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AHIMSA
55
For the well-being of the confused creatures in the world that most of us are, the layman will follow his natural feeling and emotion of active compassion. The greatest saints, including Mahāvīra himself, have proclaimed the necessity of active compassion, and this is what made Jains (together with Mahayana Buddhists) the greatest practical benefactors in the world. In Christianity the core teaching is also love, compassion and helpfulness for one's neighbor, and they practice it worldwide and on a large scale; but the first and highest meaning of compassion seems almost completely lost among them. The result is that in the modern world the “right to suffer” for those who choose that as their noble individual path, is almost denied.
Both aspects of compassion are clearly explained by Lord Mahāvīra himself, 2550 years ago, when he defines ahimsā thus:
“The saint with true vision conceives compassion for all the world, in east and west and south and north, and so, knowing the Sacred Lore, he will preach and spread and proclaim it, among those who strive, and those who don't, among all those who are willing to hear him ... He should do no injury to himself or anyone else ... A great sage becomes a refuge for injured creatures like an island which the waters can not overwhelm."
- Sutra (1.6.5)
In the authoritative Tattvārtha Sūtra we find: “One should cultivate the feelings of fraternity toward all beings, pleasantness towards the proficient, compassion toward the destitute and equanimity toward the disrespectful disbelievers.” Of course the destitute will not feel warmth in their heart when passive compassion is practiced on them: they will feel left alone, desperate and disappointed, and they may as a reaction only harden their character, causing even unpleasant karma for themselves (TS 7.6).
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