Community, Environment

Community.

* Compassion
* Solidarity
* Peace
* Equality

It's about being aware. To See people, whether close to you and your home or on the other side of the world and a stranger.
It's about responsibility - for home, family and the Earth... Doing your part of making a difference. It doesn't have to be something grand! Even a small act of goodness can make a world of difference - bigger isn't better.

The opposite of Community is Indifference.

Environment.

It's where we are, where we live and breathe and bring up the Future. There are no other options but take responsibility, show consideration.

The opposite of Environment is... The End!

"We do not own the world, and its riches are not ours to dispose of at will. Show a loving consideration for all creatures, and seek to maintain the beauty and variety of the world. Work to ensure that our increasing power over nature is used responsibly, with reverence for life. Rejoice in the splendour of God's continuing creation."

(Advices&Queries no.42)

Love? No Thanks!

Being well-aware of the fact that I might currently be inclined to some bitterness in matters of Love I'm still going to put this out there.

There. is. no. such. thing. as. Life-long. Love.

Yup, that's my claim! You cannot 'just' love someone for a lifetime...!

OK, OK, chill your beans! I'm not saying you're not going to stay with your Mr./Mrs. Right for the rest of your life! ;) I'm just saying that a life-long commitment has not got that much to do with Love.

I mean it! Love is (and should be!) the 'side-effect' of Respect, Understanding, Friendship, Kindness and Communication (- of which 3/4 should be Listening!). If Love comes First then you're probably going to experience some trouble either early on in the relationship or after 10 years of trying to figure out the balance of all that other (more important!) stuff, the giving/taking, lifting/leaning, talking/listening... and, you'll figure out that thing called Love isn't at all what it's made out to be... If your lucky you manage to sort things out, put them in order but it's quite likely that it's all too messed up, too much out of balance for you to balance the scale right...

Love doesn't make the world go round.

On the other hand...you might already have known this...?! :) I think I have too, but it's taken me 'til now to put it into context...

The only exeption to this 'rule' is the Love between a Parent and a Child. Those little people you just Love, Love and Love...with all your heart! In that instance the Respect, Understanding, Kindness and Compassionate Communication comes out of Love. With grown-ups it works the other way...!

A parent cannot (or, shouldn't) 'just' Love their grown-up child either. When children grow up you need to readjust the 'Love-setting' to 'less'...and you treat them like the grown-ups they are. :)

I've given up on Love. I have!

I don't want it anymore. I deserve better than that. 

I hope to find, to be deserving of, a life-long friend, a confidant, an equal, whom I can talk to and who will listen...  rather than the complicated mess that love brings. If love happens to happen, eventually, then alright... I realise I might not be immune to...the infatuation of love... but I don't wish, hope or pray for it, neither for me or for anyone else...
Except! When it comes to Self-Love! (but that's a different post! ;))

Blog recap 2011

A look back on the blog year of 2011, here are the first blog posts of each month... To take you, and me, back through the year. :)

Psst..! the links open in a new window

January: A hesitant follower of the One Word. ;)

February: I heard and was compelled to share Brene Browns TEDtalk on vulnerability.

March: Finding inspirational words from the teacher of Alexander the Great.

April: Sharing some thoughts about compassion on the eve of Golden Rule Day.

May: Enjoyed being back at work, dispite the commute. :)

June: A lot of sharing goes on here on this blog, here's another one! :) An article well worth reading twice! :) God is not a Christian.

July: ...began with well-needed girliness² !

August: *sigh* Yeah... some days were frustration overload.

September: :) Finally time to go to my first Meeting!

October: Being a bit 'zen'... :)

November: ...began with some more sharing, this time a quote that really struck home...

December: I found myself a new 'man'! ♥  :D

:) This was fun! :D ...for me at least. ;) But I do hope you enjoyed it too.

