Light from many lamps – Quotes on mature actions – part 3

Tags

Contentment, happiness, Lights from many lamps, Lillian Watson, Mature behavior, Maturity, Maturity quotations, Properly motivated actions, Social growth, Stoicism

Light from Many Lamps: A Treasury of Inspirationby Lillian Watson. In this book there are many quotations about mature actions. Here are some selections that seemed to lead toward successful actions. [A few have my personal comments inserted in brackets.] Part three.

186
The only way to have a friend is to be a friend. Ralph Waldo Emerson [To be loved, love and be lovable.] 240 If you wish to be loved, be lovable. Benjamin Franklin

191
I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. St. Paul

192
In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods than in doing good to their fellow men. Cicero

193
The best portion of a good man’s life,—
His little nameless, unremembered acts
Of  kindness and of love.
William Wordsworth

195
Ask yourself constantly, “What is the right thing to do?” Confucius

197
All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Jesus – Matthew 7:12

197
He that does good to another does good also to himself, not only in the consequence but in the very act. For the consciousness of well-doing is in itself ample reward. Seneca

198
It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. Ralph Waldo Emerson

211
Without friends the world is but a wilderness. Francis Bacon

212
No one can remain your friend if you hide your soul from him. Dagobert D. Runes

214
Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at the distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. Thomas Carlyle

224
You can lighten your own load by doing something for someone else. Frederic Loomis

225
Doing good to others is not a duty. It is a joy, for it increases your own health and happiness. Zoroaster

234
Be not simply good; be good for something. Henry David Thoreau

247
It was a wise man who said that it is important not only to pick the right mate but to be the right mate. Donald Culross Peattie

248
The highest happiness on earth is in marriage. Every man who is happily married is a successful man even if he has failed in everything else. William Lyon Phelps

250
But the universal goal—the attainment of harmony—is apparent. The very act of perceiving this goal and striving constantly toward it does much in itself to bring us closer and, therefore, becomes an end in itself. Richard E. Byrd

254
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home; …
Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home!
John Howard Payne

---

The Golden Rule revealed.

Tags

Ascending to contentment, Evolution of The Golden Rule, Shift of cultural values, The Golden Rule revealed, Variations on The Golden Rule

Variations on The Golden Rule have existed in many cultures for thousands of years. The most general of these imply that if you are nice to people, they will be nice to you. Usually in mild social situations that is true and works well enough. There is a flip side to that concept called the Silver Rule: don’t be mean to people and they won’t be mean to you. These rules help us to be courteous and respectful of other people.

Some ethical purists would claim that both the Golden Rule and the Silver Rule are a form of manipulating other people. If either of these rules is applied intentionally, and in secret, when one is feeling hostile, it is manipulating your own self and those other people without their consent, and that some people say is bad even if the results are benign. From that perspective, simply being habitually courteous and respectful of other people’s natural rights and physical boundaries is morally better than either of those well-known ethical rules, because it isn’t being secretly manipulative.

It is now possible to look deep into social conventions and check out how the Golden Rule has been written in our English-speaking world by running the Google Ngram Viewer. That program lets us see the year-by-year usage on a 200-year-long graph of the published frequency of usage of individual words. The program attempts to scan all books published during that long period and index every word and present it graphically for easy analysis and comparison with other words. The Ngram program will presently combine up to five words in phrases for these graphic presentations, and that is enough to compare how the Golden Rule has been interpreted for two hundred years. The chart below lists the top ten English translations from Matthew 7:12. The search words actually used are listed on the right side of the chart in order of popularity in the year 2000.

Click here for the original Ngram of this chart, or click on the chart below.

