9 Characteristics of Dysthumia

Dysthumia is a disordered, troubled spirit. I coined the word to refer to a group of spirit-related disorders that I will share posts on in the future. 

Nine general characteristics of dysthumia include-

1. Relative, overall unhealthiness: In my view, a dysthumic person exhibits a general, overall lack of health and well-being. There may or may not be a specific physical or mental diagnosis. Dysthumia can manifest as a general lack of resilience in the face of life's challenges.

2. Avoiding or escaping from life: When we desire to avoid living life in its fullness, with all of its pleasures and pains our spirit could be disordered and weak. Those with disordered, weak spirits tend to avoid or seek to escape from life. Avoidance and escape can take many forms. Some examples include references to running away, complaining about hardships, wanting life to be easier, casting oneself as a victim, spending significant amounts of time turning inward or engaged in spiritual activities, weariness with life, escaping into social media, reading, movies, TV, and other types of entertainment, substance abuse, escaping into a relationship, and escaping into work.

3. Constrained: Those with disordered, troubled spirits tend to be in relationships, jobs, and situations that significantly restrict their personal freedom. 

4. Lacking a sense of being a unique individual and/or alienated from other living beings: When our spirit is disordered or troubled, we tend to lack a sense of who we are. We tend to be unable to be both our unique self and in healthy relationships with others.

5. Dependent on others for basic needs: Failing to provide food, shelter, clothing, transportation and other basic needs for ourselves can be an indication of dysthumia.

6. Unwilling and/or unable to rise up to take on life's challenges: This characteristic goes beyond seeking to avoid and escape from life. When our spirit is disordered and troubled we not only want to avoid and escape from our life, we also lack the will and ability to rise up and take on the challenges we face as we live our life. It's just not in us.

7. Barren, unproductive: When our spirit is disordered and troubled we tend to be ineffective and lack creativity. We are unable to produce services and goods of value to others. We do not have it in us to create art. The more disordered our spirit the more barren our life tends to be.

8. Ineffective, unsuccessful: Healthy, mature spirits are generally successful. They are able to identify and attain their goals. Disordered, troubled spirits tend to be unsuccessful. They're unable to identify and attain their goals.

9. Harmful to others: Dysthumic individuals not only tend to harm themselves. They also tend to harm others. They tend to be needy, dependent, irresponsible, unreliable, resentful, and abusive. They can also be ill-tempered and either suicidal or homicidal. 

What Makes All One

I Value Doing Over Being

In the doing vs. being debate, I pick doing.

Doing is active. Being is passive.

Doing engages in life. Being withdraws from life.

Doing is fertile and productive. Being is impotent and barren.

Doing creates. Being does nothing.

Doing contributes to others. Being withholds and receives from others.

While I choose doing over being, I do not make an absolute of doing. 

Time for being is important to me. 

Being serves my doing.

In other words, my way of being actually does something.

I believe that what I do in life matters more than being, thinking, feeling, or talking.

Contra Tolle, Part 4

Eckhart Tolle and others in a long line of so-called spiritual teachers tell us that our attempts to gain fulfillment from pleasures like material goods, community or work-related success and recognition, or even loving relationships carry with them a risk of pain and disappointment. By contrast, real fulfillment is an inner 'state of being'.

In my view, this teaching devalues our experiences of pleasure in our relationships and achievements in life. In doing so it devalues our life and therefore our spirit, that which makes us alive.

Yes, there is always a risk of failure when we attempt to achieve something important to us. When we achieve what we want, it is right for us to feel good about it. It is right to celebrate our achievement.

Likewise, when we fail to achieve what we want, it is right that we feel disappointed. We do well to learn from our failures rather than use them as excuses to turn inward and seek fulfillment in some "inner state of being."

When we are sick, depressed, or anxious it isn't the best time for us to pursue our dreams. Like Tolle, when we're miserable and lack resilience we do well to take a break, avoid the additional stress of risk, and take good care of ourselves in order to improve our health. Turning inward is a type of mental and emotional therapy, a type of anesthesia, we can use when we're miserable and unable to deal directly with our failures and disappointments in life.

However, turning inward to seek so-called "real fulfillment" in an inner state of being is not for strong, healthy, creative, productive individuals. Strong, healthy, creative, and productive individuals, individuals strong in spirit, not only cope well when they fail and experience disappointments, they learn from and draw on them to rise up and face life's new challenges. When they succeed they rightly take pleasure in and celebrate their achievements. 

