virtue

Virtue! When was the last time you heard that word? Perhaps it was in Catechism Class or Sunday School or spoken by some preacher 40 years ago. Now days, unless you are 50 or 60 years old, you would not know about virtue. I would guess, young people today do not know the meaning of the word. These days no one that I can hear, speaks or cares to know about virtue: not teachers, or preachers, nor parents. Most of us expend our mental and physical energy around ideas of, economic gain, sensual pleasure or entertainment of one form or another. Who in their 21st. Century right mind, would be caught wasting their time either thinking about virtue or becoming virtuous?


However, it was not that long ago, 50 years or more, that the idea of virtue and its practice was culturally valued. At age 11, I started working-out at the local YMCA. As soon you walked through the door you would see plaques hanging on the wall with words such as, courage, honesty, fortitude. This was not an extraordinary sighting. Schools, public places, even factories had these kinds of displays of virtue. Back then, virtue was so much in the cultural consciousness that it was included as a part of the curriculum of public and private, elementary, high schools, colleges and universities, in the form of Common Courtesy and Civic Responsibility. Virtue, as a cultural aim is not some aberration. It has ancient roots. In ancient China, for instance, under Confucianism justice and peace was its foundation. The ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome were centered around the virtuous ideas of impersonal justice and trained reason.
Although virtue in our society is not generally proclaimed or openly pursued, it is not dead. If we pay close attention to the news papers, magazines, books, or TV news programs, you will find acts of virtue being displayed every day and every where. Acts of courage, were a stranger risks his or her life to save the life of an unknown accident victim. Wisdom, from a fifteen year old, who's death by disease is eminent, but transcends his misfortune by sharing his wisdom of life and coming death with others. Humility, from an athlete who credits her success to her god, her parents, family and friends. Virtue is not dead, but for the majority of us there is little interest for its awakening. We are obsessed with "getting and spending," which is the lowest quality of our mind use. Therefore, we have lost sight of the bases of virtue and cannot call it up. What is the bases of virtue?

When the ancient sages explained virtue they related it to soul. The soul, they said is the vehicle of the energy-consciousness that makes up our being, and to any consciousness and its corresponding soul, there are three qualities or characteristics. The first quality, (moving from highest to lowest), is light or truth. The second is passion or desire. The third is indifference or darkness. The first quality by reason of its lucidity and peacefulness attaches to knowledge and pleasure. The second produces thirst and propensity, imprisoning the Ego through the consequences produced from action. The third is the offspring of the indifference in nature, and is the deluder of all creatures and imprisons the Ego in the body through heedless folly, sleep, and idleness. These three qualities run through out the web of Nature, each participating of the nature of the other, yet each one possessing its predominant quality or characteristic. However not one of these three can be considered apart from the other two. When the higher quality prevails over the lower two qualities then virtue is ignited and expressed. When the lower qualities prevail over the highest then vice is ignited and expressed. Simply then, we have lost our virtuous sight because we have allowed our lowest qualities to bend away from our highest quality and allowed their dominance.


Forty or fifty years ago, the higher quality of our mind was inspired to virtue out of a conviction fostered by Christianity that an almighty, personal god demanded, under pain of eternal punishment, compliance to a moral code of conduct. This particular moral code spelled out prescriptions necessary for its achievement through virtues. For instance, Christianity teaches the three Cardinal Virtues: faith, hope, and charity. In St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, he writes, ..."the Spirit produces: love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." All religions the world over, have some where in their teachings describe, according to their own religious point of view, virtues; prescribing specific habits of conduct as a necessary ingredient for heavenly rewards. For instance, in the Dhammapada (the teachings of Gautama the Buddha), the Buddhists teach, The Noble Eightfold Path: 1. right insight, right understanding, right vision, 2. right aspiration, right thoughts, 3. right speech, 4. right action, 5. right livelihood, right living, 6. right effort, 7. right memory, right mindfulness, 8. right concentration.


Over the past 4or5 decades the high mind quality of virtue has slowly been supplanted by the lower qualities. Scientific theories about the genesis of human beings, and our solar system began to challenge the religious teaching of creation and to erode the idea of an almighty, personal god. Therefore the moral bases ( the religious truth and belief in that truth) upon which virtue stood began to waver, giving the lower qualities a foot hole. Now days the truth has a more secular, relative moral bases that takes on new ideas issued forth from science, sometimes blending the new idea with an accepted truth or entirely discarding the old truth and replacing it the new. Under this relative moral bases, conduct has the freedom to float around and find its own level of truth. Because there is no moral tether, conduct fluctuates allowing the lower qualities to dominate bringing thirst and propensity aiming at vice in all its forms, and also brings an indifference, an apathy making it easy to comply to the low desire.