1. Always do for other people everything you want them to do for you. That is [the meaning of] Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets. God’s Word Translation
2. So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. New International Version
3. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. King James Bible
4. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. English Standard Version
5. Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them–this is the Law and the Prophets. Holman Christian Standard Bible
6. Therefore, all things whatsoever ye desire that men should do unto you, so also shall ye do unto them, for this is the law and the prophets. Jubilee Bible 2000
7. Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. New Living Translation
8. Therefore, whatever you want people to do for you, do the same for them, because this summarizes the Law and the Prophets. International Standard Version
9. Google Ngram found “could do to you” a common phrase but it’s not used in any standard translation of Matt 7:12
10. Everything whatsoever you desire that people should do for you, do likewise for them, for this is the Law and The Prophets. Aramaic Bible in Plain English

Note the great popularity of the phrases “should do unto you”, and “should do to you” from the year 1800 to 1940, but after 1940 “want them to do” and “would have them do” totally dominate. The currently most popular Golden Rule, “want them to do,” was rare before 1870. This clearly demonstrates some fundamental shift in social values in the English-speaking world. Also the phrase “would have them do” is currently popular, but to my reading it also appears to be self-centered and it tricks other people to give you what you want, and not what you need. The popular version of the 1800’s requests far more, when it asks for what they should do to you, because that is to help you toward a higher state of being. That higher state isn’t defined by your momentary wants, but by helping you ascend to a higher state of being that was defined in the Sermon On The Mount’s opening statement, called the Beatitudes. Matthew 5:3-10.

Is your interpretation of The Golden Rule selfish or expansive?

Is your interpretation of The Golden Rule selfish?

Tags

Do to others what they should do to you., Karma, Kindness, Should, The Golden Rule, What we should do for others, Wisdom

There are many golden rules in the Wikipedia article by that name. A common interpretation of The Golden Rule is “Be nice to others and they will be nice to you.” and the inverse, “Don’t be mean to others and they won’t be be mean to you.” which is usually called the Silver rule. But in my analysis of these last few days, based on the idea of kindness, it becomes clear that kindness goes beyond those common views of ethical behavior.

Underlying each of those views of the Golden Rule is the hope for a return of a favor for the favor you are giving to the other person. Thus, an act motivated in that way becomes an economic transaction with the intent of a repayment and thus it is a mild form of selfishness. This view is similar to the law of Karma which states that the actions you perform will be returned to you, so you better perform good actions. There is a quality of threat in this view of karma which is sometimes stated bluntly in the various forms of reincarnation recompense.  For example, if you intentionally step on a cockroach you will come back to life in your next reincarnation as a cockroach.

Observe carefully Jesus’ statement of the Golden Rule. It is much more challenging, both to understand and to apply.

¹²Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12

The word should is no mistake because this same word also appears at a different time and in a different context.

³¹And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. Luke 6:31

The critical word should is used by Jesus but these days the internal meaning is always passed over. I say always because I have never once heard it said or commented upon as an internal response, and it doesn’t exist in the Wikipedia commentary in this form as I write this. It is strange that the function of this particular word should is ignored because it is the absolute Heart of Christianity as Jesus taught it. Furthermore, the prophet of Christianity emphasized the word not just once but twice in this his only presently know complete sermon. He immediately said,  “This is the Law, and the Prophets.” How much greater an emphasis has anyone ever put upon a single sentence and a single word, and emphasized it with greater force?

What is the purpose of this word should? In Jesus’ own words:

 “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” KJV John 10:10

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. KJV Mat 22:36-40

This word should is aimed at helping other people and that is the goal and essence of kindness and kind acts. Those types of actions are a way of one-way giving what the other person needs to live and to live their life more abundantly. They are not intended as soliciting reciprocal acts from the other person with the goal of enhancing one’s own life and making one’s own self more abundant.

Intentionally cultivating the habit of kindness to others will rebound upon one’s self, because the person we relate to most often is our own self and we are the most frequent recipient of our own habit of kindness. This return of kindness isn’t selfish it is generosity to ones own self and it will lead to a more contented life. However, sometimes, hopefully rarely, it will require the giving of one’s own life – as Jesus proved by voluntarily giving his life so his followers could understand the power of his message. Jesus demonstrated the ultimate in kindness to others and he attained what he said was the ultimate reward.

