Universal Ethics in a Pluralistic Society

A few weeks ago I was asked to speak at the local Vedanta Center "in connection with world-wide celebration the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the founder of this religious organization."

"Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) did pioneering work in introducing ancient Indian philosophy & religion Vedanta to the Western intellectuals during his short stay of four years in USA from 1893 to 1897. He appeared first as the sole representative of Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893 and was very well received by liberal sections of both the society and the Christian churches. He travelled extensively to major cities of America and Europe on invitation from various Churches and institutes of higher education to deliver the central message of Vedanta, which calls for the unity of all people."

My suggestion was to address “A Universal Ethics in the midst of a Pluralistic Society”, to more fully speak to the core beliefs of this community.

We were further instructed: "Speakers shall have 15 minutes each to deliver the message of unity and harmony as is taught and practiced by their respective faiths."

I offer you a small piece of this address and if you would like to see the entire text, I will attach a file in PDF for your reading.

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The Spirituality of the Encounter
Martin Buber begins his seminal book "I and Thou" in a poetic form:
To man the world is twofold, in accordance with his twofold attitude.
The attitude of man is twofold, in accordance with the twofold nature of the primary words which he speaks.
The primary words are not isolated words, but combined words.
The one primary word is the combination I-Thou.
The other primary word is the combination I-It; wherein, without a change in the primary word, one of the words He and She can replace It.
Hence the I of man is also twofold.
For the I of the primary word I-Thou is a different I from that of the primary word I-It.Martin Buber’s I and Thou (Ich und Du,1923) presents a philosophy of personal dialogue, in that it describes how personal dialogue can define the nature of reality. Buber’s major theme is that human existence may be defined by the way in which we engage in dialogue with each other, with the world, and with God.

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I go on at this point to review the traditional approaches to ethics as rules, laws, principles, and other behavioral guides. The conclusion then sets these approaches aside.
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But all (these) explicit guidelines yet fall short of our important goal. When we reach spiritual maturity, there is little need for laws and rules. Finally, we need to understand and to accept that the penultimate achievement of all ethics is to be in the right relationship with one another and with our creator. All religions and all governments begin with principles, laws, rules and, occasionally, individual rights. What we learn finally is that these represent the baby steps of humankind in our learning about one another and about the nature of the universe. All structures we create will be unsuccessful unless they lead us to embrace one another, no matter how different we seem in our narrow understanding of life. For what we see now is finite, and we must open ourselves to be guided to see the infinite. I summarize with more of the insightful words of Martin Buber:
"The spheres in which the world of relation arises are three.
First, our life with nature....
Second, our life with men....
Third, our life with spiritual beings. There the relation is clouded, yet it discloses itself; it does not use speech, yet begets it. We perceive no Thou, but none the less we feel we are addressed and we answer- forming, thinking, acting. We speak the primary word with our being, though we cannot utter Thou with our lips. But with what right do we draw what lies outside speech into relation with the world of the primary word? In every sphere in its own way, through each process of becoming that is present to us we look out toward the fringe of the eternal Thou; in each we are aware of a breath from the eternal Thou; in each Thou we address the eternal Thou." (Buber, I and Thou, Pg.6)I believe what he is trying to tell us from a focus on the world of the Spirit is that if we are finally successful at comprehending the essence of material existence, when we look into the eyes of the other we will first see the Creator, the Eternal Thou. While in our infancy we gravitate to an ethics of Virtue, or Character, or Laws, or Principles, but when we comprehend our common origin we arrive at the ethics of relationship.