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So where do we begin?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pointed out that when we do "good works," we should do them without other people knowing that we did them. This is a difficul task: you have to continually keep an eye out for such opportunities.

Many people, looking at the enormity of all the problems facing the world, feel depressed, overwhelmed, and apathetic. They often give up.

But there is great spiritual and cultural power in performing small acts of mercy. They echo farther than most people realize, and begin a ‘morphic resonance’ process of putting out into the air – in a way that becomes culturally contagious – the millions of small steps which must be taken world-wide to save our planet and our species.

We've seen this over and over, in the way fads spread, jokes travel around the world, the ways that consciousness is shared. On some level, we are all connected. When you save the life of another living being – even a worm or a weed – you are putting into the air the saving of lives. Small acts of mercy are among the most transformational spiritual activities a person can engage in, which is probably why Jesus and those teachers and prophets before him repeatedly put such emphasis on them.

A Cree Native American storyteller and teacher told me: ‘According to my tradition, from the beginning of creation, every morning, when the sun comes up, we are each given four tasks by our Creator for that day. First, I must learn at least one meaningful thing today. Second, I must teach at least one meaningful thing to another person. Third, I must do something for some other person, and it will be best if that person does not even realize that I have done something for them. And, fourth, I must treat all living things with respect. This spreads these things throughout the world.’