1.Free the Mind and Heart
When we’ve learned to clear our mind
and calm our heart, we can begin to overcome fear, anger, or any of our other
destructive daily emotions. To become better at helping others, we can question
our self-defeating emotional habits and learn to face turmoil in a calm and
reasoned way. There are many techniques to train the heart and mind, but we can
start with the steps below.
Understand our emotional
patterns—our personal map.
Practice “emotional hygiene” to
minimize the spread of destructive feelings.
Pause before acting on impulse.
Combine a calm mind with a warm,
giving heart.
2.Embody Compassion
Kindness toward others is part of
our biological makeup and can play a larger role in our lives. The first step
is simply to recognize that compassion is good for us: Our own well-being lies
in the welfare of everyone. Genuine compassion calls for us to transcend the
small differences that define race or tribe or group and embrace the
commonality of all human beings. Understanding the principles below can help
guide us to that goal.
Humans have an innate need both to
give and to receive affection.
Caring for others improves our own
emotional state.
Our “circle of concern” can
gradually extend beyond our own group to include all people.
Compassion is a crucial moral rudder
as we tackle the world’s problems.
3.Educate the Heart
A goal of education could be to
create not just good minds but good people. This requires a fundamental
rethinking of how teachers prepare children for the challenges of adulthood. It
can start with “social and emotional” learning: helping students learn how to
recognize and master their turbulent feelings and to acknowledge kindness as an
essential ingredient of everyday life. This fresh approach to education rests
on the precepts below.
Education should be rooted in both
knowledge and ethics.
Social and emotional learning should
be based on sound science.
Techniques for emotional
self-mastery are as fundamental as math.
An ethics-based education is one key
to solving our global problems.
4.Oppose Injustice
Being compassionate does not mean
being passive. Living by the principles of fairness, transparency, and
accountability—the three pillars of an equitable society—sometimes requires us
to act on those principles in the face of injustice. Beyond sympathy with
victims, we are moved to speak out in their defense, to come to their aid, and
to shed light on the source of the injustice. This “muscular” compassion is
rooted in the simple ideas below.
Do not allow anger to be be a spur
to action; compassion, not anger, is a better guide.
Act without hatred or resorting to
violence.
When confronting injustice, oppose
the act but don’t give up on the person.
Recognize that restraint and
nonviolence are not signs of weakness but of strength.
5.Choose Humane Economics
Business can both do good and do
well. But acting on this principle requires us to reframe our notions of
profit, wealth, and success. The ultimate measure of economic strength—on
local, national, and global levels—includes the well-being of all people, not
just an elite few. Humane economic policy reduces financial inequality while
allowing for entrepreneurial dynamism, and it respects the truths listed below.
Loving relationships of all kinds
and meaningful work, which yields more than money, are keys to happiness.
Economic freedom can be balanced
with altruism.
Humane economic policy is guided by
compassion, not self-interest.
Businesses cannot be a force for
good when profit is the only yardstick for success.
6.Help Those in Need
Being a force for good means
extending our hand, our heart, and our intellect to serve the neediest among
us. This may mean leaving our comfort zone to address the misery of others
head-on, with selflessness and compassion. The hard work of helping the
defenseless, the disabled, and the impoverished entails more than just
charity—it asks us to get to the root of those plights. We can start with the
following steps.
Recognize that the origins of
poverty are not just circumstance but also mind-set.
Give people the tools they need to
help themselves.
Advocate against the inequitable
social policies that cause poverty and dislocation.
Support the advancement of women in
leadership roles.
7.Heal the Earth
“A genuine concern for humanity,”
the Dalai Lama has said, “means loving the environment.” His words highlight an
elementary truth: our well-being links to the ecological well-being of our planet.
This holds especially true for the poor, whose lives tend to depend more
directly on nature and its dwindling resources. Because environmental
degradation is a slow-motion event that easily escapes our notice, we can take
the following measures to understand and minimize our role in it.
Advocate for “radical transparency”
that exposes the ecological impacts of what we buy and do.
Embrace tools that measure the
ecological “true cost” of a product or service.
Encourage finding better solutions
to man-made problems, and remain focused on progress—not doom and gloom.
Extend our compassion to include
both people and the planet, in equal measure.
8.Connect Across Divides
When we stop thinking of the world
in terms of “us and them,” battle lines disappear and dialogue can begin. The
simple act of talking, person-to-person, across divides can defuse conflict and
dissolve prejudice, humanizing those whom we’d considered our enemy. Peace on
the ground starts inside ourselves, with the acceptance of the core beliefs
listed below.
War cannot resolve differences; only
dialogue can.
The traits that unite humans far
outnumber the differences that divide them.
Hatred is learned and can be
unlearned.
True compassion has no national,
ethnic, religious, or sectarian boundaries.
Source:
http://www.joinaforce4good.org
Source:
http://www.joinaforce4good.org
