The so-called "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" means to use your own heart to push others; how you want to live, think of how others want to live; how you don't want others to treat you , don’t treat others like that; if you want to be able to stand up and be accessible in society, you should also help others to be able to stand up and be accessible. In short, start from your own heart, extend it to others, understand and treat others. "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you." Simply put, it means treating yourself the same as others. It has the same meaning as the Chinese folk saying of comparing yourself to your own heart, putting yourself in others' shoes, etc.
Why would someone be so kind and considerate of others?
The real reason is: you reap what you sow.
Sow an action and you will receive a habit; sow a habit and you will receive a personality; sow a personality and you will receive a destiny; sow a good deed and you will receive a good deed. Fruit; sow a bad deed and you will receive a bad result.
You have the right to treat others unfairly, but your unfair attitude will make you "reap the consequences." And, further, the consequences of every thought you release will come back to you. Because all your actions toward other people and your thoughts toward other people are all recorded in your subconscious through the principle of autosuggestion, the nature of these actions and thoughts will modify your own personality, and your personality It is equivalent to a magnetic field that attracts people or situations with the same personality as yours to you.
To be precise, "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" is: civilization. It is not easy for a person to truly become a civilized person. Precisely because this is a very high and difficult requirement to meet, our current society always repeatedly advocates "spiritual civilization construction."
Our country has produced many sages who praised themselves and others. "The story of Dayu's flood control" is the saying of "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you", "Oneself establishes others" and "Oneself achieves others". A noble example. When Dayu accepted the task of controlling floods, he had just married a girl from the Tushan clan. When he thought about someone being drowned by the water, he felt as painful and uneasy as if his own relatives had been drowned. So he said goodbye to his wife and led 270,000 flood control people to work day and night to divert the flood. During the process of controlling the flood, Dayu passed through the house three times without entering. After 13 years of hard work, nine major rivers were dredged, allowing floods to flow into the sea, eliminating flood hazards, and completing a great achievement that will last forever. Later, this folk song "Dayu Controlled the Floods" was circulated among the people:
Dayu controlled the floods for thirteen years, devoted himself to solving the disaster for the people.
Carry out on-the-spot observations and investigations, unite and listen diligently to opinions.
I passed the door three times without entering, and I forgot all about food and sleep.
The rivers are dredged and floods are eliminated, and the farmland is irrigated and the people are happy.
In the Warring States Period, a man named Bai Gui talked about this matter with Mencius. He boasted: "If you let me control the water, I will definitely do better than Yu. As long as I control the water, I will do a better job than Yu." Just dredge the rivers and let the floods flow to neighboring countries. Wouldn't it be much easier?" Mencius said to him rudely: "You are wrong! If you use neighboring countries as a place to collect water, the result will be floods. It will flow back and cause even greater disasters. A virtuous person would not do this." This is the origin of the idiom "beggar your neighbor".
Judging from the two stories of Dayu's water control and Bai Gui's talk about water control, Bai Gui only thinks about himself and not others. This is the mistake of "doing to others what you don't want others to do to you." Thoughts will inevitably harm others and yourself. Dayu controlled the floods and led the floods into the sea. Although it was labor-intensive and labor-intensive, this not only eliminated the disasters for his own people, but also eliminated the disasters for the people of neighboring countries. This kind of spirit of respecting oneself and others is so worthy of our admiration and imitation.
This moral sentiment of thinking about others, "doing what you want others to do," has wide influence not only in China, but also around the world. It is said that in the headquarters of the International Red Cross, there is a quote from Confucius, "Do not do to others what you would have others do not want you to do to others." It reflects human beings' yearning for beautiful interpersonal relationships.
There is a Chinese saying: "Everything prospers when people work together."
The good words and deeds of promoting oneself and others are exactly the lubricant to achieve "harmony". May all of us descendants of the Yan and Huang dynasties be able to praise themselves and others everywhere, so that the flower of five thousand years of splendid civilization will bloom more beautifully and fragrantly. If this point is extended, it will have great significance for the entire society. In this way, global harmony and prosperity can be achieved through the power of Chinese traditional culture.