our villages our cities our states our
countries are becoming more diverse
communities our communities are filled
with people who speak many languages who
celebrate out of many different
spiritual traditions who use practices
and rituals that come from many
different cultures and sometimes when we
face all of those differences we respond
in fear or at least apprehension so in
order to celebrate all of the
differences of our diverse communities
we also have to understand how we are
connected with each other how we share
the same principles that help us make
wise decisions in whatever community we
are part of over the last few
generations we’ve been trying to change
our fundamental metaphor for
understanding community from the melting
pot where we boil away all of the
differences to get to one monoculture
one way of thinking to the metaphor of
the salad bowl where all of those
delicious flavors are mixed together
they’re all present there in their
uniqueness but in the mixing we find
that we have
a richer community a more flavorful
community than if we try to boil away
the differences but in order to live in
a salad bowl community where we truly
appreciate all of those differences
again we must try to understand the ways
in which we share fundamental principles
in about 40 years of teaching world
religions and cultures I’ve begun to
understand some of those foundational
cross cultural cross religious cross
ethnicities cross races commonalities
and I’d like to share with you three of
those this afternoon
the first you might have heard of before
respect all persons we’ve heard this in
several other talks today it is so
foundational if you look at the Great
Eastern traditions of the world Hinduism
and Buddhism and Jainism Taoism you find
the principle at the core of those
traditions the principle of ahimsa
non-harming non-violence but that’s the
negative way of stating it what it
really means is respect the dignity the
preciousness not only of every human
being but every sentient being we’ve
heard about the Golden Rule and the
Platinum rule we find over all of our
cultures and religious traditions of the
world expressions of this fundamental
rule to treat others the way they want
to be treated to treat others with
dignity to treat others like they matter
when we begin to see that this is a
shared principle a common principle that
is part of all of our traditions then we
begin to use it more fully in our own
decision-making process whether that’s
in our civic communities or in our
workplaces we call in all of the
stakeholders we intentionally invite
those who are at the margins whose
voices don’t always get heard those who
are disenfranchised and we listen deeply
to those stories and then in making the
best decision we decide not what’s good
for me or what’s good for my group or
what’s good for my tribe but what’s good
for the common human community I learned
this in a unusual way as a child from my
grandpa bull holler
I learned that every story of a life is
a precious story that every person might
be thought of as a unique and individual
story
my grandpa bull Howard was Dutch he came
from the old country some people thought
of him as kind of a recalcitrant
stubborn too serious kind of ornery guy
he liked to do things his own way and he
never actually learned English he
learned a few words he got along but he
mostly spoke Dutch and somehow even
though I never learn Dutch he and I got
along just fine I love to watch him work
and work
he did almost every day of his life
until he died at a hundred and one he
worked in his tar paper tool shed in the
back yard and one of the things he did
best was sharpen things everything had
to be sharpened his axe head his Spade
tip his hole and he grew amazing
vegetables in his garden but every
couple of weeks he would hold those
implements of his work against that hard
grinding stone and the sparks would fly
off like splinters of lightning but then
there was one day when he wouldn’t let
me in when he was sharpening our skates
to their most graceful edge it was a
cold day in January and he left me
standing outside the shed and I heard
those shining skates sharpened he
wouldn’t tell me why he wouldn’t let me
in but mother told me after he came to
America his youngest child a daughter
was born like a promise in this new land
but when she was four she became quite
sick she was sick on Christmas and yet
he gave her shining skates just like the
ones he wore in the old country skating
on the canals but she never put her feet
in them she died on a cold cold day in
January and that told me something more
about grandpa bull holler and how he was
and how he reacted to things you see
each one of us is a special precious
unique story it’s never repeated ever
again in the whole universe and when we
begin to treat each other that way even
if we don’t know the whole story we make
room for it all then we become the kind
of community we really want to be a
second principle that we share in common
over the cultures and traditions of the
world is to appreciate the wholeness of
being human if we look at the great
wisdom figures of the world the Saints
the sages the heroes the priests the
prophets they are people who embody the
wholeness of being human they are people
often with tremendous abilities physical
abilities so they’re able to sustain
themselves over great difficulties but
they are also people with tremendous
intellectual skills with great acuity
and insight and almost always they are
people who have spirit however you
understand that term they are people who
are connected to some higher power to
some transcendent vision to some divine
reality we find this again in every
tradition of the world so that for
instance in Islam prayer is something
that is done five times a day it becomes
an integrated aspect of a whole human
being in the Catholic tradition the
great religious orders had something
very much like this where prayer was
something done at the beginning of the
day
mid morning and afternoon and into the
night because the spiritual aspect
became a whole part there was prayer and
work and study again we could look at
this principle throughout the wisdom
traditions of the world but when we
start to use it then we use all of our
ways of knowing right when we’re making
a decision we don’t just use our mind
which is usually what we do in our
Western society reason is something that
we’ve put sort of as the top priority
but what about questions of how do we
feel what does our heart
tell us here’s a challenge next time
you’re in a really difficult meeting and
there’s a difficult discussion about the
