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There is an idea that I love. It suggests that people emerge out of planet Earth in the same way that leaves emerge from trees.

I like to view the great spiritual teachers in this way. They were not transported in from some other star system or dimension, but also emerged from Earth. Christ and Buddha, Mary and Kuan Yin, emerged as examples of humanity's fulfilled potential for compassion and consciousness.

One of the most common and recurring religious themes is that humanity will be saved and brought to its next stage of evolution through the appearance of a yet another great prophet or world teacher. In Christianity, Christ will come again. In Buddhism, the Maitreya Buddha will incarnate. In Judaism, the Messiah. In Islam, the Imam Mahdi. And across the new age movement, there are all kinds of prophesies about new gurus, avatars and interventions.

All over the world, there exists a simple precept that, when followed, has the power to end conflict and banish strife.

It is the Golden Rule, a key concept in many philosophies and spiritualities that admonishes us to "do unto others as we would have them do unto us."

Its meaning is clear: treat others only in ways that you would want to be treated.

However, the golden rule is not always easy to follow. It can be a challenge to honor others as we wish to be honored. Yet, when we do so, we bestow a gift of loving kindness on our fellow human beings. And, in honoring others, we honor ourselves.

It is as uncomplicated a tenet as one could wish for. When we live by it, harming another person becomes nearly impossible.

The Golden Rule is rooted in pure empathy and does not compel us to perform any specific act. Rather, it gently guides us to never let our actions toward others be out of harmony with our own desires.

by Owen Waters

Love is the saving grace of all of humanity. We contact this primal energy in our finest moments. From the moment a baby is born, it is enshrouded in the unselfish love of its mother. From the moment a person springs into action to save others from peril, their own thoughts of survival are 'overlighted' by the love and caring that shines from their heart.

When a person dies and reviews their life, they see that one thing that mattered the most: Love. Pure, unadulterated, unconditional love. It is the source of compassion. It is the energy of caring for others. It is the binding force which holds together the entire universe, and it flows through you whenever you simply allow it.

A few weeks ago I met a bewildered woman. She was a successful civil servant in her forties who was waking up to her spirituality and had begun to attend some psychic development classes.

'I just don't know what I'm supposed to be doing with my life,' she said. 'I don't seem to have a purpose.'

We started to have a conversation and it turned out that she had a family and was a senior manager in social services. She was a good person and she was doing good. But she now thought that being psychic and having clairvoyant experiences was the only meaningful way of living. She had stopped valuing her role as a carer, manager and parent. She was temporarily enchanted by the illusion that psychic experiences were more meaningful than being of service.

Sometimes, we may find ourselves wishing we knew what our lives are going to look like or what gifts and challenges are going to be presented to us in the coming months or years. We may want to know if the relationship we're in now will go the distance or if our goals will be realized. Perhaps we feel like we need help making a decision and we want to know which choice will work out best. And even though we think we would like to know the whole story in all its details, the truth is that we would probably be overwhelmed and exhausted if we knew everything that is going to happen to us.

Just think of your life as you've lived it up to this point. If you are like most of us, you have probably done more and faced more than you could have ever imagined. If someone had told you as a child of all the jobs and relationships you would experience, along with each one's inherent ups and downs, you would have become overwhelmed. With your head full of information about the future, you would have had a very hard time experiencing your life in the present moment, which is where everything actually happens.