If you widen your view about the appearance and expression virtue you might find that virtue like all things revolves; times and conditions unfold to foster the expression of virtue and also to restrict its expression. Currently we seem to be cycling out of a restrictive phase of virtue. For the last decade or more our lower qualities have taken root in an ultra conservative environment created by strict moral Christian truth. Empirically you would think this kind of an environment would be fertile ground upon which virtue to grow, but because of its extreme agenda motivated out of the fear from 9/11 restricting our liberties, a strong backlash deflated its momentum. Now the sounds of virtue are vibrating through our nation and the world-hope, charity, and unity; "...together we stand, divided we fall"...


Virtue should be placed upon the highest truth, then walk the middle path so as to keep the extremes at bay. That all humans are the Face of God in essence, and that they have come into these spheres of matter for purposes of universal work, and that they are failing in their duty, they are failing in their relationship to their own higher essence, if that duty be not accomplished. Living under this universal truth, if you told a human to be good because it is good to be good, the knowledge of his divine essence allows his higher self to understand truth, and he will do good because it is right. The "right" action becomes the innermost law of being , he does "right" not because it pays or avoids self-injury, but because, beyond all argument he must. When a human realizes that he or she is one with all that is, inward and outward, high and low, not merely as members of a community are one, not merely as individuals of an army are one, but like the molecules of our own flesh, like atoms of the molecules, like the electrons of the atoms-not a mere union but a spiritual unity-then he or she sees truth; and from that vision has a living bases for morality; and from that bases can confidently and with purity practice virtue.


I will end this blog with ideas about virtue from Gautama the Buddha, one of the greatest spiritual teachers who ever walked our earth, as written in the Dhammapada, Canto IV:

"The fragrance of f lowers does not travel against the wind, be it that
of sandalwood, tagara, or jasmine. But the fragrance of a virtuous man
travels even against the wind. The virtuous man pervades all directions.

the rock and the flower

There is an old Buddhist saying that goes, ..."bringing Buddhism to a new culture is like bringing a flower and a rock together." When I first heard this saying my imagination was completely captured by the metaphor of a rock and a flower together. This metaphor seemed to me to be a clear and poignant representation of the process of spiritual growth. As I began to contemplate this metaphor, I remembered seeing flowers growing on lava rocks along the North Shore of Lake Superior. Although at that time I wasn't aware of the great paradox I was viewing, nor the possibility of great insight. There on the shore of Lake Superior, jetting out into one of the greatest fresh water lakes in the world, were lava, rocks sheathes, millions of years old, and in the crevices of those ancient rocks, small flowers (I believe some kind of violet) were growing.

The rocks are solid, inflexible, and enduring. The flowers are subtle, adaptable, and temporary. Each seems to be the direct antithesis of the other; yet, there on the North Shore their lives converge and they live in perfect harmony; one providing the space and nutrients for the other's life, while the other aiding in the expansion of the parameters of the former's life. Each, although seemingly in direct opposition, did not resist this relationship, nor did they resist the relationship of the inner play of the elements: earth, water, air, and fire. Their willingness to relate fostered the changes necessary to create the environment for the flower to grow and the rock to expand its fundamental nature.

How does this metaphor relate to our spiritual growth and development? The rock represents us as we now appear: separate, solid, narrow. The flower represents us as a possibility for spiritual development: subtle, adaptable, expansive. If we want the flower to take root and grow atop the solidity of our rock like belief system, we must soften up our hardened hearts, minds, and lives so as to create the right conditions for growth. In doing so, we create an environment conducive for the spirit to live, grow, and have its being.

The softening of our hardened self-concepts is not an easy task. In order for it to take place we must exert an enormous concentration of effort over a long period of time. The task is to penetrate our reinforced, rock like self exterior by the practice of acceptance and use of wisdom. If our determination is strong enough, we can make progress and eventually succeed just as the subtle flower created its life upon the stubborn rock.

the right perspective

Though misfortune plagues your present path, take hope;! its passing is sure. The river passes through ruff rocks, bubbling white with agitation, to undisturbed calm. The Autumn flowers pass from the icy sting of night's frost to the glorious warmth of the morning sun.

We too, are part of this cosmic dance of extremes: surging, calming, only to surge again. We, however, can emphasis one or the other extreme, thus coloring in a perspective for the movements, either positive or negative.

