己所不欲，勿施於人
jǐ suǒ bù yù，wù shī yú rén
“self that-which not want, do-not give to people”
This is from 孔子·論語 / The Analects by Confucius, and is immediately explanatory. It can be shortened to just the first phrase.
The English equivalent is: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31).
The latest Korean modern drama I’ve been watching on Netflix (a kind ex-student made me his guest for my helping him out for free with his new baby and other related matters) is set in a mental hospital.
One of the nurses went into a deep depression after a patient committed suicide: she stayed in bed for days, wouldn’t interact with people, and was admitted to a mental unit at a different hospital. When she recovered and returned to work, one of the patients’ mother found out and started to object to her daughter being treated by someone who’d had a mental illness before. The matter escalated to all the family of the patients protesting about it outside the hospital, demanding her resignation or removal.
The head of the nurses’ team (who herself had a sister with a mental issue) responded in this way at the confrontation, which I find touching:
(my summary) “Someone who’s been through a similar frame of mind would actually be in a better position to understand how the patient feels.
“Also, how would you feel about your own family member, who’s in here at the moment being treated for a mental issue, getting well enough to leave here and going out to society at large, and then being rejected, sidelined, shunned, turned down for participation as a member of society in work and social life?”
It put those relatives to shame.
I wish more people in modern life (or the ones I’ve observed behaving badly here) were more aware of not doing unto others what they wouldn’t want done unto themselves.
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