There is so much talk today about religion, and the role of religion in the public arena. We see religion being used as wedge issues in everything from abortion to gay marriage to prayer in school. Yet I wonder how rarely we have discussions about religion as being centered on kindness.
kindness deserves to be at the heart of each and every tradition.
As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious.
There is no such thing as religion overriding morality.
Man for instance cannot be untruthful, cruel and incontinent and claim to have God on his side.
The Prophet Muhammad was right:
“Those who are merciful will begranted mercy from the Most Merciful;
be merciful to those on the earth and those in the heavens will have mercy on you.”
Yet again we see, kindness and mercy on Earth among us humans are connected to God’s mercy and kindness.
In the Chinese tradition, the words for kindness, benevolence, and humaneness is Ren. It consists of the character for “human”, and the number two. In other words,to realize the true meaning of being human means to live in kindness with at least one other fellow human being.
Humankind.
Being kind towards one’s fellow human.
Human-kind.
