Update on October 1st, 2011

Hinduism
This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you
Mahabharata 5:1517

Buddhism
Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful
The Buddha, Udana-Varga 5.8

Confucianism
One word which sums up the basis of all good conduct… loving kindness. Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself
Confucius, Analects 15.23

Taoism
Regard your neighbour`s gain as your own gain, and your neighbour`s loss as your loss
Lao Tzu, T`ai Shang Kan Ying P`ien, 2213-218

Sikhism
I am a stranger to no one; and no one is a stranger to me. Indeed, I am a friend to all
Guru Granth Sahib, p.1299

Christianity
In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets
Jesus, Matthew 7:12

[NOTE: the above quote is from the New Testament, and there is a paraphrase at Luke 6:31, ibid. Versions figure in the Old Testament, a.k.a. the Jewish Bible, e.g. in Leviticus 19:18: "'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor [fellow, in some translations that keep neighbor for the New Testament counterparts] as yourself…”]

Unitarianism
We affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part
Unitarian principle

Native Spirituality
We are as much alive as we keep the earth alive
Chief Dan George

Zoroastrianism
Do not do to others whatever is injurious to yourself
Shayast-na-Shayast 13.29

Jainism
One should treat all creatures in the world as one would like to be treated
Mahavira, Sutrakritanga

Judaism
What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary
Hillel, Talmud, Shabbat 31a

Islam
Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself
The Prophet Muhammad, Hadith

Baha`i Faith
Lay not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself
Baha`u`llah, Gleanings

Credits: Texts copied from a poster by Scarboro Missions, designed by Kathy Van Loon; All Rights Reserved Paul McKenna 2000; Bookstore @ tel. 416.690.477 has it in letter-size format for smthg like $1.00, regular poster size around $10.00. Verified current month, Aug 2011.

Last updated: December 20, 2010

When you feel in your gut what you are and then dynamically pursue it—don’t back up and don’t give up—then you’re going to mystify a lot of folks.
–Bob Dylan

The universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine.
–Sir James Jeans

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future
–Niels Bohr

“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.
“Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath and shut your eyes.”
Alice laughed. There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
–Lewis Carol, Through the Looking Glass

Hence this life of yours you are living is not merely a piece of the entire existence, but is, in a certain sense, the whole; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance.
–Erwin Schrödinger

Jeremy Rifkin (2009) The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis

Truths, then, are explanations of how everything relates together. Truths are not objective or subjective, but rather are understandings that exist in the interstitial realm where the “I” and “thou” come together to create a common experiential ground. This is “reality” making.
(p.155)

Pragmatist ecosonics: metaphors of sound/vibration and (dis)harmony

From Charles Sanders Peirce’s 1878 essay “Making Our Ideas Clear”:
Thought is a thread of melody running through the succession of our sensations. (p.40)
It [belief] is the demi-cadence which closes a musical phrase in the symphony of our intellectual life (p.41)
(Peirce develops a discourse metaphor, over a few paragraphs, comparing thought to a musical “air” and our sensations to musical notes.)

William James in his 1892 essay “The Stream of Consciousness” proposes a conception of thinking as a dynamic process—similarly to Peirce’s (1878) view of thought as action, which is triggered by the “irritation of doubt” and stops with the formation of belief. James compares thought to a wave or pulse, speaks of rhythm, etc. Pauses are made at substantive notions that you can dwell on (denoted by nouns and adjectives), and by contrast, what language expresses by the help of prepositions, interjections, is elusive, moving at lightening speed, if you (try to) stop it, it disintegrates. His discourse imagery is much more extensive and creative than Peirce’s.

Eric Bredo in his paper “Contextual Explanation in Education”:
If social life is like a complex waveform, then there are many valid interpretations, just as one may get in tune with different components of a complex rhythm… (2010:2)

More from William James, with credits to a Christian devotional address delivered some 40+ years ago:
Sow a thought, and you reap an act;
Sow an act, and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit, and you reap a character;
Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
[John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 14th ed. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1968), p. 1100.]

 
Last updated: December 20, 2010