Karen Armstring and the Charter for Compassion

Karen Armstrong, authority on comparative religion and spirituality, was recently awarded a TED prize, given annually to the best thinkers and innovators of the world.

In her acceptance speech, Armstrong identified the critical difference between belief and faith. "Religion isn't about believing things. It's about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness." Studying the world’s religions, she realized that belief, about which we make so much a fuss today, was a recent religious phenomenon that surfaced in the West around the 17th century.

The word ‘belief’ originally meant to love, to prize, to hold dear. It meant, “I commit myself. I engage myself.” From the 17th century onwards, however, the word narrowed its focus to mean merely an intellectual assent to a set of propositions: a credo. It lost its transformational power. Instead, ‘belief’ came merely to mean, ‘I accept certain creedal articles of faith.’ It lost its mooring.

What Armstrong found in her research was that religion was about behaving ethically and morally. Instead of flaunting your faith and engaging in religious chauvinism, do something positive. Behave in a committed way. Then, and only then, you begin to understand the truths of religion. Religious doctrines are meant to be summons to action; you only understand them when you put them into practice.

Compassion is at the core of religious practice. “In every single one of the world’s major faiths, compassion – the ability to feel with the other – is not only the test of any true religiosity, it is also what will bring us into the presence of what Jews, Christians and Muslims call God or the Divine.” Why? “Because in compassion, when we feel with the other, we dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and we put another person there. And once we get rid of ego, then we are ready to see the Divine.”

Armstrong hopes that the Golden Rule will become the central global religious doctrine for our times. The Golden Rule can be stated either positively or negatively, both equally meaningful. “Do to others what you would like others to do to you.” (Treat others as you would like others to treat you.) Or, “Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you. (Do not treat others in a way that you would not want yourself to be treated).

Practicing the Golden Rule is difficult. Unfortunately many religious people prefer to be right, rather than to be compassionate. We also need to move beyond mere toleration and toward appreciation of the other.

Every TED winner is granted a wish. Armstrong wished for the creation and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, to be crafted by a group of inspirational thinkers from Judaism, Christianity and Islam and to be based on the Golden Rule. “We cannot confine our compassion to our own group or countrymen or co-religionists. We must have what one of the Chinese sages called ‘jian ai’: concern for everybody. Love your enemies. Honor the stranger. God created nations and tribes so that we may know one another.”

What Armstrong hopes for is to “a movement among people who want to join up and reclaim their faith which has been hijacked … We need to empower people to remember the compassionate ethos … Jews, Christians and Muslims, who so often are at loggerheads, have to work together to create a document which we hope will be signed by people from all the traditions of the world … I would like to see it in every college, every church, every mosque, every synagogue in the world, so that people can look at their tradition, reclaim it, and make religion a source of peace in the world.”

You can join and affirm the Charter’s principles here.

You can also read a fuller version of this article at bdnews24.

Creating a Life Around Your Passion

Kozhi Sidney Makai was born in Zambia but grew up in Texas. The youngest of nine children, he has made it his life’s mission to help people rise above their potential. A motivational speaker and an author of such books as How Can I Come Up? and Born Beating the Odds, Dr. Makai was the featured speaker recently at a local college. He had wit, style and substance and kept us in stitches with his mimicry of Texan mannerisms.

Success, according to Makai, is not about wealth or leisure but about having options. All of us have options. We just have to have the vision and the confidence to see them. Sometimes life makes decisions for us. The options are still there. We just have to seize the ones that can enrich our lives. Those who settle for limited options and feel defeated by adverse circumstances lead depressing, unfulfilled lives.

Conventional wisdom says that we are judged only by what we finish. Makai disagrees. Our lives are also defined by what we begin. Even if we cannot finish some of the projects, they can positively influence those that we do. One way we can rise above our potential is to question everything, particularly conventional wisdom. It is not that we will get answers to all our questions. The power lies in the act of questioning itself. A writer must ask questions to write well. “Why am I writing this? Why will anyone be interested in this? Why should my characters evolve this way and not that?” Too often we settle for What, When and Who but not Why. Yet critical thinking often springs only from the Why.

Life, as Makai sees it, is more wrestling and less dancing. Everyday we wrestle with choices. That’s the source of growth. Life is lived in the moments. A life fully engaged in the present is rich. Makai, who played professional basketball for five years abroad, often observes parents who show up at their children’s games. They are present physically but absent emotionally or spiritually, constantly chatting on their phones or texting on their BlackBerries. Children can see through that.

