Introduction. An Address to the Human Being

You entered life not empty-handed, although your hands could hold nothing at birth. You were met by air, language, someone’s care, paths already traveled, and the knowledge and mistakes of people who lived before you. Even when a person feels alone, that person’s life is connected to countless gifts they did not create for themselves. This connection does not diminish freedom. It makes freedom serious and beautiful.

The span of a human life is limited, but it is not insignificant. In one day, a person can restore someone’s self-confidence, notice a danger, refuse to pass humiliation on to another person, or bring a useful task to a clear conclusion. A person can also ignore what needs protection or use an ability in a way that causes loss to someone else. A choice may seem unimportant to an outside observer. Yet every choice directs our actions toward a particular outcome.

HAEL speaks to the human being not to take away joy or make a person fear their own strength. Joy, prosperity, rest, skill, beauty, bold thought, and closeness can be good gifts of life. The question is not whether a person has a right to a full life. The question is whether one person achieves a full life by taking away another person’s freedom, causing another person pain, or destroying the conditions other people need to live. Faith makes this question not an accusation, but an invitation to see more deeply.

We believe: There is only one Creator. The Creator is eternal. The Creator is the sole source of all existence. This faith does not give a person a ready answer to every mystery. It also does not make anyone the owner of another person’s conscience. It teaches gratitude for the life we have received, honesty before what is unknown, and courage to take part in the good that is within reach. Wherever a person is able to act, that person’s presence matters.

This book offers not the path of a perfect person, but the path of an attentive person. It begins with an acknowledgment: the world is not our unconditional property. No one has the right to use another person’s life merely as a tool for personal goals. The path continues through love, knowledge, free choice, correcting harm, and care. It remains open to every person who wishes to ask not only, “What have I received?” but also, “What may continue because I took part?”