Karen Armstrong, founding father of the Constitution for Compassion, on what we have to do to make a greater world.
When British writer Karen Armstrong gained the TED prize in 2008, she used the cash to convene a bunch of non secular thinkers from a variety of faiths to craft an up to date model of the Golden Rule for the twenty first century. What emerged was the Constitution for Compassion, which calls on individuals around the globe “to work tirelessly to alleviate the struggling of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the middle of our world and put one other there, and to honor the inviolable sanctity of each single human being, treating all people, with out exception, with absolute justice, fairness and respect.”
That doc impressed the creation of a world community, which now consists of lots of of organizations and greater than 75 cities, starting from Kara- chi to Belfast to Chippewa Falls. Under is a 2016 dialog with Armstrong in regards to the constitution, her imaginative and prescient for a extra compassionate world, and why this specific conscious high quality is definitely important to avoid wasting the planet.
Why the concentrate on compassion?
Each one of many main religions has formulated its personal model of the Golden Rule. That’s the essence of religion and spirituality. And it appeared to me that it wasn’t only a good thought; it was an pressing world crucial. Until we study to make sure that all individuals, irrespective of the place they reside, are handled the best way we want to be handled, the world isn’t going to be a viable place.
You’ve mentioned {that a} compassionate metropolis needs to be an uncomfortable metropolis. What do you imply?
It needs to be a metropolis that’s uncomfortable about ache and struggling on the earth. Particularly within the West, we reside lives of such privilege that we frequently block out the terrible issues which might be occurring on the earth. We shouldn’t be capable of sleep, for instance, once we see all these migrants actually dying to get into Europe.
The Golden Rule insists that we can’t confine our benevolence to only our personal congenial group.
The Golden Rule insists that we can’t confine our benevolence to only our personal congenial group. “You could have concern for everyone,” says one Chinese language sage. “Love the stranger, the foreigner,” says Leviticus. “Attain out to all tribes and nations,” says the Koran. That’s the message of the Constitution.
That’s good, however don’t we reside in a me-first tradition?
Folks at all times say to me, “We now have to have compassion for ourselves.” That’s true. Until you withstand the ache in your individual life, you’re going to be arduous on different individuals. However you possibly can’t cease there. Just a few years in the past, I wrote a guide referred to as Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, and I made self-compassion step three. There are 9 different steps after that, ending with: Love your enemies.
We now have to see ourselves as a collective. The alienation the West is inflicting is as harmful for humanity as local weather change.
How so?
One factor that makes me offended about Europe is that we expect that we’re the one ones who’re being attacked by terrorists. Two days earlier than the latest assaults in Paris, 44 individuals had been blown up in Beirut by an ISIS suicide bomber, and the media within the West barely talked about it. That is observed within the Muslim world. Earlier this yr, I gave a lecture in Amman, Jordan, and a person who’d brokered the peace deal between Jordan and Israel got here as much as me and mentioned, “The West has misplaced its humanity.” We care just for ourselves. This isn’t compassion.
Is there a metropolis that evokes you?
Karachi, Pakistan. They’ve created a community of faculties there that combine compassion with the core topics within the curriculum quite than educating it as a separate entity. It was the youngsters who requested the mayor to make Karachi a compassionate metropolis. They mentioned they wished a neighborhood the place there was extra equality and so they may exit within the streets and never be blown up by a suicide bomber.
What provides you hope?
I’m completely happy that so most of the individuals who’ve come ahead to assist are enterprise individuals. I’m a author who sits round writing about historical historical past. What do I find out about constructing organizations? However enterprise individuals know the way an thought turns into a part of the construction of life, not simply a whole lot of wild do-gooding that makes individuals burn out.
It is a damaged world and one has to have a look at it squarely and with love. If we succumb to despair then all is misplaced. One should carry on, however at all times keep that prime state of discomfort.
