“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 7.12
The question is how.
We are reminded by our failures and our difficulties in relationships that the essence of how “to do unto others as we would have them do unto us” is a kind of passivity to reactivity and an activity toward humility.
Humility is a deep aspect of remembering God in all things, at all times. Humility creates a space in us that is empty of self. And in this emptiness, we often discover an increased freedom to not react in unloving ways, and an increased will to act in loving ways for the other.
Humility is closely related to gratitude. And both are powerful remedies for inner states that feel frustrated, irritated, angry, vengeful, or even momentarily hateful. One cannot truly be humble and hate at the same time. It’s a biological truth, even at a neurological level.
In a word, the how is humility. And humility is born of suffering and remembering God – which is way of being awake to your own place in the great Line of Life, and willingly accepting and receiving your place in the immeasurable scale of the universe(s).
Humility and suffering tend to awaken us to the needs and difficulties of others, and from this awareness, we can act as we would wish to be treated, not out of sympathy, but because it’s as if in the union of love we are the other, and in Christ, there is nothing that separates us from them.
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