We can be most useful to the whole, to everyone and everything, by starting to be useful to the whole that is ourselves and our immediate families, to the whole that is our ordinary life, our friends, our acquaintances, our everyday situations.

If we preoccupy our minds with saving the world from the greenhouse effect or the hole in the ozone or war when we cannot govern our own tempers or tongues, we lose credibility with ourselves and others.

Let's start with ourselves, then.

Actually, we can only start with ourselves. Until we first know and accept ourselves and thus transform and change ourselves, we may as well dictate the wind's direction for all the real effectiveness we can command. Until we know ourselves we can be of little or no real use to others and our world.

Do we clutter our tongues with malicious chatter or vindictive gossip? Do we habitually harbour petty or mean thoughts? Do we yearn for revenge? To get even? If we don't turn away from garbage in our mental home, that's all we ever see.

Do I allow myself to fly off the handle or be rude to my partner, my family, my friends, yet treat strangers and new acquaintances courteously? I must learn to extend my respect to my self and to those closest to me. If I don't, my polite words are hollow and my position false, and I remain ever suspicious and mistrustful of others. What I deny or avoid acknowledging in myself I must inevitably face in others.

The foundations for real concern for ourselves and others, for loving and substantive caring, lie within ourselves, lie in our homes and our work places and in all our immediate environments.

When I can be a useful human being to myself, when I realize fulfilment and harmony stem from within me rather than from my outer circumstances, then I can start to be truly useful to my fellow beings in my immediate community and in the world community.