Healthy spirits don't need to seek fulfillment in an inner 'state of being.' They're too bust making a meaningful difference in the world.

Contra Tolle, Part 3

Eckhart Tolle and others believe that time is an illusion and that we should learn to live in the Eternal Now.

In my view, time is essential to our human perspective and life. We experience change and the passage of time as we live. We selectively remember our past experiences. We anticipate what might happen in our future. 

Our skill, knowledge and wisdom are fruits of our past. We often distill them in stories, pictures, dances, and songs.

We dream, anticipate, plan, prepare for, and act to realize our future. There is much wisdom in doing so.

More than an element of practicality informs our remembering and anticipating. We also have very rich emotions associated with both our memories and anticipations.

Some of our emotions are pleasurable. Others are painful. Still others are mixed.

Why might someone devalue time to the level of illusion?

Why might someone say that we should let go of both our memories of the past and our anticipations of our future?

Why posit the existence of a divine-like Eternal Now?

Could living in an imagined Eternal Now be a type of mental and emotional  anesthesia for the hypersensitive? Could the Eternal Now be an escape from memories that depress and anticipations that make anxious? 

Prior to his so-called enlightenment Tolle was by his own account a miserable, depressed, and anxious man. The divine-like Eternal Now gave him relief from what he could not otherwise cope with.

However, what helps the sickly and miserable can be harmful for those who are healthy. Healthy spirits have no need to anesthetize themselves from depressing memories or anxiety-provoking anticipations. 

They learn from their past and rise to meet whatever challenges they might face in the future. They're emotionally, mentally, and physically resilient. 

They are of such character that they fully feel their emotions without being debilitated by them. They both feel and live fully in the present with their memories and anticipations. Living in an imagined Eternal Now is irrelevant to them. They need no anesthesia. 

Contra Tolle, Part 2

Another belief common to Vedanta, some traditions of Buddhism, and many New Agers, especially Eckhart Tolle, is the belief that we all are part of a Great Unity or Ultimate Source.

There are two beliefs here: belief in a Great Unity/Ultimate Source and belief that we humans are part of the Great Unity/Ultimate Source.

Belief in a Great Unity/ Ultimate Source begs several questions: 

Why believe that there is a Great Unity/Ultimate Source? 

What is the Great Unity/Ultimate Source? 

How do we know for ourselves it is there? 

Do we just have to take a leap of faith and believe it is there?

Does it require a mystical experience?

Are mystical experiences more than chemical reactions in our brains?

The belief that we humans are part of the Great Unity/Ultimate Source carries with it the belief that the Great Unity/Ultimate Source is our true self and that our sense of being separate individual egos is an illusion.

Again, such beliefs beg several questions:

Why believe we are part of some Great Unity/Ultimate Source and therefore one?

Why devalue our individuality to the level of an illusion in favor of all being one?

What purpose do such beliefs achieve?

How do we know for ourselves that these beliefs are true?

Do we just take a leap of faith and believe, have a mystical experience, something else?

In my view, belief in a Great Unity/Ultimate Source and illusory individuality devalues all human beings. It has us devalue ourselves in favor of faith in a great metaphysical being beyond us.

Such beliefs might help the sick, depressed, and anxious cope with the challenges of their life. They helped Tolle when he was so miserable. They enabled a euphoric, opiate-like state for him. 

However, such beliefs might be harmful to those of us who are relatively healthy and able to rise up to face the challenges  of our lives with nobility and a sense of humor. They could seduce us into devaluing our life, withdrawing into a mystical Now, and disengaging from living our lives to their fullest.

Contra Tolle, Part 1

A belief common to Vedanta, some Buddhist traditions, and many New Agers, in particular Eckhart Tolle, is that our 'ego self', or 'mind', is not our 'true self'.

In my view, I am not split into an ego and a true self. I do not have an ego. I am an ego. I am my true self and my true self is me. There is no other me but me.  

To devalue my ego is to devalue my true self. To devalue my true self is to devalue my life. To devalue my life is to devalue my spirit. 

To devalue my spirit is to practice an anti-spirituality rather than a spirituality.

So, in my view, the "ego vs true self" belief is a belief that when acted on is actually harmful to healthy and strong individuals. It promotes withdrawal from rather than engagement with life. 

Perhaps such a belief can at times be helpful when one is very sick, depressed, or anxious like Tolle was. Then it can provide a way of escaping one's miserable life. It's a kind of mental opiate for those unable or unwilling to live life fully.

About the Abortion Debate

Since spirit is that which makes alive, the value of life is a spirit-related issue.