decision that has to be made ask
everybody just to take two minutes of
silence two minutes of silence and I
guarantee you that the conversation will
change we need to use all of our ways of
knowing
in order to make really wise decisions
in our communities and when we do then
we choose what brings integration what
brings wellness we don’t just focus on
one aspect of who we are but we look for
ways to continue to be whole human
beings body mind and spirit a third
principle recognize the
interconnectedness of all reality here
again this is a principle that we find
throughout the wisdom traditions of the
world if you look at indigenous peoples
on every continent there is a deep
sensitivity
not only us two legged ones but the
four-legged ones the winget ones the
swimming ones
all of them are understood as my
relations all of my relations if we look
at the Abrahamic traditions of the world
Judaism Christianity Islam we find that
there is this deep recognition that all
reality comes from the divine and bears
the mark the beauty of the divine this
idea that we are all interconnected is a
fundamental realization across the
cultures and traditions of the world and
when we start to use that sensitivity
when we’re making decisions when we’re
in that process of weighing things we
not only look at individual events and
individual persons but we look at
systems we look at our educational
system and the difficulties were having
with opportunity gaps not because
individuals aren’t able to do the work
but because we have a system that
doesn’t actually treat people fairly we
look at policing systems where we’ve had
great difficulty over the last few years
we must ask ourselves not just about
individuals we must ask ourselves about
the systems of recruitment and training
we must ask ourselves about our own
culture our propensity for competition
for violence when we begin to use this
sensitivity to the interconnectedness of
reality then we choose not only what
supports one part of the bottom line
which we often talk about profit
prosperity but we recognized that the
bottom line is really triple right it
includes people the spirit of people the
Wellness of people and includes our
planet on which we depend without which
we cannot go on now grandpa bull Howard
taught me one more thing you see one day
this surly old guy called us all to his
backyard and he had set up two flower
stands almost 20 feet apart and on one
balanced on a pivot was a spoon holding
half a potato and on the other was a
wineglass glinting in the sunlight and
with one flick of his finger he sent
that potato flying through space and it
fell round and down in the waiting
wineglass and he I mean it wasn’t just a
little laughs it was glee bubbling out
of him and you know some of the
difficulty of his story well only once
then shovel on his shoulder back to his
garden leaving us standing in the green
grass with all of our questions after
that it was the first and the last time
that I heard my grandpa giggle but after
that everything was possible and I
believe that as a human community it is
possible for us to recognize the
preciousness of each person it is
possible for us to be brothers and
sisters of one human family it takes a
recognition that we have common
foundational principles yes we are one
family thank you
[Applause]
countries are becoming more diverse
communities our communities are filled
with people who speak many languages who
celebrate out of many different
spiritual traditions who use practices
and rituals that come from many
different cultures and sometimes when we
face all of those differences we respond
in fear or at least apprehension so in
order to celebrate all of the
differences of our diverse communities
we also have to understand how we are
connected with each other how we share
the same principles that help us make
wise decisions in whatever community we
are part of over the last few
generations we’ve been trying to change
our fundamental metaphor for
understanding community from the melting
pot where we boil away all of the
differences to get to one monoculture
one way of thinking to the metaphor of
the salad bowl where all of those
delicious flavors are mixed together
they’re all present there in their
uniqueness but in the mixing we find
that we have
a richer community a more flavorful
community than if we try to boil away
the differences but in order to live in
a salad bowl community where we truly
appreciate all of those differences
again we must try to understand the ways
in which we share fundamental principles
in about 40 years of teaching world
religions and cultures I’ve begun to
understand some of those foundational
cross cultural cross religious cross
ethnicities cross races commonalities
and I’d like to share with you three of
those this afternoon
the first you might have heard of before
respect all persons we’ve heard this in
several other talks today it is so
foundational if you look at the Great
Eastern traditions of the world Hinduism
and Buddhism and Jainism Taoism you find
the principle at the core of those
traditions the principle of ahimsa
non-harming non-violence but that’s the
negative way of stating it what it
really means is respect the dignity the
preciousness not only of every human
being but every sentient being we’ve
heard about the Golden Rule and the
Platinum rule we find over all of our
cultures and religious traditions of the
world expressions of this fundamental
rule to treat others the way they want
to be treated to treat others with
dignity to treat others like they matter
when we begin to see that this is a
shared principle a common principle that
is part of all of our traditions then we
begin to use it more fully in our own
decision-making process whether that’s
in our civic communities or in our
workplaces we call in all of the
stakeholders we intentionally invite
those who are at the margins whose
voices don’t always get heard those who
are disenfranchised and we listen deeply
to those stories and then in making the
best decision we decide not what’s good
for me or what’s good for my group or
what’s good for my tribe but what’s good
for the common human community I learned
this in a unusual way as a child from my
grandpa bull holler
I learned that every story of a life is
a precious story that every person might
be thought of as a unique and individual
story
my grandpa bull Howard was Dutch he came
from the old country some people thought
of him as kind of a recalcitrant
stubborn too serious kind of ornery guy
he liked to do things his own way and he
never actually learned English he
learned a few words he got along but he
