汎

愛

眾

，

而

親

仁

fan

ai

zhong

er

qin

ren

普遍地

愛護

眾生

而且

親近

仁德的人

universally

cherish

living beings

and

draw near

humane and virtuous one

要博愛眾生，並且親近仁者。
Be friendly and kind to all, draw near to people who are good.

為什麼要博愛眾生？自己管好不就夠了？俗語說﹕「上天有好生之德。」我們自己想要活得好，卻不教別人或其他生類也能活得好，這就是自私！

Why should we cherish all living beings? Why not just look after ourselves? There is a saying: "Heaven has the virtue of cherishing life." If we think only of our own well-being, but fail to consider the well-being of other people and other living beings,: then we are being selfish.

「天道無私」，這不是大自然的道理；大自然的道理是天生萬物，都有其生存的權利，就連一株小花草，也要在寒天過後，掙扎出一朵燦爛的小花，榮耀自己的生命，我們怎忍得輕易摧折了它？大家一起生存在天覆罩、地承運的同樣空間裡，便是百千劫修來的緣分；不能珍惜這際遇的緣分，卻總要互相傷害侵凌，豈不是可惜又可嘆？誰都是人生父母養的，難道就只許我們有父母的愛護，且得以孝敬父母，卻剝奪其他生類的這份權利？

 "The Way of Heaven is unselfish." Nature allows the myriad things to. grow naturally; each has its right to survive. Even a small plant will struggle through the winter so that it can produce a resplendent flower in the spring: how could we mercilessly destroy it? The affinities that have brought us together here on this earth were developed through hundreds of thousands of eons. Isn't it a pity that rather than cherishing these affinities, we always want to hurt and humiliate each other instead? All beings were born from and raised by their parents. Are we the only ones who get to receive our parents' loving care and to show respect to our parents? Can we take away the right of other beings to do the same for their parents?          

所以「孝悌謹信」的私德具備了還不夠，我們還得有公德心，慈愛施惠他人，並及於異類的眾生，這便是「仁民愛物」。而為了避免自己不能「諸惡莫作，眾善奉行」，我們還得時時親近善知識，請他們教導我們行善，勸誡我們除惡。所以親近仁者，是很必要的；而所謂「親近」，是說﹕不怕羞，不畏難；不管百里千里也要求去，不是坐在家中，等著善知識上門教你來的。

Therefore, it is not enough to respect our own parents and elders and to be careful and trustworthy in our own conduct. We must also be kind and friendly to other people and other beings. That is true humaneness. If we wish to refrain from all evil and practice all good, we should constantly draw near to good teachers and ask them to teach us how to conduct ourselves well and to get rid of our bad habits. In drawing near such teachers, we should not feel shy or embarrassed, nor should we fear difficulty. No matter how far we have to travel, we should still draw near to them, not just sit at home and wait for a good teacher to show up and teach us.