Personally, I think there are some interesting insights in Edward Babinski's "eleven vital quotations that all folks on earth should learn:"
1. Don't do unto others what you would not like done to yourself, and do unto others what you would like done to yourself. (Keeping in mind that not everyone's fears and pleasures are exactly like your own. So you should get to know a person first.)
2. Beliefs may prove admirable (or they may prove disasterous), but DOUBT is what gets you an education.
3. Faith is an openness and trusting attitude to truth and reality, whatever it may turn out to be. This is a risky and adventurous state of mind. Belief, in the religious sense, is the opposite of faith - because it is a fervent wishing or hope, a compulsive clinging to the idea that the universe is arranged and goverened in such and such a way. Belief is holding to a rock; faith is learning how to swim - and this whole universe swims in boundless space. Alan Watts
4. Characteristic of all fundamentalism is that it has found absolute certainty - the certainty of class warfare, the certainty of science, or the literal certainty of the Bible - a certainty of the person who has finally found a solid rock to stand upon which, unlike other rocks is “solid all the way down.” Fundamentalism, however, is a terminal form of human consciousness in which development is stopped, eliminating the uncertainty and risk that real growth entails. - Heinz Pagels
5. May I be no man's enemy, and may I be the friend of that which is eternal and abides...May I never devise evil against any man; if any devise evil against me, may I escape...without the need of hurting him. May I love, seek, and attain only that which is good. May I wish for all men's happiness and envy none...When I have done or said what is wrong, may I never wait for the rebuke of others, but always rebuke myself until I make amends...May I win no victory that harms either me or my opponent...May I reconcile friends who are wroth with one another. May I, to the best of my power, give all needful help...to all who are in want. May I never fail a friend in danger...May I respect myself...May I always keep tame that which rages within me...May I never discuss who is wicked and what wicked things he has done, but know good men and follow in their footsteps. - The Prayer of Eusebius (a pagan who lived some 2000 years ago)
6. Return love for hatred. Otherwise, when a great hatred is reconciled, some of it will surely remain. How can this end in goodness? Therefore the sage holds to the left hand of an agreement but does not expect what the other holder ought to do. Regard your neighbor's gain as your own and your neighbor's loss as your own loss. Whoever is self-centered cannot have the love of others. - Taoist wisdom
7. Shame on him who strikes, greater shame on him who strikes back. Let us live happily, not hating those who hate us. Let us therefore overcome anger by kindness, evil by good, falsehood by truth. Do not hurt others in ways that would be hurtful to yourself. - Buddhist wisdom
8. Do not return evil to your adversay; Requite with kindness the one who does evil to you, Maintain justice for your enemy, Be friendly to your enemy. - Akkadian Councils of Wisdom (from ancient Babylon, long before Jesus' day)
9. The broadminded see the truth in different religions. The narrow minded see only the differences. - Oliver Wendel Holmes
10. People were Christian before Christ existed. People were humanistic before Humanism was ever organized. People were loving before LSD was ever discovered. I dug defecating before I ever knew it was a Zen thing to do. - Timothy Leary
11. Nowadays the “univesalistic” Buddhists and “universalistic” Christians and “universalistic” Moslems feel closer to one another than they feel to the fundamentalists within their own religious traditions. And the fundamentalists of each tradition can't even get along with the other fundamentalists of that same tradition. - Brother Steindl-Rast
Ed is the author of LEAVING THE FOLD: TESTIMONIES OF FORMER FUNDAMENTALISTS, Prometheus Books, 1995.
- Jan
--
"Doctor how can you diagnose someone with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and then act like I had some choice about barging in here right now?" -- As Good As It Gets