mostly spoke Dutch and somehow even
though I never learn Dutch he and I got
along just fine I love to watch him work
and work
he did almost every day of his life
until he died at a hundred and one he
worked in his tar paper tool shed in the
back yard and one of the things he did
best was sharpen things everything had
to be sharpened his axe head his Spade
tip his hole and he grew amazing
vegetables in his garden but every
couple of weeks he would hold those
implements of his work against that hard
grinding stone and the sparks would fly
off like splinters of lightning but then
there was one day when he wouldn’t let
me in when he was sharpening our skates
to their most graceful edge it was a
cold day in January and he left me
standing outside the shed and I heard
those shining skates sharpened he
wouldn’t tell me why he wouldn’t let me
in but mother told me after he came to
America his youngest child a daughter
was born like a promise in this new land
but when she was four she became quite
sick she was sick on Christmas and yet
he gave her shining skates just like the
ones he wore in the old country skating
on the canals but she never put her feet
in them she died on a cold cold day in
January and that told me something more
about grandpa bull holler and how he was
and how he reacted to things you see
each one of us is a special precious
unique story it’s never repeated ever
again in the whole universe and when we
begin to treat each other that way even
if we don’t know the whole story we make
room for it all then we become the kind
of community we really want to be a
second principle that we share in common
over the cultures and traditions of the
world is to appreciate the wholeness of
being human if we look at the great
wisdom figures of the world the Saints
the sages the heroes the priests the
prophets they are people who embody the
wholeness of being human they are people
often with tremendous abilities physical
abilities so they’re able to sustain
themselves over great difficulties but
they are also people with tremendous
intellectual skills with great acuity
and insight and almost always they are
people who have spirit however you
understand that term they are people who
are connected to some higher power to
some transcendent vision to some divine
reality we find this again in every
tradition of the world so that for
instance in Islam prayer is something
that is done five times a day it becomes
an integrated aspect of a whole human
being in the Catholic tradition the
great religious orders had something
very much like this where prayer was
something done at the beginning of the
day
mid morning and afternoon and into the
night because the spiritual aspect
became a whole part there was prayer and
work and study again we could look at
this principle throughout the wisdom
traditions of the world but when we
start to use it then we use all of our
ways of knowing right when we’re making
a decision we don’t just use our mind
which is usually what we do in our
Western society reason is something that
we’ve put sort of as the top priority
but what about questions of how do we
feel what does our heart
tell us here’s a challenge next time
you’re in a really difficult meeting and
there’s a difficult discussion about the
decision that has to be made ask
everybody just to take two minutes of
silence two minutes of silence and I
guarantee you that the conversation will
change we need to use all of our ways of
knowing
in order to make really wise decisions
in our communities and when we do then
we choose what brings integration what
brings wellness we don’t just focus on
one aspect of who we are but we look for
ways to continue to be whole human
beings body mind and spirit a third
principle recognize the
interconnectedness of all reality here
again this is a principle that we find
throughout the wisdom traditions of the
world if you look at indigenous peoples
on every continent there is a deep
sensitivity
not only us two legged ones but the
four-legged ones the winget ones the
swimming ones
all of them are understood as my
relations all of my relations if we look
at the Abrahamic traditions of the world
Judaism Christianity Islam we find that
there is this deep recognition that all
reality comes from the divine and bears
the mark the beauty of the divine this
idea that we are all interconnected is a
fundamental realization across the
cultures and traditions of the world and
when we start to use that sensitivity
when we’re making decisions when we’re
in that process of weighing things we
not only look at individual events and
individual persons but we look at
systems we look at our educational
system and the difficulties were having
with opportunity gaps not because
individuals aren’t able to do the work
but because we have a system that
doesn’t actually treat people fairly we
look at policing systems where we’ve had
great difficulty over the last few years
we must ask ourselves not just about
individuals we must ask ourselves about
the systems of recruitment and training
we must ask ourselves about our own
culture our propensity for competition
for violence when we begin to use this
sensitivity to the interconnectedness of
reality then we choose not only what
supports one part of the bottom line
which we often talk about profit
prosperity but we recognized that the
bottom line is really triple right it
includes people the spirit of people the
Wellness of people and includes our
planet on which we depend without which
we cannot go on now grandpa bull Howard
taught me one more thing you see one day
this surly old guy called us all to his
backyard and he had set up two flower
stands almost 20 feet apart and on one
balanced on a pivot was a spoon holding
half a potato and on the other was a
wineglass glinting in the sunlight and
with one flick of his finger he sent
that potato flying through space and it
fell round and down in the waiting
wineglass and he I mean it wasn’t just a
little laughs it was glee bubbling out
of him and you know some of the
difficulty of his story well only once
then shovel on his shoulder back to his
garden leaving us standing in the green
grass with all of our questions after
that it was the first and the last time
that I heard my grandpa giggle but after
that everything was possible and I
believe that as a human community it is
possible for us to recognize the
preciousness of each person it is
possible for us to be brothers and
sisters of one human family it takes a
recognition that we have common
foundational principles yes we are one
family thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: