October 12, 2023
Principle 10. Solidarity. Week 3
“When You Treat Others As You Would Have Them Treat You, You Liberate Yourself.”
Last time: The Social Dimension
This time: The Other
This Week:
In the last two weeks we looked at the principle’s structure and general meaning as well as how it applied or could have applied in our past.
This week are focus is on the present and how we might apply the principle of solidarity in current situations.
An Invitation
Each week we propose considering a principle in light of its general meaning, and its application in our past, present, or future. Setting aside a minute or so every day to try and find one or two concrete examples in my life is a simple and powerful tool that can dramatically increase my understanding of the principles. In that brief work I make an effort to see, recall or imagine the impact of applying (or not applying) the principle in question. Interestingly the crucial thing isn’t whether I find clear examples or not. Like many of others, I have discovered that the effort itself is well rewarded by the new intuitions and understandings that arise over the next days.
Can’t think of anything in the present?
Perhaps Start Here:
1. Is there currently a situation where I’m not treating someone as you want to be treated.
2. At the present time is there a situation, person, or people I feel enchained to? Am I treating them differently than I want to to be treated.
3. It’s interesting to observe that sometimes I think I’m being kind by treating others very differently than I want to be treated. For example, perhaps I’d like to be treated with honesty (even if it it makes me feel bad in the moment). Nonetheless, I might treat someone “with kid gloves” in order to spare their feelings. Or on the contrary. Perhaps, I like when people show me more kindness even if it involves a “white lie” or two. Do I act that way to others? Some people believe in being “brutally honest” with their criticism of others. But not so much with themselves.
Personal Reflections:
Last week I sent out something Roberto wrote a year earlier about the broad social dimension of the principles.
Here’s some brief thoughts from Silo, taken from a talk in 1989.
Some say must treat the other as the other wants to be treated”. But we don’t know what the other really wants, or how they feel. And we certainly can’t tell them what they should do. For us the emphasis is placed on my action, leaving me with a memory of having acted with unity.
I recognize in the other an intentionality like mine, and a field of freedom that places limits on me. We are not alone, isolated in our own consciousness. On the contrary we are inter-connected, we influence others, and they influence us. From this point of view. it is not indifferent to your evolution what you do, or how you treat others.
And…. taken from the Manual for Messengers
Excerpted from a talk by Silo, Las Palmas, Canary Islands
September 29, 1978
Revised by the author, October 10, 1996
In very general principles we have indicated the registers of valid action, and highest among these principles is the one known as the “golden rule.” This principle says, “When you treat others as you want them to treat you, you liberate yourself.” This is not a new principle – it is thousands of years old, and in many parts of the world, in many cultures, it has withstood the test of time. It is a universally accepted and valid principle that has been formulated in various ways – sometimes in the negative, as in “Do nothing to others that you do not want them to do to you.” That is simply another approach to the same idea, as is the formulation, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Of course, it is not exactly the same as saying, “Treat others as you want them to treat you.” But that’s all right; however they may have phrased it, since ancient times people have invoked this, the highest of all moral principles, the highest of all principles of valid action.
…This principle that speaks of treating others according to how I want them to treat me, according to what would be good for me, is all very well. But it would be even better if I knew what would be good for me. So that’s how things stand, and we’re interested in turning now to the basis of valid action, and the basis of valid action lies in the register that one obtains from this action.
Remember:
Meditation isn’t Only for When You Close Your Eyes.
It is here amid all the little joys, anxieties, and tragedies, here among the wins and losses, and all the daily crap, that we can actually find our spiritual path, the inner road. For that we need to create a practice that can be applied at every moment, and in every circumstance.
You can make the principles into a kind of dynamic meditation, requiring neither particular postures, nor special conditions. With time and application these efforts give all my activities a particular tone, mood, and mental direction.
Worth Repeating:
“Learn to treat others in the way that you want to be treated.”
From: The Path — Silo
Coming up:
Next week we will continue with our considerations of The Principle of Solidarity, in relation to future situations.
Note:
This week’s illustrations (as so often) courtesy of Rafael Edwards.
These notes have been posted on our Facebook page (Community of Silo’s Message Toronto Annex), sent to our email list, and are also on my webpage at www.dzuckerbrot.com
Also …
