THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

-- Jesus Christ

The Golden Rule works both ways. A monk who starves and whips himself is doing to himself what he would never do unto others. A man who makes himself a nonviolent human sacrifice would never do that to another human being.

To paraphrase HS, you are not in charge, God is. If you owned yourself, you could do anything to yourself that you wanted to.

But you don't own yourself. God does. And Christ told us how we must treat ourselves and others.

Purposely causing pain to yourself or others is not an option.

Making yourself and others as happy as possible is your duty.

Another quote:

"The greatest evil is physical pain."

-- Saint Augustine

And a final quote from a somewhat lesser source:

"If suffering is good, you would benefit enormously by going to Hell."

-- Bob Whitaker