It is unfortunate that the Roman state co-opted what became a religion founded on these very positive ideas and converted it into a state religion used to control people rather than liberate them.  And yet, the message was always there to be practiced by anyone who chose to do so:

Practice kindness by doing for others what they should do for you if you were them.

The Golden Rule for better results in living.

Tags

Aspiring to the Gates of Heaven, Maximizing human potential., Spiritual growth, The Golden Rule, What should I do?

How Jesus’ Golden Rule can help you most.

In the post Variations on what the Golden Rule means there is a list with links to 32 variations other than the King James Version (KJV Matthew 7:12) All things whatsoever that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them. For this is the Law and the Prophets. The operative word in the KJV version which the others lack is the word should, and the reason is simple enough when you understand that Jesus was serious about helping people in their efforts to elevate themselves to their highest potential state. The other versions are softer and weaker in their notions of what is expected and demanded of the followers. They say be good to others and they will be good to you. That is kindly, but Jesus sought much more for his followers; he sought a method of elevating them into their highest possible spiritual condition – generally called Heaven, or at least the gates of Heaven. If they would help others to live their lives more abundantly they would simultaneously be developing their own consciousness to move themselves up the spiritual scale towards Heaven. By paying close attention to what other people needed to improve their lives they could see more clearly what they themselves needed, and by helping those people attain higher levels they were cultivating the habits that would elevate themselves to these higher conditions. The Beatitudes at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount outline the generalized steps that would be taken by the students of this spiritual path towards enlightenment.

How and why Jesus’ message was lost.

The original formulation that Jesus spoke may have been diluted by the various translations, and by the problem of the translators who didn’t understand what Jesus was trying to accomplish and who inadvertently dumbed it down. Also, there is the problem of stating one of the most sophisticated ideas ever conceived in a way that everyone could understand, including every uneducated and illiterate worker who spent eighty hours a week alone in a field, to create a statement they could use meaningfully in their daily lives. Be nice to people and they will be nice to you, and obey your boss. It seems naive to think that the most sophisticated philosophical principle ever conceived by the tens of billions of people who ever lived could be readily understood by the most unsophisticated child. But, that is what is generally promulgated by the authorities.

A new way of stating Jesus’ message more clearly.

To move toward a full realization of one’s spiritual potential requires more than just being nice, much more than just saying generalized socially approved pleasantries. To help someone who is advanced requires that you be nearly as advanced yourself, or you won’t understand what they need and what you need to offer them to help both of you progress. That is why Jesus begins his Golden Rule with “All men”, because the student of this teaching must not only be helping the Poor of spirit, but also all of the people on the spiritual ladder. Then the really difficult words, “should do” because these words must be applied differently to every single person, and most of all differently to those advancing up the ladder. Thus, I will do for others what they should do for me. This statement is more active than the diluted modern versions and also it requires a careful personal observation and analysis of what it is that the individual self, pronouncing these thoughts to himself, knows should be done to assist him up the ladder to being closer to heaven. When that is clear he knows how he should be treating the people he encounters.

I will do for others what they should do for me.

Variations on what the Golden Rule means

Tags

Golden Rule, Golden Rule variations, Happiness scale, Improving humanity, Live long and prosper., Silver Rule

The Golden Rules

Ordered from ease of applicability to the maximizing of eventual impact.

1. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. Leviticus 19:18
2. The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; Leviticus 19:34
3. Do to no one what you yourself dislike. Tobit 4:15
4. That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another. Egypt 664-323 BCE
5. That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. Talmud, Shabbat 31a
6. Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others. Isocrates
7. What you do not want to happen to you, do not do it yourself either. Sextus
8. What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others. Epictetus
9. Do not to your neighbor what you would take ill from him. Pittacus
10. One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. Brihaspati, Mahabharata Anusasana Parva, CXIII, 8
11. Beware lest ye harm any soul, or make any heart to sorrow; lest ye wound any man with your words, be he known to you or a stranger, be he friend or foe. `Abdu’l-Bahá
12. It isn’t difficult for most of us to imagine what would cause us suffering and to try to avoid causing suffering to others. For this reason many people find the Golden Rule’s corollary, “do not treat people in a way you would not wish to be treated yourself – more pragmatic and easier to use. Humanism
13. One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated. The basic Silver Rule
14. Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself. Confucius, Analects XV.24
15. Hurt no one so that no one may have reason to hurt you. Muhammad, The Farewell Sermon
16. The truly enlightened ones are those who neither incite fear in others nor fear anyone themselves. Slok, Guru Granth Sahib, – Patwant Singh
17. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The basic Golden Rule.
18. It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly (agreeing ‘neither to harm nor be harmed’,) and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life. Epicurus
19. Oh, do as you would be done by. And do unto all men as you would have them do unto you, for this is but the law and the prophet. Postscript to the Quaker peace testimony, signed by George Fox
20. Killing a living being is killing one’s own self; showing compassion to a living being is showing compassion to oneself. He who desires his own good, should avoid causing any harm to a living being. Suman Suttam , verse 151
21. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Luke 10:25-28
22. We must treat others as we wish others to treat us. ???
23. Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same. George Bernard Shaw
24. The golden rule is a good standard which is further improved by doing unto others, wherever reasonable, as they want to be done by. Karl Popper
25. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. Luke 10:25-28
26. That which you want for yourself, seek for mankind. Sukhanan-i-Muhammad
27. Do to others to cause that he do the same to others. The Eloquent Peasant
28. Repay the offenders with favors, as taught in the Zohar. Tanya, ch. 12
29. The parable of the Good Samaritan, emphasises the needs for positive action that brings benefit to another, not simply restraining oneself from negative activities that hurt another. Jesus of Nazareth
30. Relate to others in ways which will maximize their life and wellbeing. Probaway
31. Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Matthew 7:12 That is the law and the prophets.
32. Create and promulgate new ways for people to intentionally improve themselves and their relations with other people. Probaway

All of the Golden Rules in the list above are good advice for most people most of the time. Some of the ones near the top of the list are more easily applied, but are exclusive and limit the suggested behavior to those people who have already been accepted into your social group. The next group of sayings are known as Silver Rule variations, and are about getting through life by not hurting other people. They are easily understood and in most situations easily applied.

The Golden Rule in its most popular form is aimed at being pleasant and cooperative with other people. However, Jesus goes much further in the Matthew 7:12 formulation. It is much more assertive and he uses the words, that men should do to you. That should will sometimes require behavior that will go well beyond the pleasure you may prefer and sometimes makes demands that require great personal effort. These more assertive forms of the Golden Rule aim toward personal self-improvement and the improvement of other people.  This method attains its maximum power when we train ourselves to relate to others the way they should relate to us. When we intentionally do something to others, the should becomes a training device for self advancement. The most exalted advancement is to ascend into Heaven because your personal behavior provides the groundwork and method for that attainment.

I have published in the Probaway – Happiness Scale a method for improving humanity called Theoria. It is the creation of wisdom-enhancing methods with the benefits available to everyone and everything. Here is my suggestion to advanced thinkers—create even better methods for improving social relationships among humans which would increase the vigor, happiness and sustainability of all humanity on into the distant future.

Help humanity to live long and prosper.

What Jesus really said about The Golden Rule.

Tags

Jesus' - The Golden Rule, The Golden Rule

Who am I to say what Jesus said? Actually, it is quite easy to find out what Jesus is reported to have said — just go read the Bible. However, I do want to make one obvious observation which seems to have eluded everyone for two thousand years. In the Christian take on the Bible it’s all about the old Prophets leading up to Jesus, and the New Testament is about what Jesus said and some later commentaries upon what he said and setting up the church to help proclaim his good words. No doubt many people will quibble with what little I have already written because there have been billions of people thinking about these ideas and very little agreement reached about anything, even the really obvious facts. What I dislike about religion as opposed to science is that there are arguments in scientific discourse, but then there are tests for resolving the arguments, and the arguments end. With religion there are no satisfactory tests of the various truths proclaimed, and so it is impossible to resolve arguments empirically and people argue and fight forever.

