Entries from TED Blog tagged with 'Karen Armstrong'

12 November 2009

TED and Reddit interview Karen Armstrong

With the launch of the Charter for Compassion, it's the TED Blog's pleasure to unveil Karen Armstrong's responses to the top 10 questions asked and voted on by the TED and Reddit community. (See all the questions users asked.) She covers the nature of compassion, the history of the conflict in the Middle East, and tough questions such as these:

Religion seems to cause racism, extremism -- why not get rid of it?
What's the point of a God that doesn't intervene?
Why not discard religion and just teach the Golden Rule?

A Q&A that rewards deep reading. Enjoy!

Capitol62 asks: It seems that the nexus of modern religious conflict is in the Middle East. If that is correct, for your ideas about bringing faiths together with compassion and understanding to be successful you will need a strong commitment from religious leaders there. I was wondering if you've made any progress getting the Charter for Compassion together and how it has been received by Muslim leaders in the Middle East.

Actually the Middle East conflict is secular in origin. It began as a conventional political dispute about a land. Zionism was originally a rebellion against religious Judaism and the PLO Charter was essentially secularist. But because the conflict was allowed to fester without a resolution, religion got sucked into the escalating cycle of violence and became part of the problem. Violence and warfare affect everything that we do: they affect our dreams, aspirations, fantasies, relationships -- and our religion. Most of the religiously-articulated terrorism that troubles us today arose in regions where an originally secular armed conflict has become chronic. It is patently the case in Afghanistan. The root of the problem is political and unless there is a just, political solution to these problems in the Middle East, no amount of inter-faith understanding will be effective.

But you are right that the Middle East conflict is a "nexus." It has become a symbolic issue which stands for more than itself in the three monotheisms of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. For many Muslims, the plight of the Palestinians has become emblematic of the apparent defeat of their religious, cultural and political aspirations in the modern period; the State of Israel has inspired most Jewish fundamentalist movements -- some passionately for the secular state of Israel and others vehemently either against it or adopting a deliberate and defiant neutrality towards it; and the State of Israel also figures prominently in the End Time scenario of the Christian Right in the United States.

All this has certainly muddied the waters, because once a conflict becomes sacralised, issues become absolute and compromise is far ore difficult.

But by no means all Jews, Christians or Muslims adopt these extreme positions. Many are eager, even desperate to achieve a peaceful solution in the Middle East and these are the voices that we need to amplify. On our Council of Conscience, we have a Palestinian peace activist and the Grand Mufti of Egypt, one of the most senior clerics in the Middle East. As I write this, we are reaching out to political and religious leaders in the Gulf States. But there can be no quick fix. Decades of warfare and destruction have made people on all sides suspicious and wary. The political problems remain; they are formidable and until a solution is found that satisfies all parties, there is no hope of either a secular or a religious settlement. The Golden Rule could certainly be a useful yardstick: if we always treated others as we expect to be treated ourselves, many of the heinous actions that are the cause of such suffering to people on both sides of this conflict would be impossible. If we would not like to suffer dispossession and exile, suicide bombing, oppression and terrorism, we should not inflict these on others. But alas, that is not the way politicians think. And when violence has become endemic, some religious people will, not surprisingly, become fearful, angry and, losing hope in the possibility of a conventional political settlement, some will turn to extremism. Charismatic individuals can work wonders. It is a pity that there is no politician or religious leader on either side of this conflict of the moral and spiritual stature of Gandhi, Mandela and Tutu.

renderedit asks: Why did the Buddha teach that the existence of God (that is, whether God exists or not) is irrelevant?

Before we get to the Buddha, I want to describe a spiritual exercise that developed in India in the 10th century BCE, four hundred years before his lifetime and which is a model of authentic religious discourse. Other traditions have developed their own versions of this sacred contest and the principle it embodies underlies the Buddha's apparent insouciance about the ultimate reality.

It was called the Brahmodya Competition and its aim was to find a verbal formula that defined the Brahman, the ultimate reality that lies beyond the gods and is indefinable because it is the inmost essence of all things, the force that pulls the disparate parts of the universe together. First, the Brahmin priests would go out into the jungle to make a retreat. They fasted and practised breathing exercises that induced a different form of consciousness. This is an important point. You cannot talk about God, Brahman, Nirvana or Dao in the same way as you might discuss a business deal or argue an academic point. You have to put yourself into the receptive frame of mind that is similar to the way we listen to music or poetry.

After their retreat, the priests returned to the compound to begin the competition. The challenger issued his own elliptical and paradoxical description of the Brahman, one that embodied all his learning and insight. Then his opponents had to respond, building on the challenger's formula and taking the description a step further. But the winner was the priest who reduced everybody to silence -- and in that silence the Brahman was present. It was not present in the brilliant verbal conundrums but in the stunning realization of the impotence of speech.