Do you have any posts of mine that you in particular remember from last year...?? I'd love to hear what and why it stayed with you! :)

Love&Light,

My One Word 2012

OK, so I've picked my One Word for 2012. :) ...or, to be perfectly honest, It picked Me! ;) I was pretty sure I was going to use Faith this year. Because that's what I hope to have, to hold on to, through the tough times I know I've got ahead of me. But... At Meeting yesterday I was struck by the word Heart - what I really need for 2012 is to have Heart. :) So, that's my word! :)

♥


Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
- Confucius

Heart
n.

1. Anatomy
a. The chambered muscular organ in vertebrates that pumps blood received from the veins into the arteries, thereby maintaining the flow of blood through the entire circulatory system.
b. A similarly functioning structure in invertebrates.

2. The area that is the approximate location of the heart in the body; the breast.

3.
a. The vital center and source of one's being, emotions, and sensibilities.b. The repository of one's deepest and sincerest feelings and beliefs: an appeal from the heart; a subject dear to her heart.
c. The seat of the intellect or imagination: the worst atrocities the human heart could devise.
4.
a. Emotional constitution, basic disposition, or character: a man after my own heart.
b. One's prevailing mood or current inclination: We were light of heart.

5.
a. Capacity for sympathy or generosity; compassion: a leader who seems to have no heart.
b. Love; affection: The child won my heart.

6.
a. Courage; resolution; fortitude: The soldiers lost heart and retreated.
b. The firmness of will or the callousness required to carry out an unpleasant task or responsibility: hadn't the heart to send them away without food.

7. A person esteemed or admired as lovable, loyal, or courageous: a dear heart.

8.  a. The central or innermost physical part of a place or region: the heart of the financial district.
b. The core of a plant, fruit, or vegetable: hearts of palm.

9. The most important or essential part: get to the heart of the matter.

10. A conventional two-lobed representation of the heart, usually colored red or pink.


Idioms:
at heart
In one's deepest feelings; fundamentally.

by heart
Learned by rote; memorized word for word.

do (one's) heart good
To lift one's spirits; make one happy. from the bottom/depths of (one's) heart
With the deepest appreciation; most sincerely.

have (one's) heart in (one's) mouth
To be extremely frightened or anxious.

have (one's) heart in the right place
To be well-intentioned. heart and soul
Completely; entirely. in (one's) heart of hearts
In the seat of one's truest feelings.

lose (one's) heart to
To fall in love with.

near/close to (one's) heart
Loved by or important to one.

steal (someone's) heart
To win one's affection or love.

take to heart
To take seriously and be affected or troubled by: Don't take my criticism to heart.
to (one's) heart's content
To one's entire satisfaction, without limitation. wear (one's) heart on (one's) sleeve
To show one's feelings clearly and openly by one's behavior.

with all (one's) heart
1. With great willingness or pleasure.
2. With the deepest feeling or devotion

♥

Always coping...

Is that a bad thing...? I think it is and it isn't... Just like with me being 'too kind'... It's a good thing...and it isn't...

I'm trying, I want to surrender...to trust that things are going just the way they're supposed to...just like I believe that they are...! (not sure if that made any sense to anyone else but me!)

What I mean is... I know things are going, happening, occuring for a reason, a purpose bigger than myself and they are not always (rarely?) about me but about being a part of this 'web of life' (sounds a bit cheesy but I can't find a better word right now) that we're all a part of. I believe in a sort of ripple effect...that every action has a reaction - cause and effect - falling, stumbling, hurting to learn, grow, evolve... know what I mean??

The Source and Aim for all of this is always Compassion! Never ever being about pointless torture to the amusement of... God(s) (or whatya'ma'callit) - even if I too admit to feeling unfairly stomped on at (current) times...

I know this, yet I struggle with trusting it.

I want to learn how to trust...

In the Light?


This was sooo not the post I had imagined writing...!

Good News!

I'm not big on subscribing to magazines. I don't even get a newspaper any more - I still manage to get the news! :) I like me the odd bit of Royal gossip now and again but I'm not that keen knowing who a certain celebrity might, or might not, be sleeping with at the moment so cheezy gossip mags are quite quickly flicked through...