When we become complacent and comfortable, we stop growing. That’s why it is so important to be open to new possibilities and beginnings. “I changed my major five times. You may think it is easy to find what you are passionate about. It is not. You may have to change direction a few times before you find your life’s calling, even if you have a general idea of what you want to be.” Many of us want to be successful but are unwilling to pay the price - of responsibility, accountability, hard work, dedication, being true to ourselves. Makai’s advice is that if we are receptive to our own thoughts, passions and dreams, we will know when changing direction is for our good and gladly put in the extra effort to succeed.

One question that reveals how we feel about ourselves is: “How is that working for you?” We become self-conscious when asked such a question. It soon becomes clear, however, that many of us are dissatisfied with our lives. “But here’s the thing,” said Makai. “You don’t have to keep publishing the same story. If your story is messed-up, if it sucks, if it is wrong, you have the option to change it. You are in control. Mediocrity is something you impose on yourself. If you think life has been unfair to you, turn that into an advantage. Learn how to turn the inevitable setbacks of life into opportunities

We succeed when we create our lives around our passions and dreams. “No one is more qualified to be you than you. Be what you want to be, not what others want you to be.” As a thinker, writer or whatever you choose to be,” said Makai, “you carry a signature that is uniquely your. It’s like your fingerprint. There’s nothing else like it in the universe. Be a first-rate version of yourself than a second-rate version of someone else."

To Write, First Forgive

“There are no accidents in life, only opportunities. I really believe that.”

Holly Payne, author and writing coach, was addressing budding writers at the Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California, as part of the institution's November 2009 authors’ series.

Her latest book, Kingdom of Simplicity, was named a Bay Area Best Seller by the San Francisco Chronicle. Payne was recalling the origin of Kingdom, and how the events associated with it shaped her life.

She was 22. An avid hiker, she was exploring the trails in Colorado’s Crested Butte at 9000 ft. in the summer of 1994 when she saw two bikers in the dark. Out of concern, she held out her flashlight for them. Next thing she knew, a drunken driver had hit all three of them.

As she lay on the ground, not sure if she was dead or alive, she looked up at the mountains and an inexplicable thought came to her. “It was surreal. As the seconds stretched into eternity, I told myself, if I survive this, I will be a writer. I’m going to write.”

Payne had just graduated from college and dreamed of becoming a foreign correspondent. She had grown up in the sheltering Amish country of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and longed to see the world, to tell stories of people in faraway places.

But now, not only were most of her bones broken, her dream seemed shattered too. She had a choice. She could stay angry at the driver or she could work her way through what fate had dealt her.

She chose the latter. Or thought so. She began writing, finding it to be cathartic, “a little bit of science and a lot of craft.”

But had she let go of her anger? Six months after the accident, a letter reached her from the driver who had hit her, imploring for forgiveness. She would have none of it. She put the letter away in a pile of medical and insurance papers and forgot about it.

Twelve year later, in October of 2006, a horrified Payne read about a schoolhouse shooting in the Amish country of her childhood. A lone gunman had killed five girls execution-style before turning the gun on himself. She returned and discovered that the parents of the slain girls, and the larger Amish community, had already forgiven the killer. In fact, they had opened a fund for his family.

Suddenly, the idea of forgiveness became real for her. The Amish did not believe in holding onto events, however wrenching they might be. They found freedom in forgiveness. In private they were angry and sad but by consciously choosing to forgive the killer, they were able to move to the present and maintain the continuity of their community, their “beautifully complex culture.”

For Payne this was a revelation. She realized that by rejecting the drunken man’s plea for forgiveness, she was living in the past and was, in the scheme of things, perhaps more to blame than he was. Her exterior may have healed but inside, she was still limping.

In forgiveness, Payne discovered her kingdom of simplicity. “If you cannot forgive, you cannot love. And without love, how can you write?” She wrote Kingdom as a response to the letter she refused to read twelve years earlier and dedicated the book to its writer. She was finally free.

In her travels in Europe, Asia and America, Payne has found that all of us have a unique story to tell. Her advice to aspiring writers is to have the courage and the confidence to become story-tellers. “Through stories, we get to know ourselves. If a hotshot editor or agent from New York tells you that your story has 'already been done,' tell him that it hasn’t been done like this.” Learn how to be vulnerable,” she said, “and as you involve yourself with the world, let go of what is holding you back and sit down to write.”

Shock and Anger at Ft. Hood Rampage

A deranged U.S. Army major opens fire at Ft. Hood in Texas and takes 13 lives, injuring many more. There are no ifs and buts about this: No matter what his personal grievances may have been, he is a killer, a cold-blooded murderer, and must pay the price for his heinous crime.