Other traditions have called this transcendence God, Nirvana, or Dao and have also insisted that it lies beyond the reach of words. It is not easy for us to appreciate this reticence. We are used to getting instant information at the click of a mouse and can feel frustrated by the experience of unknowing. We talk, I think, far too glibly about God, asking "him" (ridiculous pronoun!) to bless our nation, save our queen, and support our side in a war or an election, even though our opponents must also be the objects of God's concern. We have domesticated God's transcendence. We often learn about God at about the same time as we are learning about Santa Claus; but our ideas about Santa Claus change, mature and become more nuanced, whereas our ideas of God can remain at a rather infantile level.

This experience of numinous unknowing seems to be part of the way we human beings experience. It lay at the heart of the Socratic dialogue, which can be seen as a rational version of the Brahmodya: it did not conclude with one of the participants defeating the arguments of the others but in a profound realization of the profundity of human ignorance. When he contemplated the indeterminate universe of modern physics, Einstein said: "To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself to us as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms -- this knowledge, this feeling is at the centre of all true religiousness." This is the kind of knowing that we derive from poetry -- it can take a lifetime for a complex poem to declare its full meaning to us. Music also, a highly rational art intimately related into mathematics, segues naturally into transcendence. Good theology is also an attempt to express the inexpressible. A modern theologian has described theological discourse as speech that segues into silence. At the end of the symphony, when the last notes die away, there is often a pregnant, eloquent beat of silence before the applause begins. Instead of giving us precise information about God, theology -- at its best -- should hold us in that beat of silence -- just as the Brahmodya did.

In the past some of the most influential Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologians, such as Maimonides, Aquinas and Ibn Sina, made it clear that it was very difficult to speak about God, because when we confront the ultimate, we are at the end of what words or thoughts can do. They insisted that we really do not know what we mean when we say that God is "good," "wise" or "intelligent;" they devised spiritual exercises, like the Brahmodya, that made us realize the inadequacy of all God-talk. Some pointed out that we could not even say that God "existed," because our concept of existence was too limited. Some even preferred to call God "Nothing" because God was not another being.

So, if we cannot know what God is, what is the point of religion? The traditions have found that, even though God is not a metaphysical fact that we can know in the same way as we know the beings of our experience, we can gain some intimation of the divine by means of disciplined spiritual exercises -- like the Brahmodya Competition -- and a compassionate lifestyle. All the traditions have discovered that the chief obstacle to this insight and enlightenment is egotism -- selfishness, greed, envy, self-preoccupation and our engrained tendency to make ourselves the centre of the universe. Yoga, for example, was a systematic dismantling of ego and an attempt to remove the "I" from our thinking. In compassion, which all the traditions say brings us into relation with the transcendence we seek, we learn to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there.

That is why the Buddha always refused to define the ultimate. He had a monk, who was a philosopher manqué. Neglecting his yoga and ethical practice, he kept pestering the Buddha about such questions as the existence of God and the creation of the world. The Buddha told him that he was like a man who had been shot with a poisoned arrow but refused to have any medical treatment until he had discovered the name of his assailant and what village he came from: he would die before he received this perfectly useless information. One could, the Buddha said, spend many pleasant hours discussing these fascinating topics but this would distract a monk from his main objective: "Because, my disciples, they will not help you, they are not useful in the quest for holiness; they do not lead to peace and to the direct knowledge of Nirvana."

In the oriental traditions, especially in India and China, the emphasis is not on what we are transcending to (God, Nirvana, Brahman, Dao) but on what we must transcend from, tamping out the "unhelpful states of mind" arising from egotism that hold us back from the perception of this transcendent reality that we can glimpse, but never rationally define.

blackstar9000 asks: What one aspect of religion would you say is least understood by the general population, how can it be addressed, and what do you think would be the result if more people understood it?

I think that the Western world -- and particularly, perhaps, the Western Christian world -- has lost sight of the fact that religion is a practical rather than a notional discipline. It is not a question of thinking or "believing" things but of behaving consistently in a way that changes you at a profound level. This is one of the principal themes of my book The Case for God. Religious knowledge has to be acquired by dedicated practice -- like driving, swimming or cooking. You cannot learn dancing or gymnastics by reading a book. You have to devote hours and years of time to practising this skill; you do not necessarily understand how your body achieves these amazing feats, but if you persevere you may learn to move with an unearthly grace and reveal a physical potential that is impossible for an untrained body.

