Cherishing Others More than Oneself , Dalai Lama

Quote on Bodhicitta, From The Dalai Lama:

 The precious awakening mind of bodhicitta, which cherishes other sentient beings more than oneself, is the pillar of the bodhisattva’s practice – the path of the great vehicle.

 

 There is no more virtuous mind than bodhicitta.  There is no more powerful mind than bodhicitta, there is no more joyous mind than bodhicitta.  To accomplish one’s own ultimate purpose, the awakening mind is supreme.  To accomplish the purpose of all other living beings there is nothing superior to bodhicitta.  The awakening mind is the unsurpassable way to accumulate merit.  To purify obstacles bodhicitta is supreme.  For protection from interferences bodhicitta is supreme.  It is the unique and all-encompassing method.  Every ordinary and supra-mundane power can be attained through bodhicitta.  Thus it is absolutely precious.

The question then is “How do we cultivate and develop this bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment?” The key, and the root, is great compassion. Compassion here refers to a state of mind that makes it utterly unbearable for us to see the suffering of other sentient beings. The way to develop this is through understanding how we feel about our own suffering. When we become conscious of our own suffering, we have a spontaneous wish to be free from it. If we are able to extend that feeling to all other beings, through realizing the common instinctive desire we all have to avoid and overcome suffering, then that state of mind is called ‘great compassion’.

All of us have the potential to develop that kind of compassion, because whenever we see people who are suffering, especially those close to us, we immediately feel empathy towards them, and witness a spontaneous response within our minds. So all we have to do is to bring that potential out, and then to develop it to become so impartial that it can include all sentient beings within its embrace, whether friend or foe.

To cultivate this great compassion within ourselves, first of all we need to develop what is called loving-kindness, a feeling of connectedness or closeness with all living creatures. This closeness and intimacy should not be confused with the kind of feeling we normally have toward our loved ones, which is tainted by attachment…ego and selfishness. On the contrary, we are seeking to develop a feeling of closeness towards other sentient beings, and affection for them, by reflecting on the fact that suffering is inherent in their very nature, on the helplessness of their situation, and on the instinctive desire they all have to overcome suffering.

The greater the force of our loving kindness towards other beings, the greater the force of our compassion. And the greater the force of our compassion, the easier it will be for us to develop a sense of responsibility for taking upon ourselves the task of working for others. The greater that sense of responsibility, the more successful we will be in generating bodhicitta, the genuine altruistic aspiration to attain buddhahood for the benefit of all.