Compassion for Animals, Microbes, and Earth

Continuing from last week's post on compassion, we will extend compassion beyond humans to animals, microbes, and Earth. This is a part of the Great Leadership blog series.

We love our pets. They provide companionship and unconditional love. Pet owners already see them as part of their family where they naturally extended their compassion from their human family to include their pets, a subset of animals. But why is it only for a subset of animals? What's the difference? They are indeed cuter and friendlier. If someone is not so cute, or unfriendly, does that person deserve less compassion from us?

I believe compassion is blind, agnostic of who or what the target is something is, and is a one-sided feeling that requires no return, but simply permeates from a compassionate person. And so, it makes sense to extend compassion to our pets, other animals, microbes, and even inanimate objects, like our Earth.

In Ed Yong's book I Contain Multitudes, he states most people have gotten to naturally think of all microbes (bacteria) as disease/viruses that cause death, but the reality is those are simply an extremely small subset -- about 100 out of hundred of thousands of species. Those hundred of thousands of type of microbes are all good and beneficial to human, and in fact, our health would be poor without them and many animals would just die. Microbes are key to all lives on Earth as they transform and produce nutrients necessary by all living beings, therefore it is vitally important that we extend compassion to them as well. We need to understand them, and help them if needed to thrive so they, in turn, will help us by providing us with the necessary nutrients to become healthier and thrive.

And we can't forget about Earth. It's where we live, our one and only home. There are many global events happening that is affecting Earth, which ultimately affects all lives, including us. We must not just understand about global warming, but we must also help to reduce and eliminate that threat before it is too late -- we must be compassionate about our environment, Earth. As the human population continues to grow, we must think about our kids' future by ensuring everything that we do is sustainable, and that starts with compassion for Earth.

I extend my compassion to everyone and everything, which is why I have chosen to become a vegan. I do still eat eggs/dairy for the necessary protein and other vitamins, but may drop those as I become more familiar with what I need to eat for necessary nutrients -- I converted about a month ago and apparently it does take some effort to become vegan. I am not saying everyone that is compassionate must be a vegan, but just providing a personal story on how compassion plays in my life. If you look in the wild, as you already know, predators do eat prey by killing and then eating them alive... And microbes do eat other microbes. So naturally, it is perfectly fine for one being to consume another being, but as humans that are capable of compassion, it is just something to consider. And your body will become healthier by not consuming meat as experienced by Alicia Silverstone and many others...with some initial effort. ^_^

Lastly, I like to say compassion is scientifically proven to lead to a happier life, so be compassionate to everyone -- even animals, microbes, and Earth, and you will become happier too. The more compassionate you are, the happier you will become. ;)

One natural benefit of extending compassion to everyone and everything is world peace.