The myths of religion are essentially programmes for action. Many of the most ancient myths are overtly about the gods but are actually about humanity. These stories about gods descending into the underworld and fighting with monsters were not meant to be factual or historical; they were telling you how to enter into the labyrinthine world of the psyche and fight your own demons. Unless a myth is put into practice, it remains as opaque and abstract as a musical score, which is impenetrable to most of us until it is "incarnated" instrumentally. It is only when you apply it practically to your own life -- either ritually or ethically -- that it reveals its truth, in rather the same way as the instructions of a board game, which seem incomprehensible, complicated and boring until you pick up the dice and begin to play when everything falls into place. Such a myth is not providing us with factual information about the universe but telling you something profoundly true about our humanity, the way our minds and hearts work, and how we can live more richly and intensely, beyond the reach of fear, hatred, and envy.

This is very clear in Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism and Islam, which are all essentially religions of practice and have little or no obligatory dogma. The "five pillars" of Islam, for example, are activities (pilgrimage, almsgiving, fasting) rather than doctrines requiring belief. But it was also true of such Christian doctrines as Trinity (originally a meditative exercise) and Incarnation (a call to lay aside the ego; see Philippians 2:1-11). A myth has been defined as something that -- in some sense -- happened once but which also happens all the time. It is only when you activate a myth, making it a reality in your own life, that you recognize its truth.

We lost this understanding of religion during the early modern period, when our conception of truth, became more notional, mythos was discredited, and practical knowledge downgraded. At this time, the English word belief changed its meaning: beliven used to mean "love, loyalty, commitment, engagement;" it was related to the German liebe ("beloved") and the Latin libido ("desire"). Only in the late 17th century did it come to mean: "an intellectual acceptance of a somewhat dubious proposition." In the New Testament, when Jesus was asking for "faith" (Greek: pistis, "trust, involvement, commitment") he was not asking for a credulous acceptance of a set of doctrines. He was calling for action, seeking disciples who would give what they had to the poor, live rough, behave compassionately even to social outcasts, and devote their lives to the coming Kingdom when rich and poor, weak and powerful would live together in harmony. When the early Christians recited "creeds" they were not expressing "belief" so much as making this kind of commitment; the Latin credo derives from cor do: "I give my heart."

By making "belief" in the modern sense so essential to religion, we have distorted our understanding of faith and placed far too much emphasis on doctrinal orthodoxy. Nobody, after all, can have the last word on what we call "God." We now call religious people "believers" as though accepting certain dogmas was the most important thing that they did. People like the rabbis, the fathers of the church, the Buddha, the sages of the Upanishads and Confucius would have found this very strange, because the teachings of religion make no sense until and unless they are translated into action.

Today we often think that before we start living a religious life we have first to accept the creedal doctrines and that before one can have any comprehension of the loyalty and trust of faith, one must first force one's mind to accept a host of incomprehensible doctrines. But this is to put the cart before the horse. First you change your behaviour -- and only then do you begin to understand the truth that lies behind the dogma.

In his famous prayer, St Anselm, the 11th century archbishop of Canterbury, says: credo ut intelligam, which is usually translated: "I believe in order that I may understand." As a child, I always thought this meant that first I had to force my mind to "believe" the articles of the creed and then, as a reward, God would give me understanding. But Anselm's words are more accurately translated: "I involve/commit myself in order that I may understand." It is only when you involve yourself in the ritual and ethical practices of religion that you achieve understanding. That is why Anselm goes on to say: "And unless I so involve myself, I will not understand."

The person who asked me this question also asked a series of questions about the Golden Rule ("Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you" or "Always treat all others as you would wish to be treated yourself"). Why the emphasis on the Golden Rule? Why is it universal? Does it tell us anything substantial about religion, since it is also fundamental to secular ideologies? Because religion is essentially a practical activity, religious people are very pragmatic. They do not usually adopt an ideology because it sounds good but because it has been found to work. When people have practised the Golden Rule "all day and every day" as Confucius (the first person to formulate it in the sixth century BCE) prescribed, you find that you lay aside the ego, because the Golden Rule requires you to overcome selfishness and put yourself, consistently, kindly, and intelligently, all day and every day, in somebody else's shoes.

People have discovered that if they practice the Golden Rule faithfully, it slowly, incrementally, changes them. They achieve what the Greeks called ekstasis, which is not an exotic trance but a disciplined, habitual "stepping outside" of the prism of selfishness. This practice is fundamental to the enlightenment that we call God, Nirvana, Brahman or Dao. As a dancer reveals the full potential of the human body, people find that living beyond the confines of self helps them to cultivate new capacities of mind and heart; they discover a transcendent peace within themselves, which enables them to live serenely and creatively in the midst of the suffering that is an ineradicable part of the human condition. The Golden Rule is the basis of religion and morality because this is the way our humanity works; this tells us something profoundly true about the human condition.