Most stuff deemed newsworthy, in the regular 'proprer' new now just isn't... There's too much doom and gloom, sadness, sickness, greed and agony in my opinion. Sure, we need to hear that too but not just that! There's very few sunshine stories to inspire us towards positive change, towards thinking, feeling, knowing that this place might not be The Best, but together we CAN make it/take it there! :)

I'd like to hear more of those kinds of news! News of compassion and kindness, of hope and inspiration, of light in the darkness... Things I'd not be afraid to share with my young children (who are too young to be allowed to watch the news broadcast with me) and guess what!? :) I've found it! :D In Good News Magazine, a reasonably new Swedish magazine that just happened ;) to fall into my lap last weekend on my lunch break when I was hunting for something readworthy at work. Chance? ;) I think not and as soon as I got home I ordered a subscription for myself.

The magazine is thick as a book and filled to the brim with inspiration! Joy, Light, Hope, Positive Progress, Health and Smiles. This particular no. had articles on Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontier, TED.com and hope in Afghanistan and much more!! :) My kind of magazine! :D :D :D

Yesterday I got my first very own issue of the GNM and this one is titled With The Help of Techology and I'm still ploughing my way through it! :) I want to read every single word of it! Even the ads (that are surprisingly few!) are interesting!! :D :D :D

GNM's facebook page shares positive stories/articles, most of them in English. Like them and start feeling postitive about the world we live in! :)

Love&Light,

I am a rare limited edition!

:) :) :)

A friend posted this statement on his facebookstatus the other day and I just loooove it! :D Imagine what Life would be like and how we would treat ourselves and each other if we truly realised that we are all rare limited editions... ♥

And! As you see got inspired to do a polyvore set too! :) (it's been a while!) If you feel inclined you're more than welcome to spread the word and copy the image to go along with a post. :)

Love&Light,

So, here I go...

I promise to love, honour and respect myself, so that I may be the best person I can be for those who I love and who love me in return.

By treating myself with kindness and compassion I stand as an example to others

(most importantly to my children)

of how they too can, and should, consider and treat themselves and others. We should not allow anyone, least ourselves, to put us down or dull our shine.

In the vast Universe there is only one of me

 and I am better than I hold myself to be.

From now on I will treat myself as I as well as I would want others to treat me, with love.

Love&Light,

Would you take the pledge with me...for you?

Golden Rule Day

"Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion."
- Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

What have you been up to today? :) I've not been up to much. Only been interacting with the family and unfortunately not really showing of the most compassionate side of myself. :/ The little people, especially little miss is trowing herself head first into the most awesome power struggles with me/us/any grown up at the moment and she just. doesn't. give. in! 'Unfortunately' she gets the stubborn streak from both her mum and dad and it isn't easy peasy for her either, 'cause she soooo badly wants to get her way, with everything. She needs compassion, I know this! I've done the theory and passed :D but theory and practise isn't so 'easy' when it comes to ones own offspring. *blushes* It's a struggle when she pushes aaaall my buttons at once and nothing I try to do for her is good enough... *breathe!* Let's say it's a work in progress, ok? ;p

I have been torturing (?) my facebook pals with Golden Rule-quotes all day and perhaps/maybe/hopefully brought compassion into light for some...? :)

Hope you have a day full of compassion,
♥

"That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it."
- Rabbi Hillel,
Talmud, Shabbat 31a

The Eve of Golden Rule Day.

"Trying to live according to the Golden Rule means trying to empathise with other people, including those who may be very different from us. Empathy is at the root of kindness, compassion, understanding and respect – qualities that we all appreciate being shown, whoever we are, whatever we think and wherever we come from. And although it isn’t possible to know what it really feels like to be a different person or live in different circumstances and have different life experiences, it isn’t difficult for most of us to imagine what would cause us suffering and to try to avoid causing suffering to others." (from thinkhumanism.com)

"..do as you would be done by. And do unto all men as you would have them do unto you..."

- The Quaker Peace Testimony

"What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others." 

- Epictetus

Tomorrow is Golden Rule Day. A day to be mindful of what it means to be compassionate. Perhaps the Day to begin living a more compassionate life, both towards yourself and others?

I truly believe that kindness, compassion, consideration for 'the other' and realisation that I am the other is crucial for a better tomorrow, for all of us.

Golden Rule Day Kick Off

Karen Armstrong, founder of the Charter for Compassion, kicks off the week leading up to International Golden Rule Day (April 5, 2011). Let me know what you think about the Golden Rule, about compassion. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Learn more about Golden Rule Day, 5 April, on http://www.facebook.com/CharterforCompassion

Thomas Merton

Via Master Coelho's blog I found this prayer by Thomas Merton.


My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going,
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
__________________________________

in Thoughts in Solitude

It made me curious to know more about Merton (see wiki-link above) and his words. I found a lot! :)

Here's 'a little bit' of what I found:

"To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that Love is the reason for my existence, for God is love.
Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name."

"The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another."

"Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can."

"It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is the beginning of blessedness and the consummation of humility is the perfection of all joy. Humility contains in itself the answer to all the great problems of the life of the soul. It is the only key to faith, with which the spiritual life begins: for faith and humility are inseparable. In perfect humility all selfishness disappears and your soul no longer lives for itself or in itself for God: and it is lost and submerged in Him and transformed into Him."

"Life consists in learning to live on one’s own, spontaneous, freewheeling: to do this one must recognize what is one’s own—be familiar and at home with oneself. This means basically learning who one is, and learning what one has to offer to the contemporary world, and then learning how to make that offering valid."

"We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen."

"...to love another as a person we must begin by granting him his own autonomy and identity as a person. We have to love him for what he is in himself, and not for what he is to us. We have to love him for his own good, not for the good we get out of him. And this is impossible unless we are capable of a love which 'transforms' us, so to speak, into the other person, making us able to see things a he sees them, love what he loves, experience the deeper realities of his own life as if they were our own. Without sacrifice, such a transformation is utterly impossible. But unless we are capable of this kind of transformation 'into the other' while remaining ourselves, we are not yet capable of a fully human existence."
(here's what I have to say on Love)

"The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt."

"A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire."

"We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent,
and God is shining through it all the time...
He is everywhere,
He is in everything,
and we cannot be without Him."

- Thomas Merton



For more Merton quotes follow this link.

Brene Brown: The power of vulnerability

Whoa! Wow! Listen to this! It made me laugh and cry (specifically at 16:20 and 18:00) and smile... It's a 20 min. talk, take/make the time to hear it!

"To feel vulnerable is to feel alive..." wow...

Confucius

Confucius (Kong Fu Zi), 551 BC – 479 BC. A Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings deeply influenced East Asian life and thought. Confucius presented himself as a "transmitter who invented nothing" (not speaking of unknown things? ;)) and he put great emphasis on the importance of study (or learning).

Confucius's moral system was based upon empathy and understanding others. Virtue was based upon harmony with other people, summed up in the earliest versions of the Golden Rule.

"What one does not wish for oneself,
one ought not to do to anyone else;
what one recognises as desirable for oneself,
one ought to be willing to grant to others."
- Confucius

More quotes from Confucius:

"Knowledge is recognizing what you know and what you don't."

"Reviewing what you have learned and learning anew, you are fit to be a teacher."

"To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous."

"When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves."

"It does not matter how slowly you go
so long as you do not stop."

"To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness."

"He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good."

Tenzin Gyatso - 14th Dalai Lama

"The time has come to educate people, to cease all quarrels in the name of religion, culture, countries, different political or economic systems. Fighting is useless. Suicide." - Dalai Lama

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." - Dalai Lama

"All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness..." - Dalai Lama

"I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion and elimination of ignorance, selfishness and greed.

The problems we face today, violent conflicts, destruction of nature, poverty, hunger, and so on, are human-created problems which can be resolved through human effort, understanding and the development of a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. We need to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and the planet we share. Although I have found my own Buddhist religion helpful in generating love and compassion, even for those we consider our enemies, I am convinced that everyone can develop a good heart and a sense of universal responsibility with or without religion."
- The 14th Dalai Lama's Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1989
Kindness is my religion too, even if I'm not a buddhist. This man has so many ideas so similar to my own. Truly someone to draw inspiration from, whatever faith you belong to or renounce yourself from...

I speak not of unknown things.

♥ Compassion ♥

Watch this spectacular video produced for the one-year anniversary of the Charter for Compassion. Featuring voice of Rainn Wilson.



Learn. Act. Share.

More compassion.

I know I keep coming back to this topic but it is something I feel that we can't have too much of. I follow the facebook group of the Charter for Compassion and which give me interesting updates. Today I was informed that "Karen Armstrong will appear on CNN this morning at 8:30 am ET on Faces of Faith. Karen was part of a panel on Interfaith leadership." and I truly hope that CNN is CNN all over the world 'cause then I'll tune in on the right program *fingers crossed* when I've finished writing this blog post. :)

I had a quick search on cnn.com to see if there was any more info about Karen or the Charter to be found there but I sort of got lost a bit. I did find this article (follow link or read it further down) though... It confirms the conviction I feel for the Charter. It is just what I've been feeling in my gut since like forever...! I'm not alone in thinking/feeling this way... :)

Which Karen Armstrong and Desmond Tutu express in the article - "Each [religion] has its own particular genius and each its particular flaws. Every single one of the faiths regards compassion and the Golden Rule as the litmus test of true spirituality and sees it as one of the main ways in which we come into relation with the transcendence that we call God, Nirvana, Brahman or Tao."

***
From cnn.com by Karen Armstrong and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, November 10, 2009
We have called on the world to sign up to a Charter for Compassion.

Compassion is the principled determination to put ourselves into the place of the other and it lies at the heart of all truly religious and ethical systems.

The charter, which will be unveiled Thursday, November 12, has been composed by leading thinkers in many different faiths. Thousands of people have contributed to it online. It is a cooperative effort to restore compassion to the center of religious, moral and political life. Why is this so important?

One of the most urgent tasks of our generation is to build a global community, where men and women of all races, nations and ideologies can live together in peace.

Religion, which should be making a major contribution to this endeavor, is often seen as part of the problem. All too often the voices of extremism seem to drown those that speak of kindness, forbearance and mutual respect. Yet the founders of every single one of the great traditions recoiled from the violence of their time and tried to replace it with an ethic of compassion.

The great sages who promoted the Golden Rule were nearly all living during periods of history like our own. They argued that a truly compassionate ethic served people's best interests and made good practical sense.

When the Bible commands that we "love" the foreigner, it was not speaking of emotional tenderness: in Leviticus, "love" was a legal term: It was used in international treaties, when two kings would promise to give each other practical support, help and loyalty, and look out for each other's best interests. In our global world, everybody has become our neighbor, and the Golden Rule has become an urgent necessity.

When asked by a pagan to sum up the whole of Jewish teaching while he stood on one leg, Rabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus, replied: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the Torah -- and everything else is only commentary." His Holiness the Dalai Lama put it even more succinctly when he said: "My religion is kindness."

These traditions have also pointed out that it is not sufficient to confine our benevolence to those we find congenial -- to our own ethnic, national or ideological group. We must have what one of the Chinese sages called jian ai, "concern for everybody." If practiced assiduously -- "all day and every day," as Confucius enjoined -- we begin to appreciate our profound interdependence and become fully humane.

We come at this issue from different perspectives. I, Karen, was a Roman Catholic nun for seven years, from the age of 17 to 24. After that, I turned away from religion but came back to it after a series of career disasters -- when I was invited to make some TV programs for Channel 4, which was just opening up in the United Kingdom. The more I studied religious traditions that were different from my own, the more I had to revise my views on faith in general.

