To my way of thinking, all stories that are told from the heart, that arise from one person's experience or an entire people's experience, are indeed true. Truth is experienced and related in many different forms, from many different perspectives. There is conventional seeing and then the seeing that arises from the hidden depths of our being.

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.

By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world. By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive.

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.