Abstaining From Killing or Harming Other Beings

The first part of right action is abstaining from killing or physically harming other beings or ourselves. This includes obviously people not killing people, not killing animals, particularly for sport or pleasure and not killing things because we don't like the way they look. When we're killing things or harming, it creates the ultimate alienation and separation from other beings. And I really appreciate that because it points to these steps on the path as actual practice... rather than taking it for granted that we're basically good people and then looking no further.