Some believe life is inherently valuable. They often base their belief on a religious doctrine that life is of divine origin. In other words, their belief is based on something they heard from someone else, perhaps someone in a position of authority over them.

My faith is not based on what I heard from someone else. It's based on what I myself see and experience. 

In my view, life, regardless of its form, is valued on the basis of our relationships. For example, the lives of mosquitos and fleas are not valuable to me. They bite me. I have no use for them. When I have an opportunity to kill them I take it. 

The lives of many plants are valuable to me because they are both food and medicine for me. They help me sustain my life. They also enrich my life with beauty and wisdom. Not only have I enjoyed many flowers and trees, I have also learned important lessons from how they live. The same is true of many animals. They are valuable to me.

The lives of my family and friends are valuable to me because of my love and affection for them. I also benefit from them. I owe my life to my parents and ancestors before them. I owe my life to everything that sustains it. 

I love my wife, children, and grandchildren. Their lives matter to me. My spirit lives on in my children and grandchildren. 

I value the lives of my friends. Each one of my friends enrich my life each in their own way. Our lives are mutually beneficial.

When I am blatantly honest with myself, the life of someone with whom I have no relationship has little value to me. For example, an unborn child in the womb of a woman on the other side of the planet who I do not know is not valuable to me. 

I know this sounds cold, narrow-minded, and unenlightened to many. Maybe it is. I'm being honest here. I'm coming from my heart and experience, not a belief I borrowed from someone else. Changing my mind as I learn is an option as always hold on to.

I have no relationship with  the mother or child. Since I am completely unaware of her, it does not matter to me if the woman aborts or gives birth to her child. I will never know either way. 

Alternatively, if I was able and interested in exercising power and control over as many as possible, I might "value" every human life that I could manipulate to my purposes. I might declare the inherent value of all human life, claim divine authority for my declaration, claim moral superiority, establish laws to restrict life options for women, restrict birth control, ban abortions, and force all pregnant women to give birth. I might also do all I could to make sure the children were raised according to my values. I might require them to pray to my god, hear my sacred writings, and follow my god's rules. 

Why?

Because I believe that human life is from the one true god, my god, and therefore inherently valuable.

Some call this kind of inherent valuing of human life loving. 

I call it tyranny.

9 Characteristics of Euthumia

Euthumia is well-spiritedness. What follows are nine characteristics of a healthy human spirit.

1. Relative, overall healthiness: In my view, health is a sense of wholeness and ability. It is a process rather than a destination. Our sense of wholeness and ability is constantly challenged. It varies in integrity and strength. However, maintaining a basic degree of health is a characteristic of a healthy and mature spirit.

2. Desirous of life: When we desire to live and experience life in its fullness, with all of its pleasures and pains our spirit is healthy. Healthy, mature spirits do not seek to avoid or escape from life.

3. Free: While it is possible to maintain a relatively healthy spirit in oppressive situations, generally speaking a healthy spirit is a spirit that is free to live life as it chooses. 

4. Both unique and connected harmoniously with other living beings: When our spirit is healthy and mature we are able to be both our unique self and harmoniously connected with others. This does not mean that we love and have conflict free relationships with all other living beings. It does mean that we are both our unique self and in meaningful relationships with others. We both belong with others and maintain our own identity.

5. Self-supporting: Being able to sustain our own life and remain spirited in the midst of life's challenges is a sign of a healthy, mature spirit.

6. Willing and able to rise up to take on life's challenges: This characteristic goes beyond being desirous of life. When our spirit is healthy and mature we not only want to live rather escape from our life, we also naturally rise to take on the challenges we face as we live our life.

7. Creative, productive: When our spirit is healthy and mature we create. We produce services and goods of value to others. We create art. The stronger our spirit the more prolific we tend to be.

8. Successful: Healthy, mature spirits are generally successful. They are able to identify and attain their goals.

9. Respectful of others: Healthy, mature spirits also know that they are related to all other spirited beings and have a fundamental respect for all the living. They live their and do not interfere with others living theirs.

Right to Life? Part 2

Does an oak tree have a right to life? Does a weed? 

Does a butterfly have a right to life? Does a mosquito?

Does a healthy, newly-conceived fawn have a right to life? Does a rabid baby rat?

Why do we rarely, if ever, see deformed, injured, or diseased animals living in the wild? Why are they not nursed by their own kind rather than left to die?

