Shaking ourselves free from our moral conditioning is perhaps the hardest spiritual task we can take on. It is difficult because we are so adamant in our moral convictions. We would never say, “We know all there is to know about science.” Many of us would readily admit that perhaps 20% of what we now consider scientific fact will be disproven within a couple decades if not sooner. We are constantly learning. But rarely will you hear someone say something like, “At least twenty percent of what I consider acceptable or tolerable today, I will find completely immoral within a couple decades, if not sooner.

Acts of violence are only possible in a moral framework. I believe, as a religious position, there is an innate sympathy within human beings, within life. And that it is the moral conditioning, the moral framework, that we live in that allows us to experience or inflict violence. We must demonize the other—humans, the planet—for this violence to be acceptable. To change the world we must become aware of our own moral conditioning.