we love ourselves. The Buddha himself treated others the same as he treated his own son, Rahula. How are we to increase our compassion and caring for others? According to the Buddhist sutras, we need to put ourselves in others' positions and ask ourselves the following: If they were in our situation or if we were in theirs, what would we do? By doing this, we then can treat others with equality. If all of us were to treat one another with equality, this world would surely move closer to lasting peace? Suppose we see someone with a physical disability and assume an attitude of superiority, how can we achieve respect through equality? That could never happen. We must instead imagine that we are the one with the disability; then we could begin to cultivate the compassion needed to overcome any sense of difference between us. When we are able to see social problems as part of ourselves, naturally we will not abandon or ignore them. Instead, we will be able to treat all problems with compassion and equality. When we are truly able to imagine that the conditions of others are our own, and that all of us are truly equal, then a lasting peace will slowly but surely find its way into this world. Devadatta tried to harm the Buddha many times, but the Buddha never considered his attacks to be calamities; instead, the Buddha used them as opportunities to inspire Devadatta to reach higher levels of consciousness and caring. Angulimalika wanted to kill the Buddha, but the Buddha treated him with great compassion and kindness. In the end, Angulimalika was won over to the path of virtue himself. In the Lotus Sutra, there is a story about a burning house. By helping each other, a blind man and a man who could not walk were able to save themselves from the flames. In the
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