The river and the fall flowers completely accept the rocks and the frost with the same attitude as they accept the calm and the heat. Their perspective comes from the acceptance and harmonizing with the continuous cycling of the extremes. Their emphasis is on steadiness, adjustment, and recovery.

wasted words

Hold your tongue and listen a minute,
to the great avalanche of words enetring your ears.

Day and night, words are pumped out through mouths
in rapid-fire succession.

Where once they were used sparingly and with care,
now derelict of truth they spew out faster then a
machine gun with little care, thought, or heart.

Words, wasted as if there were an eternal supply;
mere puffs of wind, traveling the air and dying off
as smoke. But where do they disappear?

Do they reverberate through the canyons of space like
some eternal echo?

Do they gather at some cosmic point and mark their selves
on some universal,verbal ledger?

Do they completely dissolve into emptiness?

Every word and its intent imprints upon the cosmic waters.
There every curse, every boast, every syllable, every atom of
sound lives and follows its path to effect. There is no
escape; not under the deepest ocean, not atop the highest
mountain. It is your breath that breathes them out and they
will seek their effect directed by your intention.

Thunder is the voice of lighting and responds only to the bolt-
never more, never less.

What would the world be like if all humans spoke so succinctly?

where is everyone going?

Take a deep breath, look around; frenetic movement everywhere-
the scrimmage of life everywhere.
Even night's "...pause in the day's occupation," slackens the movement
only slightly.
No respite, like a itch that cannot be reached or a starving wolf
on the prowl for prey.
What cosmic impulse fuels this unceasing motion? Where is
everyone going? What is everyone searching for?
The Cosmos directs life on to its evolutionary groves. Riding these
universal groves we are compelled to improve, to better ourselves;
action towards improvement brings feelings of happiness and
satisfaction, action away brings feelings of sorrow and suffering.
We are all searching for happiness and relief from suffering.
We look to our likes, but these are mere tastes, fleeting fulfillments
of happiness, that only intensify our craving and unrest.
We try to satisfy infinite impulses by manipulating the finite world-
an exercise in futility and frustration.
True satisfaction, peace, calmness result from moving in step with
Universal Nature. We can find True Rhythm by listening to
our own heartbeat. We blend our heartbeat to the pulse of the
cosmos. We move to the pulse as we live by the heartbeat, and
in this sacred manner we find and accept our path and place in the
unity and interdependence of it all.
"From where I came I will return," carrying the knowledge and
understanding of my travels, and where I can finally rest.

whose health is it anyway?

As soon as we became sentient beings we also became aware of our health. Before sentience the cold North Wind had no conceptual effect on our minds, after sentience the cold North Wind made us feel cold and even the thought of the North Wind brought goosebumps to our skin. Primitive humanoids had instinctive and intuitive ways to maintain and reestablish their health. An interesting documentary I watched on Public TV, showed a man living with wolfs within a confined area. The man submitted to the wolfs world. He did not exert human dominance, but let the wolfs manifest their ways of life as he adapted to them. On a rainy, cold day the man was shivering with the wet and cold, two wolfs came to him and laid across his body. In a short period of time the man was warmed. This display of health consciousness and health concern by the wolfs expresses an innate imperative living creatures have for health. All living organisms have a built in system to maintain and reestablish health balance and equilibrium, when and wherever health balance is disturbed, and intuitively it seems, to also aid others in establishing that health
balance.

As we historically move foreword from primitive humanoids to ancient, primitive humans and civilized human cultures we find that health care had become systematized. The aiding part of health had expanded to were individuals of the tribes or societies were sought out to care for health problems. These were individuals who had been handed down the knowledge or schooled in the aiding and curing of health problems. Usually these individuals were also spiritually developed and were called "Holy Men," Shaman," "Medicine Men," physicians, doctors, etc. Egyptian archaeological discoveries for instance, showed a highly sophisticated health care delivery system that ranged from medical procedures, herbal and pharmacological treatments, even surgeries and dental care.

