"The startling truth is that our best
efforts for civil rights, international peace, population control, conservation
of natural resources, and assistance to the starving of the earth-urgent as
they are–will destroy rather than help if made in the present spirit.
For, as things stand, we have nothing to
give. If our own riches and our own way of life are not enjoyed here, they will
not be enjoyed anywhere else. Certainly they will supply the immediate jolt of
energy and hope that methedrine, and similar drugs, give in extreme fatigue.
But peace can be made only by those who are
peaceful, and love can be shown only by those who love. No work of love will
flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for
the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now."
Alan Watts
