When you start on the Bodhisattva path, you want to have the identity of one who wants to be of service to whoever is in front of you at that very moment. It is not an identity like a career that we can say, “I am a this. I am a that.” You work certain hours and then after you come home from work, you are different and do not use those skills or talents or have that identity. Rather, when practising on the Bodhisattva path, that “identity” of being of benefit in whatever situation we are in, to whomever we are with, is something that is ongoing, and it assumes different ways at different times.

Sometimes the benefit we show is smiling at somebody, sometimes it is by working on a particular project, sometimes it is by writing something, and sometimes it is by talking with somebody. It is developing a sensitivity of how to be of benefit and then using that in whatever situation arises. That becomes our new “identity” or “career”. It is not something that is only eight hours a day. We want to practise in such a way that it automatically becomes who we are, how we engage and relate to every situation that we are in. Of course, this takes a great deal of training over years. But it provides us with skills to be in this world and wisdom on how to use the variety of skills that we have as human beings.

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