Compassion is the key in Islam and Buddhism and Judaism and Christianity. They are profoundly similar.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Compassion is not an option. It's the key to our survival.
Interpretation
Compassion is essential for human survival, not merely a choice.
In this quote, Karen Armstrong emphasizes the importance of compassion in sustaining our human existence. She suggests that empathy and understanding for one another are crucial not just for nurturing relationships but also for building a society where individuals can thrive together. Without compassion, we risk losing our humanity in the face of conflict and adversity.
In practice
During a speech on community service, one could use this quote to inspire volunteering.
Compassion is the key in Islam and Buddhism and Judaism and Christianity. They are profoundly similar.
Yet a personal God can become a grave liability. He can be a mere idol carved in our own image, a projection of our limited needs, fears and desires. We can assume that he loves what we love and hates what we hate, endorsing our prejudices instead of compelling us to transcend them.
When violence becomes imbedded in a region, then this affects everything. It affects your dreams, your fantasies and relationships, and your religion becomes violent, too.
Far from being the father of jihad, [Prophet] Mohammad was a peacemaker, who risked his life and nearly lost the loyalty of his closest companions because he was determined to effect a reconciliation with Mecca
Yes, all fundamentalists feel that in a secular society, God has been relegated to the margin, to the periphery and they are all in different ways seeking to drag him out of that peripheral position, back to center stage.
Religion is a search for transcendence. But transcendence isn't necessarily sited in an external god, which can be a very unspiritual, unreligious concept.
Frequent and violent temptations were a proof that the citadel of the soul had not fallen and that the devil raged to make it fall.
The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community. A boycott is never an end within itself. It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor but the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption.
To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on one's laurels, is defeat.
A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
It's something my mother believed in: If you are in a position of privilege, if you can put your name to something that you genuinely believe in, you can smash any stigma you want, and you can encourage anybody to do anything.
Over half a million women are raped in this country every year, and only a fraction of them report it because they're too ashamed. Itβs a really screwed up world, but its not your fault, and what happened to you, it doesn't make you the monster.
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