On one occasion, the Buddha and his attendant Ananda visited a monastery and discovered a sick monk lying uncared for in his own excrement and urine. They fetched some water, washed the monk, lifted him up, and settled him on a bed. Then Gotama berated the other monks in the community for not caring for their fellow. "When you have neither father nor mother to care for you," he said, "you need to care for one another. Whoever would tend to me, should tend to the sick." In identifying himself with those in pain, he affirmed that the key to awakening lies in one's embrace of and response to the suffering of others.
---Stephen Batchelor---
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