How does this activity love others

I'm going to talk about some books and ideas that have been influential to me, over the past couple years.

One book is "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" by Robert Pirsig To sum up the thesis of the book, in my own words: Good, or Quality, is that which engenders deep, positive engagement with an activity.

Another book is "Determined" by Robert Sapolsky To sum of the thesis of the book: Free will is an illusion. Our actions are determined by what happened in the past, one second, ad infinitum.

The final book is "Man's search for meaning" by Viktor Frankl In summation: Meaning can be found through work/activity, relationships/love, or suffering.

Finally, the teachings of the Buddha must always be considered

Combining these, I've come up with a new simple mantra/question/meditation: "How does this activity love others?"

I think it has many good aspects which should allow one to consider this phrase as one of quality.

One, it is a question. Is is not an accusation, a command, an axiom, truth, belief, or any other absolute. In its simplest sense, it's asking, why are you doing what you are doing? It is a simple prompt for reflection. Reflection or meditation, seems to be the only way one can find meaning in ones actions or activities. Meaning comes from reflection, not the other way around. It gets to the heart of what many/most religions teach. "Love your neighbor...", etcetera It takes the focus off one's self, or even the existence of one's self. The self is inconsequential; there is only action and effect. It requires compassion above all else. Compassion is the result of meditating on the truth that all sentient beings suffer. If everyone suffers, we all have this quality in common. In fact, one could say that suffering/dissatisfaction is the core problem of life. The core evil of life is a desire to cause suffering in others. Actions are not all good or evil There are myriad gradient dimensions of differing weights of goodness. The most important are proximal to one's self.