Through out the evolutionary development of health care, the responsibility for health was shared. Each individual had a major share in his or her health: proper food, hygiene, rest, old wife's traditional remedies, and a knowledge of when to call a health aid practitioner. I remember my mother giving me a teaspoon of cod liver oil every day as a practical health measure. The remaining share came through schools and the General Practitioner Doctors, in the communities. Schools would require vaccination shots against certain diseases, and annually checked for hair lice. The Family Doctor was consulted when minor conditions occurred i.e. cold, fever, brakes, fractures, sprains, strains, etc. and when there were more difficult problems. My family doctor was Dr. Proby. He brought my sisters and I into the world, and had an intimate knowledge of the general health of our family. This good man would visit our house upon request with only a small black hand bag, would accurately diagnose (with out high tech machines), treat, and prescribe drugs if necessary. He also made himself available to individually council people on pregnancy, drug abuse, and a host of other health issues. He, like most family practitioners of that time were affiliated with local hospitals. That is were major and minor procedures were preformed, like extracting my tonsils. There too is where he could confer with specialists. The cost for his services was not prohibitive and sometimes there was bartering. The costs of surgery and other major procedures was not prohibitive. Your health was in your hands and in the hands of a trusted practitioner. With in the community, the Family Doctor was very highly regarded. There were even popular TV programs whose themes were about family doctors, like "Dr. Wellbe M.D."

From the middle 50s on, the idea and practice of health care was changing at brake-neck-speed. The community family doctors were falling off like Autumn leaves and with no Spring replacements. Most young, up coming doctors were choosing to specialize because "that was where the money is." As speciality grew in dominance, hospitals also began to specialize. Soon there was specialists in hospitals all over the place: heart, eye, ear, nose, and throat, brain, feet, disease specialists, orthopedic, you name it and there is a specialists. The burgeoning of specialization brought with it, innovations and refinements of diagnostic machines and testing equipment and procedures. The competitive need to be on par with other institutions that had incorporated the use of these expensive, new diagnostic and testing pieces of equipment and procedures begin to exponentially raise the cost of health care treatment, and because of the high demand for specialists brought higher doctors fees for visits and consultations. The high cost of health care brought in the insurance companies. They spread the cost and financial risk among millions of insured people. The employers and the insurance companies saw cooperative opportunities in using one another. Businesses could with incentives of health insurance, entice veteran employees to stay and prospective employees to join. The insurance companies extended their memberships and enjoyed greater profits. Of course, insurance was not a new product at that time, so there was a built in acceptance among people. There was in place at that time, auto, home, FDIC, life insurance, and of course there was Loyd's of London insuring just about anything.

The need to be affiliated with a cast of specialists for referrals, and the high cost of equipment made it cost prohibitive to maintain individual doctor's offices. Every doctor had to be employed by or contractually linked to a medical institution: hospital, clinic, emergency service or research and development, or teaching institution. The landscape of health care was changing from serving a patient to working with a client's insurance company. The main energy focus was now on the business side of health care: cost assessments, profit strategies, advertising, and because most accounts receivable were being payed by insurance companies additional office staff had to be employed for billing procedures with insurance companies. Some of the profit strategies or more accurately bilking insurance companies, were rife with creative interpretations of itemized statements: instead of 6oz. bottle of mouth wash, $1.50, it was billed as oral bacterial astringent, $15.00.

The syncretistic method of adding a strict business, profit model, specialization, payment via insurance companies, reliance on high-tech diagnostic equipment, and the need for liability insurance and litigators, separated the patient-doctor relationship from mutual health responsibility to a client purchasing health care through an insurance agent, who sells a health care contract and determines the financial limits of treatment. All this expressed through esoteric and convoluted legalize and medical nomenclature, which caused further disenfranchisement of the patient from the health care process. Now days a person's health care is in the "hands" or to quote the advertisement, "the good hands" of an insurance company, of the medical aggregate system, the H.M.O.s. Michael Moore's, documentary, Sicko, showed in a disturbing way the dysfunction of our health care delivery system. The documentary shows a scene where a man who had an accident-two fingers were cut off. After an examination by his health provider the man was told of the cost of attaching both finger. The cost was $90,000; $30.000 for one finger and $60,000 for the other finger. The man, considering his insurance deductible and co-pay, opted for the cheaper surgery and consequently was left with one digit short. A contrasting situation was shown, I cannot remember which European country, France or England, a man who had four fingers cut off in an accident; went to his universal health care provider, and upon examination had his four fingers attached with no discussion of cost. The practitioners had no cost or insurance limitations for treating their patient. He was given full care for the condition he had and left the health care establishment with a voucher for transportation to his home.

