As It Would Be Unto Thee
The story
The lesson opens by picturing a good teacher as a clear lake. It says a new monk may later find untrue what he once thought true, and the other way round. Then this sentence comes as a refrain, repeated for tyrannizing, tormenting, punishing and driving away. Its conclusion is that a person who lives by it neither kills nor has others kill.
Ācārāṅga Sūtra, Book I, Lecture 5, Lesson 5, §4; tr. Hermann Jacobi, Sacred Books of the East 22 (1884), p. 50
The same moment, today
A tiny brown spider sits in the bottom of a dry bathroom sink. Most people look for an envelope and a drinking glass to carry it outside, but plenty of people just reach over and turn on the tap. It's easy to wash it down the drain because it's small and quiet. But the creature scrambles against the water just like a dog or a human would. It wants to stay alive, and it fears pain just as much as anyone else does.
The Acaranga Sutra turns your attention from the victim's size to what the victim feels. If someone wanted to hurt you or drive you away, you'd be terrified. The text repeats this exact line for tormenting, punishing, and bullying. When you realize the other being feels what you feel, you stop causing harm. Jains live this out in small, practical ways every day. They strain drinking water through fine cloth to spare tiny creatures, and they don't eat after dark so bugs don't drop into their food.
The lesson
Before you brush off another living thing's comfort or pain, put yourself in its place. Ask how you'd feel if someone far bigger treated you that way.
Where this comes from
Hermann Jacobi, 1884
This line comes from the Acaranga Sutra, which is the oldest text in the Svetambara canon. Digambara Jains don't accept the book as scripture, but they teach the exact same principle. A German scholar named Hermann Jacobi translated it into English in 1884 for Max Müller's Sacred Books of the East series. Jacobi worked from manuscripts in Pune and Ahmedabad. The text builds a steady rhythm, repeating this warning against killing, bullying, and tormenting. It concludes that a person who takes this to heart won't kill anything, and won't tell anyone else to kill either.
A small reminder, on your desk or your water bottle, that every living thing wants to live just as much as you do.
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