There’s Just One Answer

When I was at the United Nations in 2000 for the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, I was asked three questions:

1. How can I live my life better?
2. How can we erase conflicts among religions?
3. How can we live in harmony with nature and the environment?

These three questions don’t have to be complicated and hard. So I jokingly asked my questioner, “Please, ask me a hard one! Those questions are too simple.” You can solve them with one answer. Ultimately it boils down to playing well with each other.

Although the answer was easy to give, many of us don’t even know how to get along with ourselves. In order to play well, we first need to respect ourselves, other people, and the earth.

However, too many of us are not engaged in mutual respect. Respect comes from a true understanding of our nature and our value, and that comes from the information we hold in our brain and the way we use it. Is the information in your brain productive, creative, and peaceful? It’s only when we can truly see and feel that we have the same eternal, divine essence as each and every creature, as well as the earth itself, that we can live in peace with ourselves, with others, and with the earth.