But it is no use either "believing" or "dis-believing" in the efficacy of the Golden Rule. You only discover its truth and effectiveness if you put it into practice "all day and every day."

Read the rest of Karen Armstrong's answers, after the jump >>

12 November 2009

Charter around the world: Sydney, Australia

Outside the Sydney Opera House, an ecumenical group holds the Yves Béhar-designed plaque for the Charter for Compassion.

12 November 2009

Charter for Compassion launches!

This morning at 10am, Karen Armstrong unveiled the powerful text of the Charter for Compassion -- the culmination of her 2008 TED Prize wish.

Read and affirm the text of the Charter for Compassion >>

The Charter for Compassion asks that people of all religions and moral codes to recognize the core value we share -- that we wish to act toward others as we'd like them to act toward us. This bedrock value is the foundation for a greater understanding.

Look for photos from today's announcement and from events around the world on the TED Blog throughout the day. And follow @TheCharter on Twitter for ongoing news (look for the hashtag #Compassion).

Learn more about the Charter for Compassion -- and find or start an event to share and celebrate it!

Become a Fan of the Charter for Compassion on Facebook >>

01 November 2009

Countdown to the Charter for Compassion on TED.com

In February 2008, Karen Armstrong won the TED Prize and made her wish -- to create a Charter for Compassion, a document about the core shared value of every world religion and moral code, the Golden Rule. This document will be released to the world on November 12, the result of months of collaborative work by diverse religious leaders and great thinkers.

Today, to pave the way for the Charter's unveiling, we're sharing six short talks on compassion from six different perspectives -- from a Rabbi, an Imam, a Reverend, a Tenzin, a Swami and a secular voice of compassion. We hope that in the week following the launch, thousands of sermons and many more discussions on the nature of compassion will take place around the world, and so, thousands of ideas will be shared.

Over 75 events are currently planned across the globe to help launch the Charter for Compassion. Help us launch the Charter by attending one of these events or hosting your own. Click here for more on the Charter >>

To learn more about the wish that began it all, watch Karen Armstrong's 2008 TED Prize Wish:

26 October 2009

Ask Karen Armstrong anything!

Ask her anything >>

Religious thinker Karen Armstrong has written more than 20 books on faith and the major religions, studying what Islam, Judaism and Christianity have in common, and how our faiths shaped world history and drive current events. She argues that compassion is the core, fundamental idea behind the three Abrahamic religions, and she is working to help people of faith rediscover this principle.

Armstrong has given two TEDTalks (see her 2008 and 2009 talk), and the result of her 2008 TED Prize wish, the Charter for Compassion, will be unveiled on Nov. 12.

Don't miss her recent article in The Wall Street Journal, in which she and fellow TEDster Richard Dawkins answer the question "Where does evolution leave God?"

Submit your questions on Reddit and we'll ask the highest-voted ones as of noon Pacific time on Friday, October 30th. (Note: Any questions in the comments of this blog entry will not be eligible.)

Watch her 2008 TEDTalk:

See the results of past Ask Anythings:
+ TED and Reddit interview Hans Rosling
+ TED and Reddit interview Sir Ken Robinson
+ TED and Reddit interview Karen Armstrong

30 September 2009

Let's revive the Golden Rule: Karen Armstrong on TED.com

Weeks from the Charter for Compassion launch, Karen Armstrong looks at religion's role in the 21st century: Will its dogmas divide us? Or will it unite us for common good? She reviews the catalysts that can drive the world's faiths to rediscover the Golden Rule. (Recorded at TEDGlobal, July 2009, Oxford, UK.Duration: 09:55)

Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/3W

Watch Karen Armstrong's talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 500+ TEDTalks.

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27 September 2009

Live on the web today: Karen Armstrong and the Dalai Lama talk about compassion

A TED Prize wish is about to be granted. We'd love you to participate.

On Sunday, September 27, 1pm PDT, TED Prize winner Karen Armstrong, joined by 4 Nobel laureates -- the Dalai Lama, Jody Williams, Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Betty Williams -- will unveil plans for the launch of the Charter for Compassion. The event will include short TEDTalks on the true meaning and significance of compassion by some of the world's most inspirational figures. The event begins with a musical interlude.

We invite you to watch the event, live-streamed over the web ... and to consider joining thousands of people around the world for the celebration of a truly giant idea, perhaps the biggest idea humanity has ever had.

