World Religions

Religions of the World provide us many ways to see our lives and to connect to others.

Understanding What Others Feel | Faithful Friendship
Help Those in Need | Examine Yourself, Not Others
Forgiving and Moving On | Tolerate Others’ Beliefs
Exercising Moderation | Use the Power of the Tongue Wisely

Understanding What Others Feel

Judaism
What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn. —Talmud, Sabbath 31a

Hinduism
You should not behave toward others in a way just disagreeable to yourself. This is the essence of morality. All other activities are due to selfish desire. —Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva 113.8

Taoism
Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain and your neighbor’s loss as your loss. —Treatise on Response and Retribution, verse 218

Buddhism
Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. —Udana-Varga I.5.18

Confucianism
Tzu Kung asked: “Is there a single concept that we can take as a guide for the actions of our whole life?”  Confucius said, “What about ‘fairness’?  What you don’t like done to yourself, don’t do to others. —Analects 15.23

Islam
None of you truly believes, until you wish for others what you wish for yourself. —Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 13

Baha’i
Lady not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself. —Gleanings, from the writings of Baha’u’lah

Christianity
In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Torah and the Prophets. —Matthew 7:12

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Faithful Friendship

Judaism
Two are better than one, for they derive greater reward from their labor. For should they fall, one will raise the other. One maybe overpowered, but two can defend themselves. A thread of three interwoven strands is not readily broken.  Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12

Islam
The believers men and women, are protecting friends one of another; they enjoin the right and forbid the wrong.
—Qur’an 9.71

Hinduism
The triple service of friendship is to take the friend out of the wrong path, to lead him in the right path, and to share in his misfortune. True friendship is that which comes swiftly to the rescue in the hour of trouble, even as the hand goes instinctively to hold the dress, when it chances to slip down in company. —Tirakkural 788-789

Taoism
Help your brothers and sisters, be faithful to your friends. —Hua Hu Ching 52

Confucianism
Three times daily I ask myself: “Have I been unfaithful in dealing with others? Have I been untrue to friends?” —Analects 1.4

Christianity
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. —John 15:13

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Help Those in Need

Judaism
Do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your needy neighbor.  Give generously and do so without a grudging heart. Be openhanded toward the poor and needy in your land. —Deuteronomy 15:7-11

Buddhism
Enlightened beings are magnanimous givers, bestowing whatever they have with calmness, without regret, without hoping for reward, without seeking honor, without coveting material benefits, but only to rescue and safeguard all living beings. —Garland Sutra 21

Confucianism
The noble-minded cultivate in themselves the ability to unload other peoples burdens. —Analects 14.42

Taoism
Relieve people in distress as speedily as you must release of fish from a dry rill [lest he die].  Deliver people from danger as quickly as you must free a sparrow from a tight noose.  Be compassionate to orphans, relieve the widows. Respect the old, help the poor. —Tract of the Quiet Way

Hinduism
When help is given by weighing the recipient’s need and not the donor’s reward, it’s goodness is greater than the sea. —Tirukkural 103

Islam
Give in alms of the wealth that you have lawfully earned… not worthless things which you yourselves would reluctantly accept.

Christianity
When you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets… do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. —Matthew 6:2-3

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Examine Yourself, Not Others

Judaism

Do not judge your comrade until you or in his/her place. —Pirkei Avot 2:4

Islam

Happy are the people who find fault with themselves instead of finding fault with others. —Hadith

Christianity

In the same way you judge others, you will be judged. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your neighbor’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your neighbor, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” and all the time there is a blank in your own eye? —Matthew 7:2-4

Buddhism

It is easy to see the faults of others, but your own are difficult to see. You carefully sift through other’s faults, but you hide your own like loaded dice. When you focus on the faults of others, your perceptions soon become distorted, increasing your own imperfections. —Dhammapada 252-253

Hinduism

The vile are ever prone to detect the faults of others, though they be as small as mustard seeds, and persistently shut their eyes against their own, though the be as large as stone apple fruit. —Garuda Purana 112

