Consider compassion: an evening with author Karen Armstrong
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
“Preaching to the choir is fine,” said the doyenne of religious history, Karen Armstrong, as she spoke to an enthralled audience of 500 at Kehillath Temple in Brookline, Massachusetts, one evening in January. “The trouble is the choir isn’t singing!” A single deed of kindness, she said, could turn the world around.
Her audience had trudged through heavy snow on the coldest night of the year (and paid!) to hear her speak on the need for greater compassion in the world today, which is the subject of her latest book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010).
Armstrong, who lives in London, and is the author of 19 other books, among them the ever-popular A History of God, had chosen to elaborate on her “One Wish to Change the World,” which was granted to her as 2008 winner of the international TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) Prize. Her wish was to create a global community in which people could live with one another in respect and harmony. The world’s religions should be making a substantial contribution, she said. But they’re often part of the problem, even though they virtually all subscribe to a form of the Golden Rule. Sometimes it’s inverted: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.” Or just labeled “consideration.” Unless we apply that rule globally, said Armstrong, “we’re in for a very rough ride.”
Compassion is not a very popular virtue, she continued. Too many people today would rather be right than compassionate.
Compassion is not a very popular virtue, she continued. Too many people today would rather be right than compassionate. Compassion demands that we dethrone ourselves. “But you cannot confine your benevolence to your own congenial group—but to all tribes and nations. This is the task of our times. We have to make this happen . . . and we don’t have to disqualify ourselves, because, as flawed human beings, we don’t think we’re good enough. Everyone in this room needs to be an ambassador for compassion. I don’t care if you believe the Golden Rule or not. Are you doing it?”
Armstrong reminded her audience that we’re a very talkative society, but we’re not very good at listening. “An unkind word can shrivel the heart for decades. It can lodge in the soul. But so can a kind word.”
Her impassioned and practical Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life never slips far from the transforming fragrance of kindness. And she urges her readers to explore their own traditions, be they religious or secular, and seek out their teaching about these essentially spiritual qualities. Such study, Armstrong says, will speak to them in a way that is familiar and resonates with their deepest aspirations, hopes, and fears—even to those who don’t subscribe to the formality of organized belief. And the scholar in her prompts her to back up every call for action with historical perspective and the wisdom of sages across many cultures and faith traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
She writes in particular about the dangers of retaliation that drives opponents to despair.
This is not a book that tells you how to pray to God to overcome your fear of terrorism or the loss of a job. But Armstrong doesn’t hesitate to cite the wisdom of the Old and New Testaments, and especially Jesus’ teaching about loving one’s enemies and one’s neighbor (Luke, chaps. 6 and 10). She writes in particular about the dangers of retaliation that drives opponents to despair, ignores their needs, and refuses to take their aspirations seriously. “Try to wish for your enemy’s well-being and happiness,” she asks.
The twelve steps absorb all but two chapters of this 222-page primer (with ten extra pages of suggestions for further reading), and are a rallying call for action in a do-this, do-that format—no balking, no excuses, no apologies. But always with a ready admission that it takes patience with oneself to achieve satisfying results. “It’s a lifelong project.”
Like most of Armstrong’s lectures and books, Twelve Steps is deeply committed to facilitating interfaith dialogue and understanding around the world. So was Mary Baker Eddy when more than 135 years ago she shared her conviction that “with one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science” (Science and Health, pp. 470-471 ). Surely, that too, is compassion vibrantly at work!