Principle Six All Religions

Buddhist

Source 1: Avatamsaka Sutra:

The Buddha says: “Now I see living beings everywhere, and I see that each of them possesses the wisdom and virtue of the Tathagata. It is only because of their delusions and attachments that they do not realize it.”

 

Source 2: A Buddhist sutra

“If the minds of living beings are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds.”

 

Christian

Source 1: James 1:19-27

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it— not forgetting what they have heard but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Source 2: Prayer written by Pope Francis:

A prayer for our earth

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature
as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.

FOR ADDITIONAL CHRISTIAN SOURCES CLICK HERE

 

Jewish

Source 1: Abraham Joshua Heschel (d. 1825), Ohev Yisrael, likutim

It is known that God created an infinity of worlds, one higher than the other, and one different in some aspect from the other. As it is known, there is a world of thought and imagination, and a world of speech and a world of action. And it is known in truth that a person, through the good deeds that he does with good intention and thought and purity of heart, he brings light and flows vitality to all the worlds. In thought he illuminates and brings elevation to the world of thought; in speech he illuminates the world of speech and in action he illuminates the world of action, and awakes it and unifies all with the power of the infinite, blessed be he, and a great union and association is formed.

 

Source 2: Rabbi Shlomo Rabinovitch, Tif’eret Shlomo, Teruma

The world was created in thought, speech and action, as is explicit in scripture….and since the creation of the world was in these three aspects – thought, speech and action, then also the righteous who sustain the world sustain it in these three aspects of thought, speech and action. And all three are in the Torah, to observe it in thought, speech and action….There is, however, a difference and different degrees between the righteous who sustain the world. There is an aspect of a great righteous person, who is holy in thought, who by the power of his thought alone can draw forth good influx (or: influence) for the subsistence of the world…and there is a righteous person who through speech alone, in Torah and prayer, draws forth good influx for the subsistence of the world…and there is a righteous one who must observe the Torah and commandments physically, in action, and thereby sustains the world, in the merit of his good deeds he draws good influx for the subsistence of the world.

FOR ADDITIONAL JEWISH SOURCES CLICK HERE

 

Muslim

Source 1: Quran Sura 17 v 37:

“Don’t walk exultantly and proudly on earth. You cannot penetrate into the earth nor can you stretch yourself the height of the mountains.”

 

Source 2: Quran Sura 104 vv 1-4:

“Woe to every slandering traducer, who gathers wealth and counts it, thinking that his wealth renders him immortal. No, surely he will be flung into the Crusher (Hell).”

 

Religions of India

Source 1: Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 7, Verse 4

भूमिरापोऽनलो वायु: खं मनो बुद्धिरेव च ।
अहङ्कार इतीयं मे भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा ॥ ४ ॥

bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ
khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca
ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me
bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego – all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.

 

Source 2: Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 7, Verse 5

अपरेयमितस्त्वन्यां प्रकृतिं विद्धि मे पराम् ।
जीवभूतां महाबाहो ययेदं धार्यते जगत् ॥ ५ ॥

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ
prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho
yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat

Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.

FOR ADDITIONAL HINDU SOURCES CLICK HERE