Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Law of General Beneficience

Yesterday, I wrote about education, from the perspective of C.S. Lewis, as being as much about educating the heart as well as the mind of children, so that they will be sensitive to universally recognized truth and beauty---or to those things that make us "human."

Every culture has embodied certain universal principles from which its wise departed only in foolishness or error.  Across all cultures and times, those principles remain consistent. 

The first principle we find in every "civilized" culture is that of Universal Beneficience, or of doing good to other men:
  • I have not slain men (from the Confession of the Righteous Soul, Book of the Dead-Egyptian)
  • Do not murder (Jewish--Exodus 20:13)
  • Terrify not men or God will terrify thee (Ancient Egyptian Precepts)
  • In Nastrond (Hell), I saw murderers. (Old Norse)
  • I have not brought misery upon my fellows.  I have not made the beginning of every day laborious in the sight of him who worked for me (see first ref. above)
  • I have not been grasping (ibid.)
  • Who mediates oppression, his dwelling is overturned (Babylonian)
  • He who is cruel and calumnious has the character of a cat (Hindu)
  • Slander not (Babylonian)
  • Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor (Ancient Jewish--Exodus 20:16)
  • Utter not a word by which anyone could be wounded (Hindu)
  • Has he driven an honest man from his family?  ..broken up a well-cemented clan?  (Babylonian List of Sins)
  • I have not caused hunger.  I have not caused weeping (Ancient Egyptian)
  • Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you (Ancient Chinese--Confucius)
  • Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart (Ancient Jewish--Leviticus)
  • He whose heart is in the smallest degree set upon goodness will dislike no one (Ancient Chinese--Confucius)
Obviously, just because a culture has embodied these principles as its highest values, it does not mean that either individuals or the culture as a whole has lived up to them.  But at least up until the present time, the principles have been handed down from one generation to another.  Today, it is up to parents alone to preserve these universal values.  It is difficult in our western schools to educate the "heart" of children without being accused of being politically incorrect.
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1 comment:

  1. YJanuary 1, 2012 at 1:18 PM

    The problem that I see is that we too often have and do use fear to educate the "hearts" of others. It is a great challenge to be open to all possibilities in order to learn from them, at the same time as protecting and exemplifying our own boundaries. Unfortunately, too many parents don't have boundaries and depend on society to set and enforce them.

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