..续本文上一页orld”. You can read about the financial problems and the business world, the economic problems of Britain, the United States, the problems of the Soviet Union, and the problems of the Third World countries. Problems of inpiduals: who”s porcing whom, who”s having an affair with whom. Who”s being a burden, who”s not being a burden, and all kinds of advice over what you should or shouldn”t be. That”s "the real world”, encapsulated in a few sheets of paper, with photographs.

　　Now that ”real” world is a poverty stricken world. It”s meaningless. If one believes in that and attaches to it then life is a very depressing, increasingly depressing experience - because the world of separation, alienation and pision is a world of despair. It”s anguishing. Most of it is not particularly joyful - it”s dukkha, it”s suffering. So what does it mean to be fully human

　　 To be fully human is to be moral: you can”t say you are fully human unless you keep at least the five moral precepts - otherwise you are only human some of the time. Now moral responsibility, willingness to be responsible for one”s actions and one”s speech, is not instinctual, is it

　　 Instincts don”t care about speech and actions. In instinctual nature, if some- thing is in your way then you just kick it out or kill it. The animal kingdom doesn”t have very much to say; the animal world doesn”t seem to have developed highly complicated speech patterns like humans. It”s survival of the fittest in the animal kingdom, because there”s not the ability to rise up to a moral commitment. To be responsible on the moral plane is a uniquely human opportunity. So, in Buddhist terms, it”s only when we rise to that moral plane that we can say we are fully human. This is fulfillment of our humanity, not a rejection of it.

　　Note that so much of the violence and murder is done in the name of something noble: ”Kill the Heretics! . . . Kill the Communists!” But this is all from the position of a ”not-quite” human, isn”t it

　　 It”s non-humans that do all this - because to be human, you have to be moral. The first precept - Panatipata veramani, to refrain from intentionally taking life - is actually applied, for us, to all beings. It is not for us to decide who is going to live and who isn”t. Other beings have as much right to be here, to live on this planet, to breathe, as we do. So this is the beginning of Humanity, because this is something we can choose - instinct doesn”t choose to do this. If somebody is being a threat or a bother, our instincts tell us to get rid of them as quickly as possible. But the human side says, ”Would I like to be treated like that

　　 Is that fair, is that right, is that a proper thing to be doing

　　”

　　My instincts say, ”Kill the mosquitoes! They”re a nuisance, they give you malaria. . . . Kill those blasted midges; get rid of them as quickly as possible!” But then the human side says that they have as much right to be here as I do. Who am I to think chat I, somehow, am more important or have more right to breathe and to live my life than midges do

　　 So then from that position, I”m a little kinder, aren”t I

　　 I”m not so quick to destroy that which I don”t like - which bothers me or is a nuisance - and I am much more willing to give it a chance, to try and understand it, to respect it for what it i

　　, even though I may never like it. I can”t imagine myself ever liking midges - they are just not likeable to humans. But one can accept them for what they are. When you contemplate the amount of irritation they cause, then it”s not that much; one can put up with it, one can bear it - it”s just the way things are. Their lives are as important to them as my life is to me.

　　That is rising up to the plane of humanity. But I”m sure that the midge doesn”t reflect like that; I”m sure the midge d…

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