If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
Human beings protect the purity of manmade temples. Similarly, looking after the sanctity of this human body, a temple created by God, should become a spiritual endeavour that is of utmost importance.
Direct the mind resolutely towards God, restraining the senses in their various seats, and looking on the state of the body as a matter of indifference. Realise your oneness with God, remaining continually intent on identifying with its nature…for what use is there in other, empty things?
Life is as dear to the mute creature as it is to a man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so do other creatures.
