以己度人 means to judge others by oneself. 你尚不能度己，又怎能度人？ You can't even judge/gauge/understand yourself, how can you possibly understand (the motives of) others? “不知度人，何以度己。” If (one) can't understand others, how can (one) understand oneself? Not sure if this is 100% accurate though. Also, this doesn't seem like something to practise reading as a beginner.
this is some kind of Buddhism lines, It's recommended for you do drop the whole novel if this kind of lines recurring frequently if you don't have strong Chinese cultural background. Or at least look for a native TLC. 你尚不能度己，又怎能度人？ 你和尚不能度己，又怎能度人？ 度人度己。不知度人，何以度己。 不知怎么度别人，如何度自己。 Above google take it literally..... I know the the meaning of it, but it's hard to explain it in English, I didn't learn religion sturdy... Edit: 自度度人 restrain your self, restrain others. meaning should be if you can't restrain your self, how can you teach others self restrain. Edit: it's like monks have to restrain them self from meat, alcohol, sex, killing and many other stuff. And only then they can pass down the text to others. Edit: 自度 is some thing like self control, self restrain but a higher level or some thing
I think it is something more about religious salvation. In religion, salvation is the saving of the soul from sin and its consequences. It may also be called "deliverance" or "redemption" from sin and its effects. Therefore "save" should be the correct term. Or something like that.
I don't know about "save", Buddhism in my opinion was never like that, my family are mostly Taoist (so I know no gods) with some christian and Buddhist ( my great grand mother/ my mother's grandmother is one). she was around when I was really really young, and thats really far back memories. But Buddhist should have nothing like how you can be saved, how there are a lots of sins. it's fundamentally different from western religion. it's more like don't eat meat, they are a life too. don't kill, as you don't want others to kill you too. in future you might be a pig that is a livestock do you want to be eaten? some thing along the lines like that.
Can you post the sentence before and after as well? It'll make determining what's said much easier. Though I think nono's the closest one, assuming that the one speaking is a monk (in training). They often liken life's trials and tribulations to a sea, and to reach eternal paradise you'll have to overcome them, or "cross over to the other side" quite literally. The phrases really should mean, someone said to him accusingly, "If you can't even help yourself, how can you hope to help others?" and to which the wise master replied proverbially, "If you can't even help others, how can you hope to help yourself?" Indeed, like xiazixin said, the Buddhist believes that all that are trapped in the cycles of reincarnations (you and me and everyone else) are riddled with sin, and to do good in this life means that we get closer to the eternal paradise in our next life, though it's only a little bit, and hopefully the accumulated efforts throughout the countless lives that you lived will one day allow you to transcend the cycles of reincarnation (of pain and suffering). Though the concept of salvation IS indeed present in Buddhism as well, through Buddha Amitābha, who provided a way/method to help the masses to transcend the cycles of reincarnation, instead of leaving them to wonder aimlessly suffering through eternal reincarnation, and that's why almost all Buddhists chant his name almost all the time, and aspire to help others (which is to do good, which really means to help themselves at the same time). Though, since I'm also not a Buddhist myself, take what I said with a grain of salt. It's just what a respected elder told me once, coupled with a little of my understanding of things (i.e. googling and wikipediaing), there's no way I can guarantee that it's true. @@