Karma

"You say one of the common messages in all these religions was what we now call the Golden Rule. And Confucius was probably the first person who came up with this idea.

All these sages, with the exception of the Greeks, posited a counter-ideology to the violence of their time. The safest way to get rid of egotism was by means ofcompassion. The first person to promulgate the Golden Rule, which was thebedrock of this empathic spirituality, was Confucius 500 years before Christ.His disciples asked him, 'What is the single thread that runs through all yourteaching and pulls it all together?' And Confucius said, 'Look into your own
heart. Discover what it is that gives you pain. And then refuse to inflict thatpain on anybody else.' His disciples also asked, 'Master, which one of yourteachings can we put into practice every day?' And Confucius said, 'Do not do to others as you would not have them do to you.' The Buddha had his version of the Golden Rule. Jesus taught it much later. And Rabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus, said the Golden Rule was the essence of Judaism. "