The Golden Rule

As part of a course I am currently enrolled in, I have been spending a lot of time contemplating physics and philosophy. I'm going to focus on the philosophy in this post, as I am not smart enough to tackle the physics. But I will say this: that Einstein guy was pretty smart.

One theme that was central in some recent class material was the idea often referred to as The Golden Rule, commonly recited as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In short, be nice. But the more we peer under the surface, the more we see the far reaching implications of The Golden Rule.

So what does it really mean? Well, first off, let us acknowledge that The Golden Rule is not special to Christianity. It is a theme that is central in many different religious teachings:

Judaism: "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowman. That is the entire law; all the rest is commentary." -Talmud, Shabbat 31a.

Buddhism: "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." - Udana-Varga 5:18.

Islam: "No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself." - Sunnah

So in essence, don't do something if you wouldn't want it done to you. But why? Why do so many different religions make such a point of stressing the importance of this? I believe that this philosophy drills right down into one of the most important aspects of existence, and that is that everything in this universe- every man, woman, child, dog, frog, blade of grass, molecule of oxygen, and speck of star dust, is connected to everything else. You know the saying "we're all in this together"? Well, we really are all in this together. The religions understand this, and that is why The Golden Rule is so critical.

The reason that it is so important we do not dump our garbage over our neighbor's fence and into their lawn isn't so that they will not turn around and do the same. No. It is on a much greater scale than that. The reason is that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. (Ok, I admit, this is physics, specifically Newtonian). What this means to us though is that we get back what we put out, AKA- karma. If we do bad, we're going to get bad back. If we do good, we get good back.

Think about a world in which everyone adhered to the Golden Rule. If people acted with integrity, respect, and compassion, what would we get? We'd get justice. If people and corporations adhered to these principles, would we have rampant corporate malfeasance in our society? Would we have dog fighting rings? Would we have 24-hour cable news networks? (Well we might, but their content would be completely different.)

You  might be saying, "Seth, what the heck does this have to do with health? I want to know what carbs are good carbs, and which ones to avoid." Well, this has everything to do with our wellness. The better we are as individual people, the better off the world we live in becomes. If we are self-centered and concerned with only what is best for our individual situation, we promote a world that is self-centered and focused on ego. If we take into consideration how our interactions and actions affect others, then we help to create a world that reflects these values. This is what the various religions were getting at. The more positive energy we put out, the more positive energy there is in this universe.

I'll use myself as an example, specifically two things that I am working on as a person. The first is that I am trying to be less judgmental of people and situations. It is difficult, and it is something that I find myself working on every single day. Many of us have a natural inclination to quickly judge a new person or situation based on certain cues that we associate with our past experiences. This is a one-dimensional way to view a person, and does not have the integrity, respect, and compassion that I seek to treat others with. Also, I don't want to be judged by others, so it sort of flies in the face of that whole Golden Rule thingy that is so important.

The second thing that I am working on is speaking more from my heart and being more honest and forthright in my interactions. Being more authentic. This blog post is a great example of that. It isn't the easiest thing in the world to come out and talk about the belief that everything in the universe is connected to everything else. For one, it is very personal and intimate. Secondly, it is the kind of thing that some people might read and think, "That Seth guy is nuts. Plum loco. All foam, no beer." You know, judgmental stuff. Well, I could play it safe and just talk about good carbs and bad carbs, but then I would be one-dimensional. I wouldn't be authentic, and I would most definitely not be working towards fulfilling my personal mission.

I would encourage all of us to work towards being more self-aware of our actions and how they stack up against The Golden Rule. The actions we are putting out there- are they actions that we would like to see coming back at us? Because eventually they will.

And full disclosure, I am not perfect. Nobody is. And I am not better than anybody else. I am just working on being better than the one person on this planet I can be better than- me.

Be well.

Seth