Even though the Bible has gone through many translations, there are some things upon which even the religious commentators usually find agreement. Let me list a few obvious ones: A book exists called the Bible. In this Bible there are sub-books about a person called Jesus. There are four books called the Gospels which are written by people with some information very close to first-hand about this person Jesus. In these books they refer to a special complete sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, which appears to be a prepared sermon intended to be memorized by Jesus’ followers. The sermon has a very organized presentation with particular suggestions for personal behavior. Hopefully, there is no disagreement with any of those generally accepted facts, but if you have any there isn’t much reason to follow my argument any further and you can better use your time and attention to what you consider a more satisfactory end.

What is intended by this narrowing the focus of the obvious general facts is that this process can be continued on into the gospels because the Sermon on the Mount continues this same trend. When read carefully the sermon says directly that a great secret is about to be revealed and it repeats that a few times. Then rather gently it seems the tone shifts subtly and continues saying the great secret has been revealed to you and there are suggestions as to what you should do about your new knowledge. This change is so easy and fluid that no one seems to be shocked by it, but it is at that very moment when the reference changes from future to past that the revelation is made.

This crossroad of ideas, this pinnacle of development of the central idea is:

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12

Okay, so everyone knows The Golden Rule, and it has many variations and the Wikipedia gives a fair once over of how each of the religions handles this basic concept of how to treat other people. I would recommend reading its article on the The Golden Rule, because it covers all of the historical ethical arguments for treating other people well. While reading that article, pay particular attention to the should do to you aspect because what follows here will then become more meaningful. What I will say has already been said by Jesus, but the past masters didn’t understand it and missed its importance.

In a separate text, you will see again the essence of what Jesus said and you should notice that it was not said by any of the other religious sages:

And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. Luke 10:25-28

If the exact same sentiment is proclaimed in each of Jesus’ statements and by none of the other sages, then it would seem that it is what Jesus intended to say exactly and not what any of the other sages were saying. The spins on the Golden Rule which were the others were proposing which were readily available to Jesus. What Jesus says isn’t really about being nice to other people so they will be nice to you which is at the root of the other Golden Rule phrasings.

The whole of Jesus’ argument and of mine comes down to the central statement in the central sermon in the central document of the Bible – what men should do to you. How can it be said more clearly and pointed to more definitively? Then the obvious follow-on question is, what should men be doing to me that you recommend that I should be doing to them? And the obvious answer would be —to help them achieve their potential for entering into the most exalted state they are capable of while here on earth. In that high state they may approach the gates of heaven. Conversely, if you use the should do suggestion you may approach your potential and thus also enter as closely as possible to heaven. This form of the Golden Rule is different from the others, because what you should be doing to your fellow man he might find quite objectionable. This other person might even hate what you are doing to him because it is going to force him to change something about his current way of doing things. Once you understand that should do concept then much of Jesus’ behavior and recommendations become more sensible and much more powerful.

Help others to achieve their utmost human potential.

The Golden Rule as it should be helps you into Heaven.

Tags

Golden Rule, How to approach Heaven, How to reach Heaven

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Matthew 7:12 King James Bible

The key word in this form of the Golden Rule is the word should. That word implies much more than simply a moral suggestion of treating other people fairly and being treated fairly by other people in return as is seen in other versions, as in the World English Bible –

Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

That version isn’t as strong because it only asks you to do as well to others as you would desire for others to do to you—in your present level of personal spiritual development. And another version the Young’s Literal Translation

All things, therefore, whatever ye may will that men may be doing to you, so also do to them, for this is the law and the prophets.

That version asks even less and only implies treating other people as well as you hope for them to treat you. Perhaps both of these versions are closer to what the Old Testament prophets would have been talking about. However, the King James version appears to have a much loftier goal—helping you upward on your spiritual quest to reach Heaven. It becomes an evolving rule that demands ever more sophisticated behavior depending upon your level of spiritual attainment. That ladder to Heaven was presented just a short time before the Golden Rule and it is known as the Beatitudes. Matthew 5:3-10 of King James Bible.

