Volume
Vol. 6, The Alchemy of Happiness
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The Three Laws
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1. Reciprocity
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Vol. 6, The Alchemy of Happiness
The Three Laws
1. Reciprocity
The first degree is the law of reciprocity. It is in this degree that one learns the meaning of justice. The law of reciprocity is to give and to take sympathy, and all that sympathy can give and take. It is according to this law that the religion and the laws of the state and of the community are made. The idea of this law is that you may not take from me more than you could give me: I will not give you more than I could take from you. It is fair business: you love me, I can love you; you hate me, I can hate you. And according to this law if a person has not learned the just measure of give and take, he has not practised justice. He may be innocent, he may be loving, but he has no common sense, he is not practical.
The danger in this law is that a person may value most what he himself does and may diminish the value of what is done by another. But the one who gives more than he takes is progressing towards the next grade.
It is easy for us to say that this is a very hard and fast law. But at the same time it is the most difficult thing to live in this world and to avoid it. One must ask a practical man, a man with common sense, if it is possible to live in this world and not to observe this law of give and take. If the people of the world did no better than keep this law properly there would be much less trouble in this world. It is no use thinking that people will become saints or sages or great beings; if they became just it would already be something.
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