Please be part of this. Details here >>

Share the news on Twitter with this short URL: http://on.ted.com/3M

26 September 2009

Q&A with Victor Chan of the Dalai Lama Center, host of the Vancouver Peace Summit

Tomorrow at 1pm PDT, watch Karen Armstrong talk with the Dalai Lama and other Nobelists in a live webcast from the Vancouver Peace Summit. To learn more about the summit, and the extraordinary group that is hosting it, start with this interview with Victor Chan, a founder of the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, which created the Vancouver Peace Summit. In the latest issue of design mind, Chan talks with Kristina Loring about His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the possibility of world peace. From the story:

How do you get peace to resonate with people? It can be such a lofty topic.

To people living in times or areas of conflict, war and peace are more than concepts: They are often a brutal, painful reality. We can continue to talk about war and peace in abstract terms, but we have the means of telling the stories about the lives that are affected by war and violence, and about people who are suffering. At the same time, we can also talk about people who are making a difference. Peace is often considered in light of political and economical solutions, but we can also look at it in terms of our own spiritual and emotional well-being. I’d like to think that personal peace is more than the absence of conflict. It is a place where we develop a yearning to help others.

Read design mind's Q&A with Victor Chan >>

Watch Karen Armstrong talk with the Dalai Lama tomorrow, live on the web at 1pm PDT >>

Photo courtesy Victor Chan / design mind

23 July 2009

Twitter Snapshot: Karen Armstrong and the charter for compassion

Minutes ago, religious scholar Karen Armstrong, winner of a 2008 TED Prize, spoke about her wish, The Charter for Compassion, to the audience at TEDGlobal 2009. The Charter aims to bring the golden rule back into a global focus. Currently, religious leaders of many faiths are working together in crafting this document for peace, which launches in September here on TED. The crowd documenting the conference over on Twitter appeared very supportive of Armstrong and her wish.

About to hear Karen Armstrong's talk. She is why I came today. Love her work. -- Olasofia

Armstrong is great - she's speaking about how the media affect peoples perceptions of others, especially the youth. Too darn right! -- v_voicebox

Armstrong wants to do 2 things: Educate and stimulate compassionate thinking. An idea worth spreading! -- brainpicker

Karen Armstrong is my hero, a model of truth and love. Can you help her TED Prize wish come true? armstrong@ted.com -- ruthannharnisch

Karen Armstrong: People want to be "right" rather than "compassionate". Sadly I couldn't agree more... -- pragzter

Karen Armstrong's Charter of Compassion - I'm thinking that I might prefer it to a Pledge of Allegiance. -- ruthannharnisch

For more on Karen Armstrong, here's her previous TEDTalk. Also, remember to keep sending your responses to @TEDGlobal.

13 March 2009

Writing the Charter for Compassion: The Council of Conscience meets in Geneva

Cross-posted to the TED Prize blog: Last week, an amazing group of religious thinkers and leaders, the Council of Conscience, met outside of Geneva to finalize the Charter for Compassion. Previously called the Council of Sages, the group consists of individuals from the five major religions and almost every continent.

The Councilors spent two days together; they discussed the idea of compassion, sorted through the written submissions from the world, determined the key ideas necessary to include in the Charter and created a plan for how the Charter will live in the world. The discussions were thought-provoking, candid, and heartfelt. Everyone involved came away both inspired and committed to working towards creating a more compassionate global society.

Details will be revealed in the coming weeks and months. There are many ways which everyone can help propagate the Charter for Compassion and we encourage everyone to register on charterforcompassion.org to receive updates about ways to participate.

For more on the Council of Conscience meeting, read this report from council member Sr. Joan Chittister >>

Photo credit: TED Prize/tedprize.org

12 March 2009

Watch Karen Armstrong on Bill Moyers Journal

TED Prize blog: Friday night at 9pm (in most US cities), tune in to Bill Moyers Journal for an interview with TED Prize winner Karen Armstrong on the Charter for Compassion. From the show:

My work has continually brought me back to the notion of compassion. Whichever religious tradition I study, I find at the heart of it is the idea of feeling with the other, experiencing with the other, compassion. And every single one of the major world religions has developed its own version of the Golden Rule. Don’t do to others what you would not like them to do to you.

… We’ve got to do better than this. Compassion doesn’t mean feeling sorry for people. It doesn’t mean pity. It means putting yourself in the position of the other, learning about the other. Learning what’s motivating the other, learning about their grievances.

Confirm airdate and time on your local PBS station >>

Watch Karen Armstrong make her audacious wish during the TED Prize session at TED2008:

08 March 2009

4 great talks for International Women's Day

To celebrate March 8, International Women's Day, we suggest these four TEDTalks gems from some amazing speakers -- artists, scientists and economists who think deeply about the role of women.

