Leader Resource 1: Wisdom Readings for the Basket
Cut apart the readings below, folding them and placing them in a basket.
Hinduism teaches that religion cannot be religion without compassion to all living beings. To love is to know the nature of the divine.
Sikhism teaches that compassion, mercy and religion are the support of the entire world.
A Buddhist chant asks that all sentient beings be free from suffering. Buddhism teaches that the essence of Buddhahood is the great compassionate heart.
Shintoism says the divine’s body is universal benevolence.
Chinese philosopher Mo-Tse taught a universal love to end oppression and inequality.
The Hebrew prophets called for justice. Words of the prophets Isaiah (“bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, comfort those who mourn”) and Amos (“let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”) inspired the hymn We’ll Build a Land which is in the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook. The song is by Carolyn McDade, who also wrote "Spirit of Life."
Jesus said “blessed the peace makers, the merciful, and the gentle.”
Nigeria says gentle character it is which enables the rope of life to stay unbroken in one’s hand.
Human beings are a strand of the web of life. The teaching, “Whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves” is often attributes to Chief Noah Sealth, also known as “Chief Seattle.”
The Hadith, narratives of the prophet Mohammed, includes this story: A man once asked the Prophet what was the best thing in Islam, and the latter replied, "It is to feed the hungry and to give the greeting of peace both to those one knows and to those one does not know.”
Gandhi modeled his teaching, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
