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"At least once per week you should do a good thing." One boy asked, "Just please give us some examples of good things. We don't know what is good." So she said, "For example, a blind woman wants to cross the street; then help her to cross the street. This is a good job; this is virtuous."
The next week she asked, "Did any of you remember to do what I have said to you?" Three children raised their hands. She said, "This is not good -- the whole class has not been following. But still, it is good that at least three boys did something good." She asked the first, "What have you done?" He said, "Exactly what you have said: One old woman who was blind, I helped her to cross the street."
She said, "That's very good. God will bless you." She asked the second, "What have you done?" He said, "The same -- a blind old woman, I helped her to cross the street." The teacher became a little puzzled -- where are they finding blind old women? But it is a big city; perhaps they may have found two. She asked the third and he said, "I did exactly what they have done: helped a blind old woman cross the street."
The teacher said, "But where did you find three blind women?" They said, "You don't understand: there were not three blind women, there was only one blind woman. And it was so hard to help her to cross the street! She was beating us and shouting and screaming, because she did not want to cross, but we were intent on doing some virtuous act. A crowd gathered, people were shouting at us, but we said, `Don't be worried. We are taking her to the other side.' But she never wanted to go to the other side!"
People are being told to help others, and they are empty within themselves. They are being told to love others -- love your neighbors, love your enemies -- and they are never told to love themselves. All the religions, directly or indirectly, are telling people to hate themselves. A person who hates himself cannot love anybody; he can only pretend.
The basic thing is to love yourself so totally that the love overflows you and reaches to others. I am not against sharing, but I am absolutely against altruism. I am for sharing, but first you must have
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