Author and activist Isabel Allende discusses women, creativity, feminism -- and the power of passionate thinkers and doers:

The former Finance Minister of Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, talks about one key opportunity to grow African economies -- by investing in women and the businesses they start:

(For more, watch Jacqueline Novogratz >>)

Scientist Nalini Nadkarni explores the world of the forest canopy -- and shares her findings with the world below, through dance, art and bold partnerships. She's working to inspire the next generation of women scientists:

The wonderful Nellie McKay sings "Mother of Pearl" (with the immortal first line "Feminists don't have a sense of humor") and "If I Had You" from her sparkling set at TED2008:

Find these four and many more astonishing women (including the legendary primatologist Jane Goodall, oceanographers Sylvia Earle and Tierney Thys, games theorist Brenda Laurel, Zipcar inventor Robin Chase ... ) on TED.com >>

08 December 2008

Explain Science Commons in 2 minutes? Yes we can.

Via boingboing: Director Jesse Dylan made the beautiful video for Karen Armstrong's Charter for Compassion (as well as a little something called "Yes We Can." Now he has created an elegant 2-minute clip for Science Commons, explaining why this is a Good Thing. Watch and learn:

19 November 2008

A new phase opens tomorrow for the Charter for Compassion

You have 8 hours left to contribute to the Preamble of the Charter for Compassion. Tonight at midnight EST, writing begins on the next phase: the Affirmations.

In the Affirmations section of the Charter, you can contribute by writing short descriptions of the eight core elements of compassion:

Compassion as empathy, not pity.
Compassion as concrete action.
Compassion as a lens for scripture.
Compassion’s role as a spiritual tool.
Compassion as fundamental to all faiths.
Compassion as an urgent global need.
Compassion as concern for everybody.
Compassion and the Golden Rule.

The response so far to the Charter has been moving and powerful. Thanks to all who have contributed, and we'll see you tomorrow in the next phase.

13 July 2008

Karen Armstrong's Charter for Compassion, on Chautauqua Podcasts

Listen to a 22-minute audio interview with TED Prize winner Karen Armstrong, as she talks with Joan Brown Campbell:

As part of her recent TED Prize, she is in the midst of writing a Charter of Compassion in a collaborative effort; this document, based on the principle of The Golden Rule, will be written and signed by members of the religious community of all faiths around the globe. The progress of this effort, as well as her latest book, The Bible: A Biography, is discussed.

Listen to the podcast >>

This interview is part of a fascinating series of Chautauqua Podcasts.

04 July 2008

This week on TEDPrize.org

There's a great blog over on our sister site, TEDPrize.org, with news of all the 2008 TED Prize winners and interesting updates. This year's wishes are interactive and amazing, with lots of great things happening right now. Keep up via the feed. From the TEDPrize.org blog:

+ Karen Armstrong at The Chautauqua Institution -- last week, Karen gave 5 talks exploring the theme of “What is Religion?” She discusses the distinction between faith and belief; she speaks about silence, the limitations and difficulty of God-talk, the purpose of ritual and the rise of atheism. ... Read more >>

+ AIMS (Abuja) Opens -- The search for the NextEinstein just expanded to Nigeria. On Monday June 30, a new AIMS center opened in Abuja, Nigeria, the capital city. AIMS (Abuja), based at the African University of Science and Technology (AUST), is the second of the fifteen AIMS centers to be rolled out across Africa in the next 5 years. ... Read more >>

+ A TED Table at 826NYC -- At an 826NYC event on Thursday, three TEDsters sponsored chairs for the study area. If one more TED fan sponsors a chair, we will have a TED table-full of chairs. Each chair is $110. If you are interested in sponsoring a chair, contact Jennifer at jennifer [@] 826nyc [dot] org. (And there are many other ways to support 826NYC.) ... Read more >>

+ An 826/TED Field Trip -- pics and reports from the first 826/TED event ... Read more >>

+ What to Watch in July -- Some bright spots in the wasteland of summer TV ... Read more >>

+ Assessing Your Community -- Dave Eggers' wish is based on the idea that communities should be involved in their public schools. His wish happens at the micro level: individuals impact the lives of individual students by offering their talent and time. The Public Education Network just released its Civic Index for Quality Public Education tool which considers this idea on a macro level. The tool assesses the strengths and weakness of the community as it relates to public education. (It helps answer the question: Is your town a good place to be a school?) ... Read more >>

To get daily updates from the TEDPrize Blog, sign up for the RSS feed.

05 June 2008

The psychology of forgiveness

The TED.com staff's favorite psychology research blog, the BPS Research Digest, reports on a study on forgiveness from the University of Sussex and the New School for Social Research. The study examines how groups which have committed atrocious acts against one another come to break the cycle of resentment and forgive.

