“Love, compassion, and tolerance are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”

The essence of all religions is love, compassion, and tolerance. Kindness is my true religion. No matter whether you are learned or not, whether you believe in the next life or not, whether you believe in God or Buddha or some other religion or not, in day-to-day life you must be a kind person. When you are motivated by kindness, it doesn’t matter whether you are a practitioner, a lawyer, a politician, an administrator, a worker, or an engineer: whatever your profession or field, deep down you are a kind person.

When what you are creating is being generated unconsciously rather than consciously, it always looks as if you have little or no control. When your internal map of reality is operating outside of your awareness, the results it creates seem as if they come from outside of you, and it often seems as if you have little control over what is happening.

As the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear, do consumers ever wonder what happens to their stuff from holidays past? “The Story of Stuff”, a new short film released today online, takes viewers on a provocative tour of our consumer - driven culture - from resource extraction to iPod incineration - exposing the real costs of this use-it and lose-it approach to stuff.

Last year Americans spent $456.2 billion during the holiday season, and this year sales are predicted to rise 4 percent to $474.5 billion. “The Story of Stuff” reveals that holiday consumption is not a seasonal phenomenon, rather an American maxim that has devastating consequences for our environment, third-world nations, working class Americans, personal health and even the general state of happiness in America.