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This is a step ladder for spiritual development climbing from some person at the lowest level who is now lacking in spirit, that is dead and already in their eternal Heaven. It proceeds through several living example steps and on to the top one which is those people filled with righteousness (perfection). Those fully developed individuals are in their living Heaven. Each of the upward steps is more difficult to attain. The first one of being dead will be attained automatically by everyone eventually when they can do no more but the other, living steps, require a special kind of effort and very special circumstance to move from that persons original condition to the later one.

The way a person moves from the former state to the later one is by applying the recommended method of—doing what men should do to you but you doing it to them. The should thus becomes very important because it implies treating some behavior observed in another person the way they should be treating you if you were behaving that way. That is a form of judgment which must be handled very carefully because of what was just said a few lines earlier in Matthew 7:1 – 2 King James Bible.

1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

The problem and opportunity is that your treatment of other people doubles back upon you in the form of your treatment of your own self and so if you treat others in the wrong way you will cultivate the habit of treating yourself badly. The other person suffers the unpleasantness of whatever ill you treated them with at a given moment but with your newly formed habit you will treat yourself with that ill habit in a similar circumstance for as long as you live. Thus judging others’ behavior is a powerful tool for self destruction or for self development if it is used properly. It gives you the opportunity to observe and change in yourself a habit seen in another person. That same habit and behavior is impossible to change in one’s self directly because it is impossible to see clearly but it can be done this newly recommended way.

Treating other people how they should treat you if you were on some similar path now becomes a technique for converting your own inner self into a more advanced being and moves you closer to your own personal perfection and personal Heaven. Matthew 7:28 King James Bible

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.

How can I be a better person? What is “good”???

Tags

Confucius, happiness, Self improvement, Spiritual improvement, The Golden Rule

Everyone wants to do the right thing but what that is varies with every person, and with every moment of their life. Individuals must make choices as to their behavior even when they have no knowledge as to what any of the various factors may be, which are influencing their behavior, or what is going to be influenced by it or what the outcomes will be. Whenever a person’s behavior involves other people, which ultimately all human behavior does, then it comes under the rubric term, ethics.

What is the right thing to do is an intellectual puzzle beyond the comprehension of the greatest philosophers, but it must be and is solved every moment of life by the most incompetent person who ever lived. The vastness of the field of ethics is implied by the catalog list of ethics topics in Wikipedia which anyone can wear out their eyes upon, but it is only a catalog, it is only a map of a very large territory which is infinitely complex, but a territory which every individual must somehow traverse every moment of their life.

The most general guiding principle, found worldwide is similar to what in Western traditions is called The Golden Rule. The King James version is, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12. But there are many variations found in other traditions. The word which most people slur over is the term “should” and tend to ascribe what is implied when Confucius said in the Analects XV.24: “Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.” But the term “should” goes much deeper in that it means much more than what would give you pleasure or relieve you from pain, but rather it means what will help you achieve your highest attainable growth toward maturity. When looked at this way it means doing to this postulated other person what needs to be done to your own personal self to enhance your own growth toward your highest attainable goal. This means to strive to become perfect in the perception of your ideal being.

Only you can know your ideal being, and only you can know what would please this being, but it is for that being which you should “do in all things whatsoever.” When you practice this method you can improve your inner self, and become a better person. The Happiness Scale gives an ascending list of personal qualities which may be helpful, but in practice you should develop your own goals, and consider this only as a point of departure.

The question of, “What is the right thing to do now?”, is always with you personally. You are on your own path, but the way you treat other people can help you to find your way, and find yourself, and help you become what you yourself would consider to be closer to your ideal self.

---

St. Augustine’s Confessions

Tags

Fooling one's self, habits, Help others do what they are doing, Richard Feynman, Saint Augustine

Saint Augustine is credited by Mother Teresa as saying, “Fill yourselves first and then only will you be able to give to others.” It’s in the book No Greater Love, by Mother Teresa, page 14. I Googled that quote, but didn’t find her source for that idea. Hum?

