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When we turn a blind eye to the suffering of others, we grow numb to something important in ourselves and succumb eventually to a spiritual paralysis.
Whatever our ethnicity, whatever our religion, we all have families we love; there is a future we all want to protect. And no human being can escape the eternal rhythms of life: birth, aging, sickness, death. When we are grounded in this most fundamental perspective of the commonality of our lives, we can rise above any differences and without fail achieve empathy and dialogue.
The discovery of commonalities bridges the distance between people’s hearts. Seclusion invariably dims the inner radiance of both individuals and societies. It is the spirit of mutual respect and the willingness to learn from others that bonds hearts together. In the words of a wise person, when you bow respectfully to the mirror, the image in the mirror likewise bows to you.
One who loves nature can cherish other people, value peace and possess a richness of character unfettered by selfish calculations of personal gain or loss. Those who live in a calculating way will end up calculating their own worth detrimentally. Such a life is limited in the extreme. Nature, however, is infinite.
We need to awaken to a common consciousness of all being inhabitants of Earth. This consciousness is not to be found in some distant place. It will not be found on a computer screen. It lies in our hearts, in our ability to share the pain of our fellow human beings. It is the spirit that says: “As long as you are suffering, whoever you are and whatever your suffering may be, I suffer also.”
Whilst human society highlights the “distinctions” or “differences” between us, Buddhism transcends all superficial differences and, in recognizing the commonality that all people share as human beings, focuses directly on life.
When people perceive their lives as being at one with nature and the planet, their views of society, nationality and race will naturally be transformed. As long as the window of the human heart remains battened closed, no great future lies in store for humanity. People have to throw open the window of the heart. When they do so, there will be no more hindrance to peace.

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