The Tao masters also had a version of the Golden Rule. They said, “In dealing with people, you already have the perfect model of behavior inside you. Act with integrity, according to your true nature. Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you” The Tao Masters continued with a story . . . “Once upon a time, when a seabird landed outside the capital, the Marquis of Lu escorted it to his ancestral temple, had the music of the Ninefold Splendors performed, poured out a cup of old wine, and spread before it a feast of beef and pork. But the bird became dazed, and it pined away, refusing to taste meat or wine. In three days it was dead. This was treating the bird as the marquis would have liked to be treated, not as the bird would have liked to be treated.” The Golden Rule in the wrong hands can be deadly.
~ From The Second Book of Tao by Stephen Mitchell
When we use the Golden Rule as an excuse to retaliate or cause suffering, we have missed the point. The principle of compassionate reciprocity lies at the heart of all spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion drives us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our earth, to dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and put another there, and to honor the sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.
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