Opening Words

"I must interpret the life around me as I interpret the life that is my own. My life is full of meaning to me. The life around me must be full of significance to itself. If I am to expect others to respect my life, then I must respect the other life I see, however strange it may be to mine."

"Whenever I injure any kind of life I must be quite certain that it is necessary. I must never go beyond the unavoidable, not even in apparently insignificant things. The farmer who has mowed down a thousand flowers in his meadow in order to feed his cows must be careful on his way home not to strike the head off a single flower by the side of the road in idle amusement, for he thereby infringes the law of life without being under the pressure of necessity."  

Check-in

Deep Sharing & Listening (Round #1)

“If I am to expect others to respect my life, then I must respect the other life I see....”

Is all nature imbued with life we must respect?

What are your boundaries? How and when do we differentiate between different forms of life?

Has your understanding changed over time?

Discussion (Round #2)                       

Housekeeping

Likes & Wishes

Closing Words:

The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is a secret and that we are united with all life that is in nature.  Man can no longer live for himself alone.  We realize that all life is valuable, and that we are united to all this life.  From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship to the universe.

Notes:  The first two quotations are from The Animal World of Albert Schweitzer, Edited by Charles Joy, Reviewed Edition:  The ECCO Press, 1950.  The third quotation is from The Spiritual Life, by Albert Schweitzer, Edited by Charles Joy, original edition was published by The Beacon Press, 1947 and the Reviewed Edition published by the ECCO Press, 1996.  All are found on the website www.pcisys.net/~jnf.)