Here in the U.S. we spend the the greatest amount of money on health care in the world (mostly in insurance premiums), and in return we get a health system that is out of phase, with even adequate health care treatment. For example, my wife goes to the drug store to pick up her prescription. The cost of the prescription is $15.00 with her insurance requirement of 50% co-pay. She asks the counter person, how much would her prescription cost if she (the counter person) made it generically, with similar weight and number of pills? The answer was $5.00. So my wife, being of sound economic mind, makes the store take the prescription drug back and demands the generic drug. Say however, I did not have insurance and was given the same prescription as my wife, and say I had no idea about generic drugs. My cost would be $30.00. I am certain many of you have dealt with similar situations, so you need no explanation. But! here are some simple questions to ask yourself. What genius created such a payment system? What was his or her's motivation? Who does it really benefit? Here is another situation that demonstrates the dysfunction within the health care, aggregate system. This time it does not come from the private sector. It emanates from the Federal Gov., namely Social Security- Medicare. This shows equal opportunity dysfunction and belays the notion that government health care systems are run better. Both operate on the rails of their own motivations: private companies run on profit and power, government runs on personal aggrandizement, unretractable ideas, and power. Where sits the public, the customers and citizens that are suppose to be served? Another good question. During the Bush Jr. Administration, an additional part for Medicare, Part D, was created and was aimed at lowering the high cost of prescription drugs for Seniors. I am not certain of the exact details of Part D, but in general the forthcoming facts are expressed accurately. First, Part D costs approximately $100.00 plus, per/month, depending on which insurance company one uses. Second, it does pay for drugs, up to $2600.00, then the payout goes to zero, this procedure is termed the "doughnut whole," and all payments from that point on were out of pocket, until an expenditure of $2600.00 was reached. Then the insurance would kick in again. This doughnut whole was not clearly explained to the Seniors, the originators pushed seniors into signing up for Part D by putting a time limit for application and added to the pressure by disqualifying seniors for not applying in time. Can you imagine, the surprise, disbelief, and anger the seniors had when they reached the doughnut whole?


So what are the principle ideas operating our twenty-first century health care system. It operates on a single pay idea where individuals pay for their own health care, or co-operative pay where individuals co-operate with business, federal, state, county, local governments.
All of the direct, assisting, and auxiliary components of health care are centered around the individual's health care. These facilitators however, even though they cover themselves under the cloak of selfless service, are either motivated by maximum profit, self-aggrandizement, politics, or power, and as such their delivery becomes striated, diverting the whole health system into acute dysfunction. Its these repulsive ideas, these cancerous ideas, that have been allowed to thread our current health care system. It is within this realm that bonuses are a reward for finding loopholes for not paying for treatment or disallowing coverage for preconditions or for pricing 45,000,000 people out of health care coverage.


So what can be done to revamp health care according to the very best ideas commensurate with the essence of health care. First and foremost there should be a consensus and then a mandate that health care should be a privilege granted to all, from gestation to death. Just as England did after WWII, mandating that all its citizens would have health care from cradle to grave. Authorize a Board or Commission of Health Care, presided over by a body of not more then nine people. The composition of which would be 4 ordinary people who do not work in the health care field, 1 business person, 1 doctor, 1 philosopher, 1 American Indian Healer, 1 historian or any combination that would be innovative and relevant. Businesses and governments would be resources and sources for funding, but the Board would be creators of the operating principles and management concepts. A revamped health care system should not be created and guided by the profit motive or a political motive. A good place for such a board to start developing guiding principles would be the Hippocratic Oath. They could develop a contemporary interpretation of the original oath, and use it as a mantra for all involved with health care. Then bonuses could be given for positive results for treatment.

Now we come to the answer to the question that initiated this blog: Who's health is it anyway? It is your health. It is may health. It is ironic that we need to reestablish our responsibility for our own heath. We have relinquished this responsibility to the health care system and have allowed it to muck it up beyond our control. It is us that must suffer at the hands of incompetence. There is a small percentage of citizens that have not been rolled over by the wheels of our health care system, who have opened their windows shouting "I am mad as hell" and have taken their health care back. These citizens, shop at 'whole food stores,' they see Chinese doctors, chiropractors, they excercise using tai chi, chi gong, yoga, value quite and meditation, and bring back their soul and responsibility for their own health. This is the wave of the future, and as the American poet Emerson said, when the time has come for an idea to manifest, ..."It is impossible to tilt the beam. All the tyrants and proprietors and monpolists of the world in vain set their shoulders to heave the bar. Settles forevermore the ponderous equator to its line, and man, and mote, and star, and sun, must range to it or be pulverized by the recoil."

attitude about planet earth

Most of us do not have a conscious relationship with our Planet Earth. That is, an intentional and operative attitude that our earth is a living organism, which interacts with us, as we with it. What most of us do have are some relatively inconsequential facts about our earth. We know its circumference, its speed of rotation, position in our planetary chain, etc., etc. We shortsightedly believe that if we know the measurement of a thing we also know its essence. The essence of a thing must however be discovered. That means that some type of relative experience is gained that demonstrates a thing's value and essence. When something appears so simple or is very familiar to us, like our earth, we say, "I know about Earth! Why shouldn't I? I live with it everyday," but if you have not discovered its value and essence, its true meaning escapes you.

