All tremble at force,
dear is life to all.
Likening others to oneself
kill not nor cause to kill.
Explanation: All are frightened of being hurt or any threat to one’s life. To all life is dear. Seeing that others feel the same way as oneself, equating others to oneself, refrain from harming or killing.
The Story of a Group of Six Monks (Verse 130)
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse, with reference to a group of six monks. This is linked to the previous verse.
After having exchanged blows over the incident at the Jetavana Monastery, the same two groups of monks quarrelled again over the same building. As the rule relating to physically hurting others had already been laid down by the Buddha, this particular rule was strictly observed by both groups.
However, this time one of the two groups made threatening gestures to the other group, to the extent that the latter cried out in fright. The Buddha, after hearing about this threatening attitude of the monks, introduced the disciplinary rule preventing the making of threatening gestures to each other.