Expert: Joe McSorley - 8/21/2004

Question
As far as we know earth is the only living planet in the universe.How man can preserve it and make reverence for all life before we are destroy by our selfishness and greed. There are life in other world system in the universe that man's knowledge has not discover it. If each man just contribute a little bit of what they have to the world, I believe no one in the world will go hungry. We must live to share. But can we? How to make man comes together, I still wonder, maybe it will because the light of wisdom and compassion is still in the heart of man.

Thank you
with regards

Answer
 Yes, it would be wonderful if humans could awaken love and compassion in their hearts and contribute to the overall happiness of life.  We know that this is generally not the case and that it's been the same throughout history.  We may be getting more sophisticated and more technologically advanced but we have not advanced in the realms of compassion and awareness.  From the Buddhist point of view we have our problems because our minds are fundamentally flawed.  The first Noble Truth of Buddhism is that ‘life is dukkha ( suffering)' and the cause of this suffering is our ignorance.  This means that every thought that is produced by our minds is not what reality is.  In a sense it's like a faulty computer program that we want to figure out the correct answers but its base is off so it can't.  It can hit the right answer now and then and parts of it but never the whole answer.  So we as humans are fundamentally flawed in the way we see things and eventually this will sour whatever conditions we attempt to build.  Many times throughout history humans have tried to build idyllic communities but they have always failed over time due to the mechanizations of the ego.  Since we are fundamentally flawed we need to change ourselves first and do what is right.  Even here the problem is overwhelming.  We know that smoking, drinking and junk food are bad for us but most humans still do these things.  This is not abstract but concrete evidence of what is good and bad for us yet we choose the bad.  If we can't do what is right even in the most concrete of circumstances how can we expect humans to see the abstract?  I think it is unbelievably daunting.  Most humans do not see any of their behavior, no matter how neurotic, as a problem.  We blame everyone and everything but ourselves for bad choices.  It is a rare individual that realizes the problems of their own being and consciousness and tries to change it.  It is not until every human tries to change their own consciousness that we will see a change in our lives.  Those who have managed to do so spend their lives trying to show the rest of humanity the mess they live in and yet most will never see it.  We are flawed as a species, hopefully over time, we will open our eyes.
       Take care,
             Joe