The Golden Rule Part II

By Maggie Griffin-Taylor, RYT 500

A previous Prana Post about the Golden Rule included passages from various religions and cultures that proclaimed the Golden Rule to be a guiding principle.  The list came, verbatim, from a painting in the meditation room of an Albuquerque hospital.  I’d seen that exact list in at least one other public place and wondered about the source.  It does appear in a biography on Norman Rockwell. 

Rockwell was a prolific artist whose paintings told stories of everyday people.  His paintings were charming and idyllic vignettes of American life and the culture of his era.  His work was very popular, and that can sometimes be a curse.  Imagine students who flock to your classes because they like your style. That is awesome. That can be a bit of a trap—especially after you attend a retreat and see a different view.  

Rockwell did, indeed, come to see a different view.  His tipping point was the Civil Rights Movement.  It became impossible to ignore that his snapshots of wholesome, American life were not inclusive.

In the mid-fifties, he stepped away and traveled different parts of the world. He saw new and diverse faces, cultures and beliefs.  He also saw a thread of unity—what we call the Golden Rule.  Each culture, each religion shared a fundamental sentiment—‘Do Undo others as you would have them do unto you’; “Hurt not others with that which pains yourself”; ”What is hurtful to yourself do not to your fellow man”; “No one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself”….

In 1961 he painted The Golden Rule—a collection of 43 culturally diverse faces gathered onto one canvas.  He searched his community to find those faces—faces which had not been “popular”  choices for his previous work.  In 1963, he painted The Problem We All Live With——a portrait based on Ruby Bridges who courageously walked past picket lines, protesters and police presence on her first day of class in a newly desegregated school. 

His paintings were no longer pin hole views into Americana.  He expanded that view.  He showed us a truer face of America. He also showed us that in spite of the Golden Rule, there is an ugly side of human nature that might be overcome through mutual respect and equanimity.

If, indeed, the Golden Rule is baked into our consciousness —as evinced by its ubiquity in nearly all cultures and creeds—the question remains: Why do we inflict pain on others?  

Yoganand used a memorable example that helped me consider that tough question: ‘If everyone drove the exact speed limit on the freeway, there would be no accidents’. 

We all know that people often see speed limits as suggestions rather than rules.  Perhaps our minds conjure up images of a high octane cars whizzing by like liquid.  We can smell competition in the fumes and surmise an over caffinated scheme about how to get to a destination faster.  If we could read the bumper stickers as those cars fly by, we might see “Raja Guna.”

We can imagine another car lumbering along like lead as if there were no other choice. The bumper sticker on that torpid hunk of metal may as well read “Tama Guna.” 

As we read these examples, we may feel a stir of emotion as personal stories of terrible drivers populate our minds and highjack our nervous systems.  We may feel annoyed by the driver who won’t move faster and get out of our way.  We may feel that they ‘don’t belong’ on any freeway.  We might feel angry at the driver whose need for speed shows no concern for others.  Some of us maybe even feel a little guilty for all the times we put the pedal to the metal because we were late for a yoga class. 

There are accidents on freeways and there are breeches of the Golden Rule and there are ruthless routes and roads that tempt us to believe that the Golden Rule is some kind of archaic nonsense.  Or perhaps the Golden Rule is merely hidden behind tinted windows, veiled by the Gunas (Rajas, Tamas, and Sattwa).

In Samkhya Philosophy, some cosmic event created a split between Pure Consciousness (Purusha) and Nature (Prakriti).  In that cosmic event, the primordial energy of the Gunas (Rajas, Tamas, and Sattva) became woven into the fabric of the natural world—Prakriti.

The natural world (Prakriti) is one of vicissitude. Its counter part—Purusha-- is described in Verse 13 of the Katha Upanishad as “a flame without smoke…the same today and tomorrow.”

Perhaps those who emphasized the importance of equality saw through the veil of the Gunas. They saw something clearly that we may have glimpsed or sensed in the stillness of our own practice, some principle fundamental to us all.  We share the same breath, the pulse of prana moves within us all.  There is no separation. 

We cannot eliminate or extricate the Gunas, but we can strive for Sattva--balance, steadiness, harmony. We can drive cars that cruise at a steady, balanced pace.  We may veer at times but we can choose to self-right.  Our bumper stickers might read:

“Heavily Meditated Human on Board” 

“I Heart Sattva Guna” 

“Do unto others and you would have them do unto you.”

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Practice

Take a comfortable seat, whatever that means for you.  As if you were preparing for a journey or a road trip, have at hand everything you need.  Let your breath flow freely, relax your eyes, your tongue, you jaw, your toes...you might imagine others seated on their mats in other homes or studios, in other countries--the breath we all share rising and falling, expanding and contracting --steady and balanced. Let your practice lead where it will.

 Jai Jai.