Regardless of race, culture, or religion, almost everyone knows the Golden Rule by heart - “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12). Now, if you think this rule originated from Christianity because it’s a verse from the bible, think again. Not known to many, there were already several versions of the Golden Rule before the Christian era, which serves as a guiding principle in life.
Below are some of the early forms of the Golden Rule from various religions and philosophy:
- Confucius taught in 6th century BCE, “Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself.”
- Buddhist also included this in their proverbs in 6th century BCE, “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”
- Hinduism’s Mahabharata date to the 6th century or earlier stated, “Do not unto others which would cause pain if done to you.” (5:15:17)
- The Torah, the first five books of the Jewish bible, at about 1400 BCE contained the prescriptive “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Leviticus 19:18)
- In Islam, the Prophet Mohammed’s last sermon includes the statement, “Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.”
- In either the 8th or 9th century BCE, the Golden Rule was also expressed by Homer. A character from the book , The Odyssey, states “I will be as careful for you as I should be for myself in the same need” (Book 5 Verses 184-191)
Then and now, the Golden Rule may be stated differently but its message remained the same. Plain and simple, it aims to encourage understanding. However, we can’t blame people for not having good experience when it comes to being treated right by others. If they carry around with them some emotional and mental baggage, then they would not totally understand the value this Golden Rule brings when practiced.
The Golden Rule suggests that a person should act the way he wanted to be treated and expect something similar. So goes Newton’s third law of motion that for every action, there’s an equal reaction. More often than not, the Golden Rule doesn’t assure one to get the best possible treatment. Act of kindness may not necessarily guarantee receiving the same amount of kindness from others but it promises one thing - it changes the approach as to how others would see and deal with someone.