I started to study Judaism and Islam, and found that these faiths both offered a perspective on religion that was different from the somewhat parochial Catholicism of my childhood but which really resonated with me. I no longer see any of the great faith traditions, eastern and western, as superior to any of the others.

Each has its own particular genius and each its particular flaws. Every single one of the faiths regards compassion and the Golden Rule as the litmus test of true spirituality and sees it as one of the main ways in which we come into relation with the transcendence that we call God, Nirvana, Brahman or Tao.

In 2008, I was honored to receive the TED Prize, which consists of money, but more importantly, a wish for a better world the TED organization will help you to realize. I knew at once what I wanted to do and TED helped refine it. The result was a Charter that would restore compassion to its central place in religious and moral life.

If we wish to create a viable world order, we must try to implement the Golden Rule globally, treating all peoples, even those who seem far removed from us, as we would wish to be treated ourselves. We must strive for a global democracy, in which everybody, not only the rich and powerful, has a voice and which takes everybody's needs and aspirations with the utmost seriousness and respect.

Today we are all bound together, electronically, economically and politically, as never before. Our financial markets are inextricably connected: When one falls, there is a ripple effect worldwide. What happens in Afghanistan or Iraq today may well have repercussions tomorrow in New York or London.

Our world has become dangerously polarized and many of our policies -- political, economic, financial and environmental -- seem no longer sustainable. We have a choice. We can either choose the aggressive and exclusive tendencies that have developed in practically all religious and secular traditions or we can cultivate those that speak of compassion, empathy, respect and an impartial "concern for everybody."

The Charter for Compassion is not simply a statement of principle. It is above all a summons to creative, practical and sustained action to meet the political, moral, religious, social and cultural problems of our time. You can find out how you and your community can participate in the launch and in the ongoing effort to build a fair, just and compassionate world on our Web site: charterforcompassion.org.

We cannot afford to be paralyzed by global suffering. We have the power to work together energetically for the well-being of humanity, and counter the despairing extremism of our time. Many of us have experienced the power of compassion in our own lives. We know how a single act of kindness and empathy can turn a life around. History also shows that the action of just a few individuals can make all the difference. In a world that seems spinning out of control, we need such action now.

The Charter is a summons to action and includes directives about how to implement the Golden Rule. There can be no detailed directives; everybody will have to see how to do this in his or her particular sphere: in the media, in study, teaching, parenting, business, or politics.

The launch is only the beginning of the journey -- not the end.

"...the litmus test of true spirituality..." I LOVE it!! :)

My calling...?

I think I may have figured mine out...my calling that is... can one actually do that?! :)

I want to be a teacher, I'm learning to be one. :) I'm feeling fairly confident about that role. But, I want to be more than that...I want to be a good person who does and sees the good in others. I'm not perfect but neither is anyone else...we're all human, have the same worth...

All these things are coming together for me recently and I'm still not sure what it all means, where it will all take me but I'm trying to "go with the flow" because I don't feel all that in control of the situation (as I'd like to be). I feel gently but firmly urged, nudged into a place that feels both scary and yet so obvious...

....

I don't know...maybe I've just finally grown up or something but for the first time (ever?) I feel an urge to do something, to use my voice and embrace me - all that I know (and have been told) I am but have been fighting against... Gosh! Sounds like total gibberish doesn't it!? As I said, I don't really know what I'm in right now but I'm fairly certain I'll keep on going right into it.

Weird...

This wasn't really how I'd thought this post would turn out, I thought that I would be able to be a bit more specific but apparently not.

