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The Anthology
I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, try the following expedient: Recall the face of the poorest and the most helpless man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he be able to gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away.
(Gandhi) From every race and land, the victims of our day, abused and hurt by human hands, are wounded on life's way.
The priest and levite pass and find no time to wait. The pressing claims of living call; they leave them to their fate.
But one of different faith to care he felt compelled. His active love like Jesus' own uplifted, healed and held.
May this example lead inspire and teach us all that we may find in others' faith the God on whom we call.
(Hymn of the Good Samaritan by Andrew Lunn)
Sariputta, one of the Buddha's chief disciples, taught that the development of compassion was a way to remove hostility towards others. He said, 'Friends, it is like this. An ill, suffering, very sick person is on a long road. There are villages far off in front and behind him. He has no suitable food, suitable medicine, suitable servant, nor a guide to the village. Another person on the long road might see and establish simple compassion, tender care, and sympathy for that sick person with the thought: May this person obtain suitable food, suitable medicine, a suitable servant, and a guide to the village. Why? So that this person may be free from misfortune and misery at this time.'
Sariputta continues, 'Friends, it is similar with regard to an individual with impure physical and verbal activities who does not obtain openness of mind and clarity of mind from time to time. Friends, simple compassion, tender care, and sympathy should be established with regard to such an individual by means of the thought: May this respectable individual abandon improper physical activities and cultivate proper ones. May he abandon improper verbal activities and cultivate proper ones. Why? So that this respectable individual will not be reborn in a state of loss, in a bad fate, in ruin, or in hell after dissolution of the body after death. In this way hostility is eliminated with regard to that individual'.
(Anguttara-nikaya)
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