The killer’s name is Nidal Malik Hasan, a Virginia-born American Muslim who joined the Army right after high school, against his parents’ wishes. Nidal justified his decision to join the Army this way: “I was born and raised here. I’m going to do my duty to the country.”

He started out with a noble intention but when it came to preserving that nobility through life’s trials, he failed miserably. He became an Army psychiatrist, trained to heal soldiers suffering from the stress and trauma of war. But the healer turned into a killer, unable to control his inner demons.

Americans of all creed and color have expressed grave misgivings about our involvement in Afghanistan and the illegitimate war in Iraq. But if you are a member of the armed forces, you are bound by certain rules and obligations that the average citizen is not exposed to. If the rules violate your moral and ethical codes, you have several recourse, all spelled out in the Army code of conduct. They are difficult choices, but choices nonetheless.

Nidal Malik Hasan did not want to be deployed to Afghanistan. He became increasingly paranoid and hostile toward his country and its policies. And then one day he cracked and innocent Americans paid with their lives.

Reports are filtering out that he was taunted by fellow soldiers for his faith, that he posted blogs praising suicide bombers and denouncing the U.S presence in Muslim lands. If that is indeed the case, and the FBI and the Army knew that Malik Hasan was a ticking time bomb, what action did they take, if any? This is a question that must be answered. It is one thing to be sensitive about minorities; it is quite another to be lax about behavioral issues that can have deadly consequences.

One detail about the Major stands out: After the death of his parents in 1998 and 2001, “he became more devout.”

The implication seems to be that more devout means becoming prone to extremist behavior.

The argument is too silly to consider. It is enough to point out that if greater devotion led to more carnage, the world as we know it would have ceased to exist long ago.

What probably happened was that Major Hasan found comfort in his own volatile mix of rage, fear and frustration, and acted on the irrational impulse it created. He may have channeled it through a religious subtext of seductive certainty but we shouldn’t be fooled by it.

American Muslims are understandably nervous and disgusted. Even more so are the thousands of Muslims who serve in America’s armed forces. According to the Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, there are currently 20,000 Muslims serving with honor in the U.S. military. Can they shake off that look of suspicion from fellow soldiers, that unspoken, subtle doubt about their loyalty to the nation? It will not be easy but one can only hope that it will pass with time

Meanwhile, our deepest sympathies are with the families of the fallen. The light of their lives was snatched away in a moment of cruelty. We mourn with them and pray for peace and justice for them.

Missing the Big Picture

One of the profound paradoxes of life is that the average person can see through an issue with a clarity that eludes the best and the brightest.

Such is the case with deploying more troops to Afghanistan. What exactly is the strategic importance of Afghanistan to the United States at this time? The Soviet empire has collapsed, so there is no question of any contest for supremacy there. A reminder for Iran to behave and Pakistan to crack down on the Taliban? Questionable. To stop Al-Qaeda from returning to that graveyard of empires? What a laugh!

Yet our leaders and military commanders continue to act as if saving Afghanistan from Osama Bin Laden and warring warlords will translate into making the world safe for democracy.

What would happen if America were to withdraw from Afghanistan or reduce its footprint? Tom Friedman of the New York Times offers this analysis: In the Middle East, all politics happens the morning after the morning after. Be patient. Yes, the morning after we shrink down in Afghanistan, the Taliban will celebrate, Pakistan will quake and Bin Laden will issue an exultant video. And the morning after the morning after, the Taliban factions will start fighting each other, the Pakistani Army will have to destroy their Taliban, or be destroyed by them, Afghanistan’s warlords will carve up the country ..."

Judging from nationwide polls, this seems to be how many Americans feel. Yet President Obama is weighing requests by his top military commanders to send more troops and deepen America’s involvement in Afghanistan. Given his penchant for consensus, the president will probably not send as many troops as requested but overall, is likely to prolong the war there. Note that by 2010, America will have been in Afghanistan longer than the Soviets were in their catastrophic attempt to bring the country under their control.

Consider another perspective by Nicholas Kristof, also a columnist for the New York Times. “One of the most compelling arguments against more troops rests on this stunning trade-off: For the cost of a single additional soldier stationed in Afghanistan for one year, we could build roughly 20 schools there. It is hard to do the calculation precisely, but for the cost of 40,000 troops over a few years – well, we could just about turn every Afghan into a Ph.D.”

Kristof also notes that “Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, has now built 39 schools in Afghanistan and 92 in Pakistan — and not one has been burned down or closed."