It is strange that there is little discussion of the fact that conservative Christian religion is so dependent on the writings of Saint Augustine. He is the one who provides many of the rationalizations for believing things which are counter-intuitive to casual observation, violate commonsense reasoning, and are resistant to scientific methods.

Book Four of Saint Augustine’s Confessions shows some of his rationalizations, and below are some longish quotations that indicate the quality of his young adult thinking, before he gets on with his religious rationalizations. But I question the trustworthiness of someone who admits that when twenty-eight-years old he was earning his living as a professional “liar.” Read what he himself says below.

St. Augustine’s Confessions – Parts of Chapter Four 

“For this space of nine years (from my nineteenth year to my eight-and-twentieth) we lived seduced and seducing, deceived and deceiving, in divers lusts; openly, by sciences which they call liberal; secretly, with a false-named religion; here proud, there superstitious, every where vain. Here, hunting after the emptiness of popular praise, down even to theatrical applauses, and poetic prizes, and strifes for grassy garlands, and the follies of shows, and the intemperance of desires. There, desiring to be cleansed from these defilements, by carrying food to those who were called “elect” and “holy,” out of which, in the workhouse of their stomachs, they should forge for us Angels and Gods, by whom we might be cleansed. These things did I follow, and practice with my friends, deceived by me, and with me. … In those years I taught rhetoric, and, overcome by cupidity, made sale of a loquacity to overcome by. Yet I preferred (Lord, Thou knowest) honest scholars (as they are accounted), and these I, without artifice, taught artifices, not to be practised against the life of the guiltless, though sometimes for the life of the guilty. And Thou, O God, from afar perceivedst me stumbling in that slippery course, and amid much smoke sending out some sparks of faithfulness, which I showed in that my guidance of such as loved vanity, and sought after leasing, myself their companion.” …

Augustine was acknowledged, when in his twenties, to be the greatest rhetorician in the Roman Empire. Today he would be considered a great lawyer, advertising man, bon vivant, and celebrity. He is obviously a great man, but he creates a stumbling stone for me with his most famous idea, Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe, because it violates common sense, and yet without that rationalization much of modern religion would appear to be the superstition of fools.

The religion that Augustine was supposedly supporting was what Jesus had said, and what he had said most clearly in his Sermon on the Mount. — Matthew 5-7 especially 7:12 —That sermon makes sense to me, and we see another report of Jesus’ thought in Luke of either that same sermon, or a similar one given at a different time. Read the Matthew sermon first, but I quote that Luke one here to broaden the base idea.

Luke 6:27-38 King James Version

27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.
30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.
31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
32 For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.
33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.
34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. – Luke 6:27-38

I began with Mother Teresa’s statement above, “Fill yourselves first and then only will you be able to give to others.” However, she doesn’t tell us where the abundance is to come from in the first place, and that is a problem for me, but it is one that Jesus answers. Where does all of this abundance come from? It is created when you “help others live and live more abundantly” (John 10:10). That is what you do when you behave so as to obey Jesus’ statement, “All things what so ever you would that others should do unto you, do ye even so unto them, for this is the law and the prophets.” That should is what you do, and you not only help those others on their life’s journey, you simultaneously cultivate the habit of relating to your own self in this helping way. It is from your own cultivating your character of helping others that the abundance within us is created that we may share; it’s an abundance that we may even give to our own self. The quotes from Jesus are illustrations for cultivating the habits that create personal character that leads to a fulfilled life.

But there are great problems when following what Saint Augustine cultivates. Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. This procedure seems guaranteed to create a self-centered fantasy world for the believer, and leaves Augustine’s followers’ personal lives in ruin. Instead of fantasy beliefs, we need to cultivate our habits of kindness with frequent small actions that help whomever we are with accomplish what they are trying to do.

Richard Feynman said it well, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.”

“The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to. … No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.” Also Richard Feynman.

Be helpful to others as often as possible in what they are doing in the moment.

Is Deep Learning getting us into or out of deep doo-doo?