9/11 and Compassion: We Need It Now More Than Ever

Article from The Huffington Post
By Karen Armstrong
Former Roman Catholic nun;
Author, 'Through the Narrow Gate'
Posted: September 10, 2010 08:24 PM

The anniversary of 9/11 reminds us why we need the Charter for Compassion. It should be an annual summons to compassionate action. The need is especially apparent this year. In the United States, we have witnessed an upsurge of anti-Muslim feeling that violates the core values of that nation. The controversy surrounding the community centre near Ground Zero, planned by our dear friends Imam Feisal Rauf and Daisy Khan (who were among the earliest supporters and partners of the Charter) has inspired rhetoric that shames us all. And now we have the prospect of the Quran burning proposed by a Christian pastor, who seems to have forgotten that Jesus taught his followers to love those they regard as enemies, to respond to evil with good, and to turn the other cheek when attacked, and who died forgiving his executioners.

If we want to preserve our humanity, we must make the compassionate voice of religion and morality a vibrant and dynamic force in our polarised world. We can no longer afford the barbarism of hatred, contempt and disgust. At the same time as we are so perilously divided, we are drawn together electronically, economically and politically more closely than ever before. A Quran burning, whenever it is held (it appears to have been delayed for questionable reasons by the pastor behind it), would endanger American troops in Afghanistan and send shock waves of distress throughout the Muslim world. In an age when, increasingly, small groups will have powers of destruction that were previously the preserve only of the nation-state, respect and compassion are now crucial for our very survival. We have to learn to make a place for the other in our minds and hearts; any ideology that inspires hatred, exclusion and division is failing the test of our time. Hatred breeds more hatred, violence more violence. It is time to break this vicious cycle.

In response to the prospect of a Quran burning, some people planned readings of the sacred Quran. Others are organizing interfaith gatherings on September 11. Each person who has affirmed the Charter, each one of our partners and associates, will know how best to respond in his or her own community. It is an opportunity to protest against the hatred that is damaging us all; to sit and do nothing is not an option. Instead of looking at one another with hostility, let us look at the suffering that we are seeing in so many parts of the world -- not least in Pakistan, where millions of people have been victims of the flooding. On September 11, let us all try to find something practical to do that can, in however small a way, bring help and relief to all those in pain, even -- and perhaps especially -- those we may regard as enemies. We are all neighbours in the global village and must learn to live together in harmony, compassion and mutual respect.

Imam Feisal Rauf is a Sufi. Over the centuries, Sufis, the mystics of Islam, have developed an outstanding appreciation of other faith traditions. It is quite common for a Sufi poet to cry in ecstasy that he is no longer a Muslim, a Christian or a Jew and that he is at home equally in a synagogue, mosque, temple or church, because once you have glimpsed the immensity of the divine, these limited, human distinctions fall away into insignificance. We need that spirit today -- perhaps especially near Ground Zero. Here I would like to add some words of the great thirteenth-century Sufi philosopher Muid ad-Din ibn al-Arabi, which I have found personally inspiring:

Do not attach yourself in an exclusive manner to any one creed, so that you disbelieve all the rest: if you do this, you will miss much good; nay, you will fail to realize the real truth of the matter. God, the omnipresent and omnipotent, is not limited by any one creed, for He says, "Wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah" (Quran 2.109). Everyone praises what he believes; his god is his own creature, and in praising it he praises himself. Consequently he blames the beliefs of others, which he would not do if he were just but his dislike is based on ignorance.

It is time to combat the ignorance that inspires hatred and fear. We have seen the harm religious chauvinism can do; now let us bear witness to the power of compassion.

Karen Armstrong

...a provocative, original thinker on the role of religion in the modern world.



Religious thinker Karen Armstrong has written more than 20 books on faith and the major religions, studying what Islam, Judaism and Christianity have in common, and how our faiths shaped world history and drive current events.

A former nun, Armstrong has written two books about this experience: Through the Narrow Gate, about her seven years in the convent, and The Spiral Staircase, about her subsequent spiritual awakening, when she developed her iconoclastic take on the major monotheistic religions -- and on the strains of fundamentalism common to all. She is a powerful voice for ecumenical understanding.
(text taken from TED.com)