To us our earth is a given quantity, which appears to be forever under our feet. All of our material essentials are provided for by Earth: food, shelter, clothing, plus sundry other items and resources. We pick and consume all earth's fruits with little regard, respect or gratitude. We are lulled by the great harmony and blending of Earth's essence with our needs, like a small child feeding, then basking in the security of its loving mother's arms. All parts of the Earth incessantly work towards our benefit. The wind sow the seeds; the sun evaporates the sea; the wind blows the vapors to the fields, the field grows the plants; the plants feed the animals, all to our ultimate enrichment. There is a saying that one who truly appreciates his or her life is as rare as finding dirt on one's fingernail, in equal measure, it is rare to find one who truly appreciates our earth.


Our earth is not a multiple, mechanical mass of inorganic and organic elements, compounds and composites. It is a complete living organism, and subject to the same qualities and processes which sustain us and the entire cosmos. Birth, growth, death, decay- the same processes that effect us effect Earth. The most ostensive difference between us and Earth is the duration of our respective life cycles. Our life cycle is usually limited to under 100 years, whereas, the life cycle of Earth encompasses billions and billions of years. Consequently, Earth appears to us as immutable. The changes that do occur with Earth are not readily sensually noticed by us. In order find the evolved history of Earth we must excavate. Each strata and substrata reveals the past life of Earth. The transition of only one phase of Earth's living process is relatively speaking, laboriously slow, requiring billions of years. For instance, we reach puberty within 14 years. The Earth reached puberty billions of years ago.


Regardless of the enormous range of Earth's life cycle, it is alive. The Earth is continuously renewing its self. It regenerates and maintains its basic living elements just as our bodies continuously regenerate and maintain our cells. The fiery core of Earth fuses molten basic elements, then spews them out to cool, condense, and mingle with other elements, such as water and air, to create and maintain enormous continents of land upon which all manner of organisms can develop and sustain their lives. Certainly the above description of Earth's living process is highly simplified, but it should provide some idea and feeling for the living essence of our Earth.


Our Earth, like a good mother, provides the basic needs for all its inhabitants. This kind of mutual co-existence is natural in Nature. For instance, within our bodies are vast armies of micro-organisms, stimulating, digesting, discharging, absorbing, and signaling. We host these various organisms under an accord of mutual benefit. We are similarly related to Earth, only the roles are reversed. We are the parasites, and Earth is our host. There is another difference of essential importance, we can act from a position of deliberation and choice, whereas the micro-organisms act instinctively. We are, therefore, capable of acting with intent, for mutual benefit or for exclusive self-benefit. We can choose to abuse our host Earth out of selfish motives, becoming a cancer, devastating Earth and ultimately ourselves or to act with mutual benefit, bringing balance and harmony to both Earth and ourselves. Gandhi is quoted as saying, "There is enough for every one's need, but not for every one's greed."


The American Indians have a wonderful, spiritual attitude towards Earth. They believe that all things are possessed with a spirit. A vital life spirit, common, and infused within all things. To the Indian, then all things are spiritually related. This relationship provides the bases for their expression of respect towards all things. This all encompassing, spiritual attitude towards all living things is not exclusive to American Indians. For example, in Japan, there is a small bridge called, Hansheko-Keyo, which means, "Half-Dipper Bridge." This bridge got its name from a certain practice of Dogen-Zenji, a thirteenth century Zen Master. Whenever Dogen-Zenji dipped water from the river running under the bridge, he used only a half dipper full to dink and returned what ever remained back into the river. This practice of his wasn't based on any idea of efficiency or economy. He was expressing respect for the river water. Certainly, this kind of practice is beyond most of our thinking, but in truth it expresses our true nature. This kind of universal attitude of respect is a natural consequence arising out of our intuitive feelings of beauty and unity.


We are not the central point of life on our Planet Earth. The same force that moves us moves our Earth. Our attitude towards Earth should originate from the shared experience of this life force. Earth in all its modes should be respected and cared for with the same affection and care we give to ourselves.


I leave you to ponder the remarks from E. B. White, an American essayist, "I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of skeptically and dictatorially."