Tags

Big Data, Data driven society, Deep Learning, Ngram of Golden Rule

We the people are being challenged at every aspect of what we hold dear by non-living beings. It’s hard to tell, but perhaps it has always been this way. Did the ancient Greeks worry about wind power taking away the advantages of human-rowed ships? Did the men on sail-driven ships fret over the steam-driven ones passing them by? On land there was a similar situation, did walkers fret over horsemen passing them, and those on horses worry about the automobiles shooting past them? I could make lots of comparisons like this, but now it’s the turn of our consciousness that is in peril.

Socrates was worried that writing would imperil people’s ability to think. Then printing press and paper made information available to the mass of people, which deprived the church of its exclusive right to written information. Then of course radio, TV, and now the internet and social media made most information ubiquitous and easily available, and governments feel exposed because their special access to information is being compromised.

Now there is a new form of power coming into being which threatens not only our bodily powers, and not only our mental powers, but our power to generalize about our social reality. It has various names and aspects, like Big Data and Deep Learning, which is the type of information generated out of factual data by computers and analyzed by super-duper computers into a deeper level of understanding. We humans can understand the compiled data, and put it to use, and we may generally understand how the computers are doing what they do, even if we can’t do it ourselves.

These things are massive undertakings, but we can make them work for us and do our mundane bidding. It’s like we can not build a jet airliner, but for a little money we can make one fly us at high altitude from one end of the earth to another. I fly Google Earth a lot, and very much enjoy virtual travel, but I have lost interest in actually going many places in bodily form. These new computer undertakings are coming ever closer to exploring our personal human identity. Our behavior as a group is now being better predicted by the computers than by us, and even by those people who study these subjects full time.

I did a simple search on the Google’s Ngram program and it revealed something shocking to me about how modern culture is trending. One of the most well known human moral slogans, The Golden Rule, which in various forms goes back a thousand years before Jesus, has done a total flip in meaning during my remember-able lifetime, since 1940. Actually, I felt this flip in meaning, but didn’t verbally intellectualize it, and understand it, until creating this Ngram.

A big clip from – The Golden Rule revealed.

Click here for the original Ngram of this chart, or click on the chart below.

The quotes below are in the order they appear for the year 2000 in the chart above.

1. Always do for other people everything you want them to do for you. That is [the meaning of] Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets. God’s Word Translation

2. So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. New International Version

3. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. King James Bible

4. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. English Standard Version

5. Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them–this is the Law and the Prophets. Holman Christian Standard Bible

6. Therefore, all things whatsoever ye desire that men should do unto you, so also shall ye do unto them, for this is the law and the prophets. Jubilee Bible 2000

7. Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. New Living Translation

8. Therefore, whatever you want people to do for you, do the same for them, because this summarizes the Law and the Prophets. International Standard Version

9. Google Ngram found “could do to you” a common phrase but it’s not used in any standard translation of Matt 7:12

10. Everything whatsoever you desire that people should do for you, do likewise for them, for this is the Law and The Prophets. Aramaic Bible in Plain English

The astonishing thing demonstrated by the Ngram is that billions of people have semi-knowingly flipped Christianity upside down. The religion has been converted from one of seeking to elevate oneself into a better and more responsible person, into one of having more physical goodies and comforts for oneself.

It is revelations such as this that are going to grow out of Big Data and Deep Learning. It is hard to tell if currently living people will concern themselves with these revelations, so long as they are getting the goodies they want; but the nineteenth century people would see our twenty-first century ones as degenerate on this particular point. And yet, Steven Pinker, in his new book, Better Angels of our Nature, (video of Pinker) demonstrates that we have become more moral. Pinker was among the first to gain access to the Ngram program while it was in development, and it gave him a terrific advancement in opportunity to benefit from data embedded in the facts of history. The problem becomes who has control of the Big Data, and who benefits for the Deep Learning, and can it slip away from human control into the hands of super-human corporations or even “computers” themselves. We are coming ever closer to Pamala McCorducks ideas presented in her book Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence
.

Deep Learning will bring tremendous bounty to those who can use it.