a "regret", in fact contributed something, in its own way, to the the me of now... I suppose that the one most important tool of discernment is simply that of whether or not we like the person we are becoming... or, at least, are we tending towards becoming the person whom we most desire to become...
The Ram Dass quote that resonates most deeply with me is this one: We are all just walking each other home... Isn't that a sweet way to view the world and our relations with others? In pondering this sweetness, I focus in on the Three C's as core attributes of this walking each other home... They are care, cooperation, and compassion...
Regardless of where you stand, sit, or avoid in regards to religion, these Three C's are the essence of every truthful and practical application of any and every world religion... I hope the day will come in which no one operates from the presumption that a particular religion is, in absolute terms, the only way home... This is not a helpful attitude, perspective, or belief...
On the other hand, the Three C's offer a simple and clear means for personal and social reflection and analysis... Let's begin with care... The simple heart-action of caring about oneself, one's family, relations, neighbor, community, and nation is where we all have to begin. If one cares, then, as a matter of course, one wishes no serious, intentional, harm upon another person: but more, caring implies intentional planning, action, and then the construction of networks of liberating possibilities for everyone... and not the continued "liberation" of the lucky or the few, but new systems that genuinely serve and lift up everyone...
Caring is directly connected to cooperation... cooperation is oftentimes relegated to a child's school or playground: but isn't it very strange that cooperation, once we become adults, diminshes in perceived value? Charles Darwin suggested that the strongest and the quickest to adapt were most likely to survive and thrive. Peter Kropotkin sensed that Darwin had overlooked an essential insight and proposed that species survive and thrive to the degree that they cooperate with one another... Kropotkin's term for this cooperation was mutual-aid... We see significant evidence of the grit, grace, and power of mutual-aid in times of crisis: earthquake, tornado, hurricane, flood, mudslide, fire, or other catastrophe, automatically has us looking out for one another...
My question is: where does all the cooperation and mutual-aid go when the catastrophe passes?
One of my favorite words is radical... Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement correctly pointed out that the word radical most genuinely means getting to the roots... The word now, in common usage, has come to be a label someone or other applies to one's political enemy (overlooking the reality that very few in politics get anywhere near where the roots of anything are)... Nevertheless, both caring and cooperation have their roots in activated compassion... The Dalai Lama has, many times, said, if you want to be happy, practice compassion...
An activated compassion is the most powerful force in the world.
Compassion, intentionally linked to care and cooperation, as one of the Three C's, is the root of all truth in every religion: exactly to the degree that we personally and collectively practice and organize ourselves by the inspirations of compassion, are we practitioners of any religion! Obviously there are both haters and blamers who use their religion to justify all sorts of cruelties, injustices, and divisions: but this is not religion! If you are actually interested in real religion, read A Global Ethic, The Declaration of the Parliament of the World's Religions!
The Three C's might be likened to the finger that points at the moon... they are not the end point, but words to help in the walking of each other home...
Ultimately, we all have only one teacher, and that is life itself. Oh, to be sure, many different folks will cross our paths, and books as well... Some, we'll never forget... Others, we'll always regret having met them, read that particular book, or believed that certain dogma...
To be sure, I have my own list of regrets... but, that which I now categorize as a "regret", in fact contributed something, in its own way, to the the me of now... I suppose that the one most important tool of discernment is simply that of whether or not we like the person we are becoming... or, at least, are we tending towards becoming the person whom we most desire to become...
The Ram Dass quote that resonates most deeply with me is this one: We are all just walking each other home... Isn't that a sweet way to view the world and our relations with others? In pondering this sweetness, I focus in on the Three C's as core attributes of this walking each other home... They are care, cooperation, and compassion...
Regardless of where you stand, sit, or avoid in regards to religion, these Three C's are the essence of every truthful and practical application of any and every world religion... I hope the day will come in which no one operates from the presumption that a particular religion is, in absolute terms, the only way home... This is not a helpful attitude, perspective, or belief...
On the other hand, the Three C's offer a simple and clear means for personal and social reflection and analysis... Let's begin with care... The simple heart-action of caring about oneself, one's family, relations, neighbor, community, and nation is where we all have to begin. If one cares, then, as a matter of course, one wishes no serious, intentional, harm upon another person: but more, caring implies intentional planning, action, and then the construction of networks of liberating possibilities for everyone... and not the continued "liberation" of the lucky or the few, but new systems that genuinely serve and lift up everyone...
Caring is directly connected to cooperation... cooperation is oftentimes relegated to a child's school or playground: but isn't it very strange that cooperation, once we become adults, diminshes in perceived value? Charles Darwin suggested that the strongest and the quickest to adapt were most likely to survive and thrive. Peter Kropotkin sensed that Darwin had overlooked an essential insight and proposed that species survive and thrive to the degree that they cooperate with one another... Kropotkin's term for this cooperation was mutual-aid... We see significant evidence of the grit, grace, and power of mutual-aid in times of crisis: earthquake, tornado, hurricane, flood, mudslide, fire, or other catastrophe, automatically has us looking out for one another...
My question is: where does all the cooperation and mutual-aid go when the catastrophe passes?
One of my favorite words is radical... Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement correctly pointed out that the word radical most genuinely means getting to the roots... The word now, in common usage, has come to be a label someone or other applies to one's political enemy (overlooking the reality that very few in politics get anywhere near where the roots of anything are)... Nevertheless, both caring and cooperation have their roots in activated compassion... The Dalai Lama has, many times, said, if you want to be happy, practice compassion...
An activated compassion is the most powerful force in the world.
Compassion, intentionally linked to care and cooperation, as one of the Three C's, is the root of all truth in every religion: exactly to the degree that we personally and collectively practice and organize ourselves by the inspirations of compassion, are we practitioners of any religion! Obviously there are both haters and blamers who use their religion to justify all sorts of cruelties, injustices, and divisions: but this is not religion! If you are actually interested in real religion, read A Global Ethic, The Declaration of the Parliament of the World's Religions!
The Three C's might be likened to the finger that points at the moon... they are not the end point, but words to help in the walking of each other home...
RSS Feed