[The researchers] surveyed 180 Bosnian Muslims about their attitudes towards Bosnian Serbs in the wake of the earlier conflict. They found that Bosnian Muslims who had more Serb friends and who identified more with a sense of being "Bosnian," rather than "Bosnian Muslim" or "Bosniak," also tended to show more empathy for Serbs as a group, to be more trusting of Serbs, and to see Serbs as more varied -- all of which predicted greater levels of forgiveness and more positive attitudes towards the Serbs.

This pattern is consistent with what's known as the "contact hypothesis" in social psychology, which states that more high quality contact between groups promotes intergroup reconciliation.

A pertinent find in the weeks following Pangea Day -- and the beginning of new initiatives by other TEDPrize winners.

(Photo credit: Marla Aufmuth)

19 March 2008

Help bring compassion back to religion: Karen Armstrong's TED Prize wish on TED.com

As she accepts her 2008 TED Prize, author and scholar Karen Armstrong talks about how the Abrahamic religions -- Islam, Judaism, Christianity -- have been diverted from the moral purpose they share: to foster compassion. But Armstrong has seen a yearning to change this fact. People want to be religious, she says; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help her build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you") as the central global religious doctrine. To brainstorm on this wish and get involved, visit TEDPrize.org >> (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 21:27.)

Watch Karen Armstrong's TED Prize talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.

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28 February 2008

TEDPrize.org launches today

The TED Prize has a brand-new homepage, where you can read all about our 2008 winners, and find out ways to start helping their wishes come true.

Look here for wishes from Dave Eggers, Neil Turok, and Karen Armstrong.

Take a look and start granting these wishes big enough to change the world >>

28 February 2008

TED Prize 2008: Dave Eggers and Tutoring, Neil Turok and the next African Einstein, Karen Armstrong and the Charter for Compassion

(Unedited running notes from the TED2008 conference in Monterey, California. Session six - TED Prize)

Every year at TED, three exceptional people are awarded the TED Prize. They each receive US$ 100'000, but that's not the real prize: they also are granted a wish -- no restrictions -- that they can express in front of the TED audience, asking for help to turn it into reality.

2007 Updates

Last year, former president Bill Clinton, photographer James Nachtwey and biologist EO Wilson received the TED Prize. What happened since:

Clinton asked for help in developing a "high quality rural health system for the whole country" of Rwanda: teams have been sent to the country, technology is being developed, and funds have been raised.

Nachtwey solicited help for reporting and spreading "a story that the world needs to know about", related to public health: many partners have given a hand, and the story will be released in September in "Time" magazine, on billboards, through public events and communication campaigns, etc.

EO Wilson wanted help in creating the Encyclopedia of Life, an online resource with an indefinitely expandable page for each species, contributed to by scientists and amateurs: the EOL is now under development and the first version of the site is live.

The three wishes still need support to be completed. See a detailed update here.

2008 Winners

This year's TED Prize winners are writer David Eggers, physicist Neil Turok, and religious scholar Karen Armstrong.

Eggers is an author of many bestselling books, including the recent "What is the what" about a Sudanese refugee, a publisher of books and literary magazines, and a teacher-at large: In 1998 he founded in San Francisco 826Valencia, a very successful writing and tutoring lab for young people from the neighborhood, which has since been cloned in five other American cities.
He tells in a very funny way and with great pictures the story of 826Valencia, of the adjoining store (a mad trove of delightful things), of the chapters in other cities, and -- his TED Prize wish -- he wants now to go farther than that, because "empowering a child with writing is the essence of democracy". He asks the conference's attendees -- and anyone else who's in a position to help -- to "find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area" and then share the story of their involvement on the OnceUponASchool website, hoping in their inspirational effect to start a virtuous cycle, "so that within a year we have 1000 examples of transformative partnerships". The site went live minutes ago, offering guidelines for partnering with schools and providing a space for receiving people's pledges and stories of involvement (there are already several telling stories of literacy and writing programs). Many things are needed to make Dave's inspiring wish a reality: personal engagement by the largest possible number of people, of course, but also very practical things such as funding and web hosting.
Interested in supporting Eggers' wish? See an implementation plan and a list of needs here and a discussion board here.