Confucianism

The disease of people is this: they neglect their own fields and go to weed the fields of others. What they require from others is great, while what they lay upon themselves is light. —Mencius VII.B. 32

Taoism

Before you have strengthened your own character, what leisure have you to attend to the doings of wicked people? —Chuang Tzu 4

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Forgiving and Moving On

Judaism

One who takes vengeance or bears a grudge acts like someone who, having cut one hand while handling a knife, takes revenge by stabbing the other hand. —Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim 9.4

Taoism

When conflict is reconciled, some hatred remains; how can this be put right? The wise accept less than is due and do not blame or punish; for love seeks agreement while justice demands payment. —Tao Te Ching 79

Hinduism

Forgive transgressions always; better still, forget them. —Tirukkural 152

Confucianism

If you expect great things of yourself and demand little of others, you will keep resentment far away. —Analects 15.15

Buddhism

Resentment cannot be removed by more resentment; resentment can be removed only by forgetting. —Mahavagga 10

Islam

If a person forgives and makes reconciliation, a reward is due from Allah. —Qur’an 42:40

Christianity

Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister when they sin against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.” —Matthew 18:21-22

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Tolerate Others’ Beliefs

Judaism

Anyone whose actions evince these traits is a disciple of Abraham, our ancestor…: a generous spirit, a modest mein, and a humble soul. Such disciples of Abraham will inherit the world to come. —Pirkei Avot 5:19

Confucianism

The noble-minded are all-encompassing, not stuck in doctrines… The noble minded are principled, but never dogmatic. —Analects 2.14, 15.17

Taoism

If you know the eternal law, you are tolerant; being tolerant, you are impartial; being impartial, you are kingly; being kingly, you are in accord with nature; being in accord with nature, you are in accord with Tao; being in accord with Tao, you are eternal. —Tao Te Ching 16

Islam

Would you dispute with us about Allah, who is our Lord and your Lord? We will both be judged by our works. —Qur’an 2.139

Christianity

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. —Galatians 5.6

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Exercising Moderation

Judaism
Be not over-righteous, neither be over-wise; why destroy yourself? The person in awe of God will avoid all extremes. —Ecclesiastes 7:16,18

Hinduism
The “true piety” is the one which most removes Earth’s aches and ills, where one is moderate in eating and in resting, and in sport, measured in wish and act. —Bhagavad-Gita, 6.17-18

Taoism
Out of compassion the wise avoid extravagance, excess, and extremes. —Tao Te Ching 29

Buddhism
Look at undisciplined people, at those who are intemperate. Take care lest desire and worldliness lead you to long suffering. —Dhammapada 248

Confucianism
When one won’t do some things, one can one do great things. —Mencius IV.B.8

Islam
Lord, forgive us our sins and our excesses. —Qur’an 3.147

African Tribal Religions
There are three things that if people do not know, they cannot live long in this world; what is too much for them, what is too little for them and what is just right for them. —Swahili proverb

Christianity
Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. —Proverbs 23:4

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Use the Power of the Tongue Wisely

Judaism
Just as the hand can commit murder, so the tongue can commit murder… Scripture states, “Your tongue is a sharpened arrow” —Jer. 9.7. It can commit murder even from a distance like in arrow. —Arakhin 15b-16a

The tongue holds the power of life and death. —Proverbs 18.21

Buddhism
People are born with an ax in their mouths, and they cut themselves with it when they speak foolish words. —Sutta Nipata 657

African Traditional Religions
A cutting word is worse than a bowstring; a cut may heal, but the cut of the tongue does not. —Tract of the Quiet Way

Hinduism
The good done by all your virtues can be lost by speaking even a single word of injury. The blister caused by fire will heal in time; the burn inflicted by an inflamed tongue never heals. —Tirukkural 128-129

Islam
Is there anything that topples people on their faces into hellfire more than the harvests of their tongues?
Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 29

The tongue is a beast; if it is let loose, it devours. —Nahjul Balagha 60

Christianity
Consider that a great forest can be set on fire by a small spark. The tongue is also a fire… It sets the whole course of a person’s life on fire. —James 3.5-6

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