Make a list of the facets of what a person is. People are physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and social creatures. Each of these layers comes with a kind of being and condition, but they are also dimensions in which we can move. Said differently, as people, we strive for physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and social well being. We also have the power to create physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and social change.
For now, lets use this taxonomy of persons to organize our list.
Physical Good
We can act physically. Make change in the world of things. I don't fret a lot preserving the shape of rocks (although I like climbing and looking at them). But the physical being of people and animals and plants I think we should care about.
Nonviolence
Not harming or destroying things that have goods unto there own is a great start. Don't kill people. Don't kill animals. Only destroy plants when it can't be avoided. Catch bugs and release them outside. Only fight people who think it will be fun to fight back. Let martial arts be art.
Foster Wellbeing
Go to unreasonable lengths to make sure creatures live in reasonable conditions. Food, shelter, warmth, and freedom is a great place to start. Maybe there's a chance of ingratitude in utopic conditions... but lets worry about that when we are in any danger of being there. Put your resources in service of other people.
Emotional Good
We are emotional agents, and we can influence the world of feelings. Once again I fuzzily draw the line at plants, who seem to have biological responses to changing conditions, but to date have never been shown to have the capacity to feel. Human and non-human animals so seem to have an emotional good.
Love
Whatever we do, we are called to do it with love. Our interactions should be driven
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