
by
Jon RubinsteinI've been writing
elsewhere about the
Charter for Compassion which launched on November 12. The Charter is the fulfillment of
Karen Armstrong's
2008 Ted prize and comes from Armstrong's observation that every religion, without exception, shares a central
tenet:
"The
Charter will proclaim a principle embraced by every faith, and by every
moral code. It is often referred to as The Golden Rule....The Golden
Rule requires that we use empathy -- moral imagination -- to put
ourselves in others' shoes. We should act toward them as we would want
them to act toward us. We should refuse, under any circumstance, to
carry out actions which would cause them harm."
In a shocking twist, I'm not going to post the Guns 'n Roses
video here. The lyrics just don't have that much to do with what we're talking about. We've been discussing the
Six Paramitas, as they're called in the
Mahayana tradition and how they can help us in our careers.
(Brief interlude for a bad joke:
Come to Mahayana Motors for a Great Vehicle.)
Sorry.
So many of us spend more than half our waking hours at work. Why not use those hours to bring happiness to ourselves and others?
Kshanti paramita refers to patience or forbearance.
Jon Kabat-Zinn points out that just underneath the surface of impatience is anger. "It's the strong energy of not wanting things to be the way they are and blaming someone (often yourself) or something for it."
Handmade crafts marketplace
Etsy's blog
The Storque highlights one of their
vendors, Zeke, who recycles glass bottles and makes them into glasses, carafes, and planters. Zeke seems like a great example of living Right Livelihood. To Zeke, Right Livelihood is "earning a living without doing harm to people or the environment."
But by reading the
interview, I gleaned that there's more to it than just that for Zeke. Sure, he's taking glass that would otherwise end up in landfills, and converting it into useful and beautiful glassware. But he seems deeply aware of interdependence, a key concept when considering Right Livelihood. Recycling is a core practice of his business, from his bottles to his packing materials. And he's very aware of the impact he has on the world around him.
Often in business, we are confronted with shortcuts, with opportunities to bend our integrity
just a little bit, in order to enrich ourselves. This might mean financially, or taking credit where it isn't due, or avoiding a difficult situation we would otherwise have to face.
At other times, we find ourselves secretly rejoicing at others' failures, even small ones, and cursing their successes. The former is so common that there's even a
word for it!
What we usually fail to recognize is that any pleasure we gain from bending our integrity--whether by taking that which doesn't belong to us, gossiping about another, or wishing them ill--is always, one hundred percent of the time, outweighed by the negative effects of this lapse.