“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.

Ultimately, each one of us experiences spirituality according to our individual values. In other words, if your highest value is your family and your children, then you’ll feel that your highest calling is to raise a magnificent family. President Kennedy’s mother, Rose, provided an obvious example when she said, “I looked at child rearing not only as a work of love and duty, but as a profession that was fully as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world, and one that demanded the best that I could bring to it.” Raising her children was her spiritual quest.