So there you have it. But an “expert” may say, “Well, these guys are not on the ground. They are armchair generals, as most of you are, so you really don’t understand the complexity and that’s why you offer these simplistic solutions.

Not quite. Consider Matthew Hoh, the Foreign Service officer and former marine captain, who resigned from a civilian post in Afghanistan this week to protest U.S. policy. We can’t win, he said in his resignation letter, and our presence is only fueling the insurgency. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end."

Indeed, why and to what end? The stark truth: There is none. Yet the cost in lives and wasted resources in Afghanistan are beyond calculation.

And democracy? Impartial observers have confirmed that Hamid Karzai stole the recent election and that his brother has been on CIA's payroll all along. “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!"

We return, then, to the paradox: How is it that the smartest brains cannot see the forest for the trees, particularly when their claim to fame is that that’s precisely where they tower above you and me?

Is it because power and an inflated sense of self blind one to the obvious? Can it be because they think that the fate of the world depends on them and that their decisions today will change the course of history tomorrow? Or is it because they are such believers in technological superiority and manifest destiny that they have become immune to history’s lessons?

Humility and a sense of the big picture seem to be missing from our leaders and commanders. The solution: heed the wisdom of the average citizen, do not be goaded into prolonging this war by the exhortations of rabid right-wingers, and know that history keeps its own timetable, indifferent to the might and machinery of mere mortals.

Happiness and Terror

Which is stronger, happiness or terror?

It must be terror because each occurrence of it bears its unique unexpectedness, its singular set of demons and diabolical characters. Happiness, on the other hand, is more fleeting, its source more common. And therefore, more easy to miss. The contrast is similar to how Tolstoy described happy and unhappy families in Anna Karenina: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Substitute terror for unhappy families and Tolstoy's insight remains equally compelling.

I got to thinking of this after watching "Where the Wild Things Are." Maurice Sendak's 1963 classic has been turned into a movie and shows Max fleeing from his "monstrous" mother into the arms of wild things who are torn between eating him and hugging him (well-meaning relatives who pull your ears and squeeze your cheeks, selfish siblings who have no time for you, absent father, hectoring teachers, bullying neighbors - take your pick). But Max manages to convince them that he is their king and so the wild rumpus starts.

It is not all play and amusement, however, as the presence of Max brings to light hidden wounds and grievances among the wild things, leading to murderous rage and rampage. Cowering in fear with a kindly being in a cave, Max is told that "being a family is not easy."

At that moment, the thought of home fills his heart and Max sets sail across the ocean for suburban life with mother and sister.

Max fled terror, experienced terror and some happiness with wild things , and returned willingly to his family. Once back, he sees his mother in a new light of love. The daily terror of living in an adult world with its autocratic and cruel ways will certainly continue but now there is a difference. It's okay, it's bearable, because now there is love.

And like Max, we suddenly realize that terror, both internal and external, is what makes happiness possible, however elusive it may be.

The Wonder of Stargazing

Jupiter shone like the full moon and four of its satellites - Lo, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto - hung beneath it like pearls on a pendant.

I was viewing the celestial wonders through a 7” refractor telescope at the Montgomery Hill Observatory of Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California.

Once every month, the astronomy department organizes a “star party” for interested viewers when conditions are suitable.

On this warm October night, the sky was clear and moonless and about 20 families from around the area had gathered for a glimpse of the universe. Parents were having difficulty keeping up with excited, voluble children discovering the treasures beckoning from above.

A 5-meter dome building houses the 7” telescope. Next to it is a 16' x 16' roll-off roof building that houses a 14” reflector telescope. Its targets tonight were the Andromeda Galaxy to the north and the Ring Nebula to the west.

Once we had our fill of telescopic viewings, the real fun began. We scanned the sky with unaided eyes. Dr. Celso Batalha, astronomy professor at the college and the main organizer of the event, was ready with his laser pointer. One by one he traced the Aries constellation, the Pleiades star cluster ("we also call them Seven Sisters") visible just above the hills, the W-shaped Cassiopeia constellation to its left and the Pole Star that could be located by drawing a line from one of its stars, and the Pegasus constellation overhead.

There was hushed awe as the voyage progressed through the stars blazing in the darkness, along and beyond the arc of the Zodiac.

What’s most impressive about the monthly star parties at Evergreen is the sense of wonder they evoke among visitors, particularly among the young. This is how scientists, and poets, are born.

The thought must strike us who flock to the observatory that we can roam the universe on any dark, clear night of the year. All we need to do is step out of the house and gaze upwards. The stars will do the rest.