“The best excellence is to have great altruism.”

What is the best thing that we can give to sentient beings? It is developing bodhicitta. When they praise the Buddha as a reliable guide, it is because he has the intention to benefit sentient beings, he is the teacher, and the protector. We need to start with bodhicitta and when you have a very strong bodhicitta, then you are going to look for a way to liberate yourself and others from samsara. You then search for the teachings on emptiness, which become what actually liberates the mind, and in turn teach others. By that, you become an awakened one, someone who has gone to bliss. This enables you to become the protector of sentient beings.

How does the Buddha protect us? How will we protect others when we become buddhas? The principal way is by teaching the Dharma. It all comes from that altruistic intention, that initial motivation.

That is why every morning when we wake up, we say this to ourselves, “As much as possible I am not going to harm anybody. As much as possible I am going to benefit others. I am going to generate bodhicitta and act from it as much as I can throughout the day.”

We are not Bodhisattvas yet, we are Bodhisattva-wanna-bes. As wanna-bes we train ourselves. That training is very helpful and it will affect all our actions. Throughout the day, we recall that motivation as much as we can. In the evening, we check back to see how we have done. We confess where we messed up, but rejoice in what we have done well. We dedicate the merit, and we go on. That makes a very full practisce.

Throughout your day whenever you have difficulties, if you stop and come back to seek refuge and bodhicitta to the first two things we do in the morning, at the beginning of any practice and the last two things at night, then we can really settle our minds because we are coming back to what is most important in our lives. Generating bodhicitta brings all the happiness in the world, and it is free. Nobody can take it away from us no matter where we go and no matter what situation we encounter. When we have cultivated bodhicitta in our minds, we are going to be happy wherever we are; but if we cultivate self-centeredness in our minds, we are going to be unhappy no matter where we are. So, let us go for the former.

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