The Golden Rule is most often attributed to words spoken by Jesus in the Bible. But as the following author ponders, this way of being was followed many years before Jesus walked the earth.
What’s truly interesting is that all decent people (not just believers in God) adopt a rule like the Golden Rule. Thus, there really doesn’t seem to be a religious basis for the rule. At bottom, it is a call for empathy. The more I consider morality, the more I think that it is empathy that is the basis for all workable moral systems. No matter what else a supposed moral system is about, if it’s not founded on widespread empathy (not just empathy toward the small circle of one’s own friends and family), it’s not really about morality. ~ Erich Vieth
As children we are indoctrinated with this rule and it is a valuable, simple and effective rule for kindergarteners to follow. But soon after this age, unless we are blessed with conscious loving parents and caregivers, it is common for a deterioration to begin to occur, for us as individuals, along with our self-esteem. We begin a slowly depreciating self-development that withers away self-worth. Some of us begin practices at an early age (our 20s), that allow us to clear away the hurts, the shoulds, the harm that life presented to us. Some of us take a bit longer and require an “event” to wake us up and find a path to freedom. Some of us may not get the wake up call and remain in a trance for the duration of our life.
Where I am going with the do unto others as we would have them do unto us is illuminate the problem with this phrase – because of our own lack of self-esteem and self-awareness. Since most, if not all, of us are not enlightened beings, we carry insults waiting to happen. These are not apparent insults; they are hidden in our own bodies, waiting for us to see them, love them, clear them, and heal them. If we don’t, our do unto others will be our debris waiting to be cleared up.
Said another way, the golden rule doesn’t work because we are not aware that we are worthy of being loved unconditionally. Most of us harbor doubt, confusion, and in the worst case, self-loathing. When we do not love ourselves completely and unconditionally, then any doing unto others carries the same impression, including self-loathing, but directed outwards. We only have the capacity to do unto others, what we do unto ourselves.
The best practice, in a world where much distrust, envy, deceit and anger is floating around, is to love ourselves. When we love ourselves, we soften and attend to the lingering debris in our bodies that calls for attention. We heal the tender holes and tensions with love, self-love. Then, from that place of wholeness we can truly love others. Do unto others what you would do unto yourself, AFTER you have loved yourself with your whole heart and whole mind.
My theory is that bad things happen because unconscious people are spreading their pain to others – doing unto others as they would do to themselves. They don’t know any better.
Do you love yourself fully?
Where might shreds of doubt, insecurity, and self-hindering be lingering in your life?
What sensations do you notice in your body that could be invitations for deeper exploration?
How does money affect your self-love? What pops up with that question?
Where does money live in your body of sufficiency; meaning, feeling whole and nourished with self-care?
These wonder queries are potent places for development.
My suggestion is, don’t go alone in your queries; ask a friend, be with nature, sit in vast silence with the world. We all, and I mean all, have places to heal in our bodies, minds and spirits… and money is nestled in each of those crevices.
It is mind-altering to recognize that as I become whole, heal and love myself unconditionally, everyone and everything around me benefits. In this stage of human development, our motto of loving with the Golden Rule actually has merit.
Self-loving, all-loving,
