• Kate Castro •

If those of you who are young today are going to fulfil a vision for a happier, more peaceful future in this world, you need to learn to live each day in a more meaningful way. You need to sharpen your human intelligence through study, but you also need to develop a warm heart.

We can no longer exploit the resources of this earth—the trees, the water, and other natural resources—without any care for coming generations. Common sense tells us that unless we change, we won’t survive. This Earth Day let’s resolve to live in harmony with nature.

As a human being, I am committed to the promotion of what I call basic human values, by which I mean especially compassion. Nurturing the compassionate seed within us and acting out of this innate capacity are the keys to fulfilling our basic aspiration to happiness.

Being too self-centred can give rise to anxiety and depression. An effective antidote is to cultivate a sense of altruism, taking the whole of humanity into account. Appreciating the oneness of humanity leads us to recognise our essential equality as human beings.

As human beings we are all the same. We have this marvellous intelligence, which sometimes creates problems for us, but when influenced by warm-heartedness it can be really creative and helpful. This is the context in which having moral principles is of such great value.