If we can refrain from harming others in our everyday actions and words, we can start to give more serious attention to actively doing good.

If we can refrain from harming others in our everyday actions and words, we can start to give more serious attention to actively doing good. – Dalai Lama

What does that mean?
This quote starts by asking us to consider how we act in our everyday life. What do we do, and what do we say? We are being asked to consider how these things could cause others to feel as if they had been harmed.

Insults and belligerent actions are the less subtle things we might do, but there are words or acts of omission as well. What might we have for someone else or said to someone else which we did not do for another person?

Once we are treating others well, we get to the second half of the quote, which is about actively doing good for others. How much good will you be able to do…