Neil Turok is a South-African born physicist at Cambridge, and a close collaborator of Stephen Hawking, with whom he speculated that the Big Bang wasn't the beginning, that the universe existed before the Bang and that there may be Bangs in the future, and that we may live in an endless universe.
In his spare time, Turok is the founder of the African institute for mathematical sciences (AIMS), hosted in a converted hotel in Cape Town, minutes from the beach (which helps in attracting top lecturers...). "If you don't have math, you are not going to enter the modern age, he says. We emphasize problem-solving, working in groups. Everyone lives together in the hotel, lecturers and students, so it's not surprising to find impromptu tutorials at 1am. We specially emphasize areas of great relevance to African development." Turok tells stories of AIMS students (who come from three dozen countries) who went on to Masters and PhDs, and brings two of them up on stage.
Rarely a TED wish has been expressed more unequivocally than Turok's: Help me, he says, make sure that the next Einstein will be African, by "unlocking and nurturing scientific talent" across the continent, because The only people who can fix Africa are talented young Africans".
His wish is a crisp, yet very ambitious vision, and to realize it he has a plan: building 15 centres of excellence across Africa, possibly modeled on AIMS but specialized in different areas of science, recruiting outstanding students and teachers, developing fellowship and entrepreneurship programs, attracting both private and public support, etc. Turok plans to start with Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda and Madagascar; he has already obtained political support, and local scientists will be leading the way. "The institutes have to be relevant, innovative, cost-effective, and high quality, because we want Africa to be rich."
Interested in helping out? At this point, everything is needed, from building a website for what Turok named the "Next Einstein From Africa" program to teaching equipment and more. Plan and list of needs here, discussion board here.

Religious thinker Karen Armstrong is a former nun and has written more than 20 books on faith and the major religions, and is a powerful voice for ecumenical understanding.
She tells how she "encountered" Judaism and Islam while reporting a story for British TV in Jerusalem. In that tortured city, where the three faiths jostle so closely, you understand what religion can be. It led me, she says, to look at my own religion in a different way, and found things that were incredible: unproven, abstract doctrines. Belief, which we make such a fuss about today, is actually a recent enthusiasm, it surfaced in the 17th century in the West. Previously, belief only meant love. "Credo" didn't mean to accept certain acts of faith: it meant I commit myself, I engage myself.
If religion is not about believing things, what is it about? It's about behaving differently, in a committed way -- and then you begin to understand the truths of religions. You understand religious doctrines only when you put them into practice. In each of the major world's faiths, compassion is not only the test of any true religiosity, also the way to get into the presence of the divinity. In compassion we remove ourselves from the center of our world and we put another person there. Every major tradition has put at its core a "golden rule": do not do to others what you do not want be done to you.
But look at our world. We are living in a world where religion has been hijacked, where terrorist sing Koranic verses to justify their atrocities, where we have Christians judging other people. We have a talent as a species for messing up wonderful things.
The traditions also insisted that you could not and must not confine your compassion to your own group. You must have concern for everybody. Love your enemies. Honor the stranger. We formed you into tribes and nations so that you may know one another, says the Koran.
There is also a great deal of religious illiteracy. People seem to equate faith with "believing things", and very often secondary goals get pushed into first place instead of the golden rule, compassion, because the golden rule is difficult. A lot of religious people prefer to be right, rather than compassionate.
Since 9/11 I've travelled all over the world and found everywhere a desire for change. Recently in Pakistan hundreds of people came to my lectures, especially young people, asking what they can do to create change.
It seems to me that our current situation is so serious that any ideology that doesn't promote a sense of global understanding and global appreciation of each other is failing the test of the time. The golden rule should be applied globally, we should not treat other nations in ways that we would not like to be treated ourselves. It's time that we move beyond the idea of toleration, and towards appreciation of the other.
Armstrong's TED Prize wish sits right in the middle of some of today's most profound global tensions: help me, she asked, "with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion", to be crafted by a group of twelve inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and "based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect".
Bridging the divide among the three prevalent monotheistic faiths, which all claim Abraham as part of their religious history, using the lens of compassion, will require more than scholarly preeminence and good will. It will call for the creation of a totally new narrative, stepping beyond hatred and defensiveness and, in Armstrong's own words, "making the authentic voice of religion a power in the world that is conducive to peace". It will demand a subtle effort that engages everybody. It will necessitate operational support (which will come from the UN Alliance of Civilizations, but also from individuals). Mostly, it will depend on the participation of many and on finding the right answer to the key question: Who are the spiritual leaders of these three religions who should be solicited to participate in the group of twelve?
Interested in supporting Karen to turn her very ambitious and very necessary vision into reality? Plan and list of needs, and discussion board.

A performance by South African singer Wusi Mahlasela closes the session.

The videos of today's three TED Prize speeches will be released on TED.com in a couple of weeks.

27 February 2008

Watch the TED Prize wishes live on Thursday

Join a global audience and watch online as the 2008 TED Prize winners, Dave Eggers, Neil Turok and Karen Armstrong, share their inspiring visions, followed by the moving and infectious music of Vusi Mahlasela.

It will be an evening of big ideas, bold plans and audacious wishes -- and you'll hear ways to help grant their wishes right away!

Click here for the live feed, Thursday, February 28, starting at 5:15pm US/Pacific time >>

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