Why do we euthanize (actively kill, mercifully put out of their misery) our pets that are seriously deformed, injured, or diseased and call it compassion but condemn it as suicide or murder when we do the same with ourselves or fulfill a loved one's request?

NOTE: I'm asking probing, thought-provoking questions, not advocating for a specific answer.

Is investing huge amounts of time, energy, creative thinking, money, and all manner of resources into examining, testing, and putting pharmaceutical chemicals into the seriously deformed, injured, and diseased a wise investment? If so, for whom?

Who really benefits from all of the examining, testing, and consumption of pharmaceuticals? 

The dying? 

Does prolonging the dying process come from compassion for the dying?

Who benefits from prolonging the dying process?

Is the so-called "right to life" an absolute?

Right to Life?

Since spirit is that which makes alive, abortion, the death penalty, and war are spirit-related issues in my view. They are issues about ending the spiritedness of human beings. 

Some believe in the "sanctity of life" and invoke their belief in debates about abortion, the death penalty, and war. It's odd to me that many who absolutely oppose abortion on the basis of the sanctity of life often favor the death penalty and war.

When I observe animals, including us humans, I see no "sanctity of life." I see life taken regardless of human beliefs about its sanctity. In other words, invoking a belief in the sanctity of life is powerless. It does nothing to prevent killing. Whenever someone invokes "The sanctity of life!" at the same time millions, if not billions, of plants and animals, including humans are killed. Worldwide on average one human is being murdered by another every minute. That's apart from the human killing going on in abortions, executions, and wars.

The question, in my view, is this: Does the killing affirm or deny life?  Show me how the killing affirms, supports, sustains, and furthers life. 

For example, is the plant or animal killed and eaten in order to sustain life? Does the killing protect oneself and/or others from life-threatening harm? If so, then I say kill. Such killing affirms life.

On the other hand, does the killing maintain or extend one's power and dominance over others? Is the killing a prelude to stealing and adding to one's hoard? Is the killing for sport or done out of mindless disregard for life? Does the killing waste life? Is it done out of fear or hatred of those who are different? If so, then the killing denies life.

I say when the killing we do denies life, we forfeit our right to life. Our life then has no sanctity. We deserve to die.

My Non-spiritual View of Spirit

For Ancient Greeks spirit (thumos) was not a metaphysical or religious belief based on nothing but faith. It was not in any way a higher being. Their belief in spirit was rooted in their experience. For them spirit was quasi-physical. 

In humans, spirit was located in the center of the chest and associated with the thymus gland, heart, lungs, and breath. Thumos, spirit, could be strengthen by self talk and the herb thyme. Fainting was a temporary loss of spirit. When thumos returned the one who fainted regained consciousness. Death occurred when thumos failed to return.  When it failed to  return it did not continue to exist but dissipated and returned to the wind.

In the view of Ancient Greeks, humans were not the only spirited beings. Oceans, rivers, springs, plants, animals, and the goddesses and gods had thumos. They were spirited beings. Thumos was what made every living being alive.

It is the Ancient Greek understanding of spirit that informs my work. It is the basis of the science of spirit I propose: thumology. It is the basis of the new therapeutic care of spirit that I am developing: thumotherapy. It is also the basis of what I call thumotic spirituality, a set of spirit-related theories and practices informed by both thumology and thumotherapy. 

 

I Believe in Survival Training

The fundamental desire of the spirit in every healthy living being is to live. Fundamental to living is surviving. 

Consider the trees and all other plants. They're about surviving so that they can become what they're meant to become. The same is true of animals, including us humans. We spend most of our life doing what we need to do to survive. We work to eat, drink, and protect ourselves from what might harm us so that we can become what we're meant to become.

It is easy for some of us humans to lull ourselves into a false sense of security and believe falsely that we're somehow immune to earth quakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, epidemics, power outages, drinking water contamination or shortage, chemical spills, breaks in food supplies being delivered to our local grocery, public mass shootings, robberies, and other kinds of events that could expose, injure, infect, or kill us.

We do well to acquire basic survival skills. We do well to know how to protect and provide for ourselves and to teach our children to do the same. 

Why?

Because our lives matter. 

We're spirited, alive. The fundamental desire of the spirit within us is to remain alive. We owe it to the spirit that makes us alive to do all we can to keep living. 

When we do not believe in surviving and living so that we can become what we're meant to become, something is wrong. When we live in soci-economic system that nurtures a false sense of security and weakens our survival skills, something is wrong. Something spirit-related is wrong. Our spirit is not healthy.

