Don’t Be a Dick
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Every great spiritual leader had the same, super-basic message.
It doesn’t matter what religion you ascribe to, if any. Every major religious/spiritual leader and guru says the same thing.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” — Jesus Christ
“Be kind, for whenever kindness becomes part of something, it beautifies it. Whenever it is taken from something, it leaves it tarnished.” — Prophet Muhammad
“Love one another and help others to rise to the higher levels, simply by pouring out love. Love is infectious and the greatest healing energy.” — Sai Baba
“To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.” — Buddha
All of these have exactly the same message. Be kind. Love one another. Or, not to put too fine a point on it — Don’t be a dick.
Why has this message gotten so confused?
Over-complication
The human race has a madness for taking the simple and over-complicating it. We seem hell-bent on analyzing things to their deepest meaning — even when there isn’t all that much depth present.
I had a professor in college tell me that EVERY character name has meaning. As a writer, I beg to differ — lots of my character names either just felt right to me, or in some cases were just pulled out of my ass. None-the-less, said professor had us dig deep, deep, into the hidden (and I believe non-existent) meaning of certain works.
Because of this obsession to understand to the “nth” degree, the simple idea gets lost. What ends up happening, as such, is that in the process of finding deeper meaning, inadvertently it gets created.
