Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c24.s4.2

c24.s4.2

The giver must not give for any personal advantage; he must practise what he is to realize in theory, the absence of difference between himself and others: what distinction is there between my pain and another’s? If one should be relieved, so should that of another. He who loves himself must not love himself; to guard himself he must refrain from guarding himself. He must treat his neighbour precisely as himself.¹ We may support the idea by analogies; the pain which affects a limb is not that of the hand, yet the hand moves to relieve the injured member.² But a religious motive may have underlain the conception, and it is expressed frankly in Çāntideva;³ every sin committed by us is committed against the saints who suffer from it, and our only method to recompense these blessed benefactors is to show kindness to others.