I believe in spirit. I believe in living. I believe in having the basic skills of survival that enable us to remain spirited and become who we are meant to become. I rejoice when I meet others who feel the same way.   

Why Do We Continue to Believe Them?

Eating, drinking, working and creating are spirit-related matters. By these activities we sustain our spiritedness, our lives. 

Who told us that we do not need to pay attention to how or where our food is grown or what is in it as long as it looks and tastes good?

Who told us that buying all our food and eating it canned, frozen, or chemically preserved the whole year-round is so much better for us than raising our own food at little cost and eating it fresh from our own gardens when it's in season?

Why did we believe them?

Who told us that we do not need to be all that concerned about what we drink as long as it looks and tastes good? See all the little bubbles and fizz? Taste how sweet it is? 

Who told us that buying all kinds of drinks in bottles and cans is so much better for us than drinking that free, tasteless, colorless, fresh spring water?

Why did we believe them?

Who told us that working for others in factories and office buildings is so much better than working on our own land and in our own shops supporting ourselves and our neighbors? 

Who told us that living relatively sedentary lives indoors entertaining ourselves with mass market consumer stuff is so much better than telling our own stories, making our own music, singing our own songs, and creating our own gifts and goods?

Why did we believe them?

What effect has believing them had on our spirits?

Why do we continue to believe them?

Autoimmune Disease of the Spirit

Some say that what we believe is what ultimately matters. Some go so far as to say that our faith or lack thereof has eternal consequences.

When I look at myself and everyone else who makes up the world, what I see is this: What we do matters. Our actions matter.

Our actions have consequences. Our actions makes a difference. They affect everyone else that makes up the world. Our actions change the world. Our actions actually create the world. Yes, we, all the living, create this world as we go.

Our spirit is what animates us. It actions us. Because we're spirited, we're alive. We move. We act. We create. We make a difference.

The difference we make either affirms or denies our own and other's spirit. Our actions create a world that either promotes or denies life.

Denying the power of our actions, denying the importance and consequences of our actions, denies the spirit in us that actions us. It denies life. 

Saying that what we believe is what ultimately matters, is a symptom of a spirit-related illness. It's an example of a human illness in which a human's spirit is turned against itself and denies rather than affirms its own life. It's a symptom of the autoimmune disease of the spirit.

No Greater Love Than This

Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

Everyday many I take for granted treat me as one of their friends. They love me with the greatest love of all. They lay down their life for me. More accurately, like Jesus, their life is taken from them. They die that I might live.

I'm talking about the sacrificed plants and animals I eat, wear, and take shelter in.

I live because of their ultimate life-giving sacrifice. Because of them my heart swells with gratitude. To them my lips speak words of heart-felt thanks and praise. I owe my life to these my taken-for-granted friends.

For Those Just Passing Through This World

To all who believe they are foreign exchange students (spiritual beings having a human experience) doing a semester in this world to learn a lesson: 

"Take nothing but pictures 

Kill nothing but time 

Leave nothing but footprints 

To show you came by" - John Kay

In other words, remember that while you are just passing through, many of live here. Earth is our true home.

Many Ways of Knowing

I know from the findings of scientific research that far more exists than I can perceive with my five physical senses. There are spectrums of light my eyes cannot see. There are high and low frequencies my ears cannot hear. There are fragrances my nose cannot smell, textures too fine for my skin to feel, and flavors too subtle for my tongue to taste. 

However, I do not need scientific findings to know that there is more "out there" than I can know with my five physical senses. My dog hears and smells things that do not exist to me. They are out of my ability to know with my physical senses. 

While it is impossible for me to know some things about the universe by my physical senses, I have other ways of knowing.

I have instincts and can, for example, "know" what to do in an emergent situation  and do it. 

I can know by intuition. For example, I can know without knowing how I know that something is going to happen before it happens. Then it happens. I can also intuit that I need to do something, do it, and discover that it was the right action to take at the time.

I can also see and hear things mentally. In other words, I can imagine what something will look like before I see it with my eyes. 

I can know things emotionally; I can feel fear that alerts me to a danger before I see or hear the threat.

I can also know things in my body; for example, I can feel another person's anxiety in my solar plexus. The muscles there tighten. 

I can also know things with relative certainty by deduction.  For example, all humans die. I am human. I will die.

I'm not always right. Sometimes I misjudge the information from my various ways of knowing just as I do with my five physical senses. But that has to do with my judgment not the information itself.

To deny my many ways of knowing is to deny the spirit in me that animates them. Rather than deny the spirit's work within me, I affirm it. I affirm it boldly.

