SO GO ALL OF US

"People suffer at every moment and throughout the world," Tibetan Buddhist Matthieu Ricard explains. "Some die when they've just been born; some when they've just given birth. Every second people are murdered, tortured, beaten, maimed, separated from their loved ones. Others are abandoned, betrayed, expelled, rejected. Some are killed out of hatred, greed, ignorance, ambition, pride, or envy.

Mothers lose their children, children lose their parents. The ill pass in never-ending procession through hospitals. Some suffer with no hope of being treated; others are treated with no hope of being cured. The dying endure their pain, and the survivors their mourning. Some die of hunger, cold, exhaustion; others are charred by fire, crushed by rock, or swept away by the waters.

"This is true not only for human beings. Animals devour each other in the forests, the savannahs, the oceans, and the skies. At any given moment tens of thousands of them are being killed by humans, torn to pieces and canned. Others suffer endless torments at the hands of their owners, bearing heavy burdens, in chains their entire lives; still others are hunted, fished, trapped between teeth of steel, strangled in snares, smothered under nets, tortured for their flesh, their musk, their ivory, their bones, their fur, their skin, thrown into boiling water or flayed alive.

"There is an interconnectedness spiritually, among all living things. As a human being it is my responsibility to realize this and to know that as all other living things go, so go I."

Picard said that it was his responsibility to realize this, when, in fact, it is the responsibility of all of us to realize it. Compassion is not limited to monks.