I refuse to be like some who restrict knowing to what they can perceive with their five physical senses.

A Different Perspective on Eternal Life

Many believe that life, more specifically, human life in the form of the soul, is inherently eternal. They believe life always has been and always will be. It's a given in their view.

Truth be told, we do not know that life is inherently eternal. We do not know that life always has been and always will be. 

We also do not know if there was a time when life was not. We do not know if life had a beginning. If it did, we do not know when, where, or how. Much less do we know why there is life rather than not.

Since spirit is life, we do not know if spirit had a beginning or not. We do not know if spirit is inherently eternal. Maybe it is; maybe not.

We do know this: life and therefore spirit is potentially eternal. As long as the living continue to live life goes on. It is at least possible for life to continue eternally.

This means that eternal life is about spiraling forward with sex, conception, birth, nurturing, growth, maturity, sex, conception, birth, nurturing, growth, maturity and so in a potentially eternal spiral. This means that eternal is not a given. It isn't inherent to life. Rather it is depends on the actions of the living- all of the living.

It also means that every one of us plays a role in the potential eternity of life. We either contribute to it or detract from it. We either affirm and promote life or deny and negate it. 

The choice is ours. May we choose wisely. May we choose life. May choose that which makes alive. May we choose spirit.

Source of the Death Wish

Since I am a spirited body, I am naturally driven to take good care of myself as a living body. To do so is instinctual. What is living desires to keep living. 

Since I am a spirited mind, I am naturally driven to take good care of myself as a living mind. Again, the desire to keep living is instinctual. 

I am spirited and naturally driven to take good care of my spiritedness. What is spirited desires to remain spirited. The desire of the spirited to remain spirited is inherent to being spirited. 

Only when something is seriously wrong do I lose my natural desire to keep living. Only when my body is too weak, ill or injured; my mind too irrational or full of life-denying beliefs about myself and the world; or my spirit too ill, wounded, or broken do I desire to escape from life or wish to die rather than live. Then I might wax poetic and speak of death as a door to the "beyond" and "something better."

When I am healthy in body, mind, and spirit I enjoy living and desire to live fully. 

Visitor or Resident?

Have you ever noticed that visitors often do not care for places as well as residents do?

Many believe they are just visitors on this planet. This is not their true home. They're just passing through, on their way to a better place beyond.

Aren't these the same folks who habitually consume more than they need, clear cut forests, strip mine mountain tops, frack the earth, burn coal and oil, dump chemicals and other waste in rivers and oceans, exterminate entire species, enslave other animals and their own kind, and kill each other in wars of acquisition?

They are. I live among them. I'm complicit with them even as I seek to liberate myself from their life-denying ways.

Have you ever noticed how those who believe in Earth as their mother and true home live different lives, more in harmony with and respectful of the land, water, wind, and all living beings?

They aren't just passing through on their way to a better place beyond. This is their true home. They are from Earth, sustained by Earth, and to Earth they return. They're permanent residents here.  Everyone around is their neighbor. They do their best to be good neighbors with all. My heart is with them.

Two Reasons We Don't Care

Just as I naturally desire to take good care of myself, so I naturally desire to take good care of all other spirited ones too. I cannot take good care of myself apart from taking good care of all others with whom I live. As others go, so go I.

All others naturally desire to take good care of me too. They cannot take good care of themselves apart from taking good care of me. Many, both plants and animals, give their lives for me so that I might keep on living. 

Often taking good care of each other is simply a matter of giving each other the space to freely live our lives.

There are only two reasons we do not take good care of each other: First, we are naturally limited in our knowledge, skill, and power. Because we are limited we do not get it right every time. We can fail to take good care of each other out of our natural ignorance.

Secondly, we're prone to illness and injury. When we are seriously ill or injured we do not take good care of either ourselves or others. We're unable.

When we're healthy we naturally take good care of each other. Just as other animals, we do so without religious, moral, or legal codes.

I Answer to You

That I live  on this planet with you and all other spirited beings means that I am responsible to you and all others with whom I live. 

To be responsible is to be response-able, able to respond. 

I am not responsible for you. I am not able to respond for you. Only you can do that.

However, I am responsible to you. I am able to respond to you. I answer to you for how I treat you.  We answer to each other.

I speak and act. You answer. You either thrive or fade. I answer back to you for the thriving or fading affect I had on you. 

With rare exception when you thrive so do I. When you fade, so do I. 

Why? Because we live together. We are one. What affects your spirit affects mine.