If you don’t have compassion, all you have is a self-centered mind. Due to that, anger, jealousy, desire and other such emotional thoughts arise. These negative thoughts then make you harm other sentient beings directly or indirectly, from life to life. You, one person with a negative attitude, inflict harm on all sentient beings. That’s very dangerous. By comparison, even if all sentient beings get angry at, harm or even kill you, that’s nothing. You are just one person; your importance is nothing. You are just one living being.
Therefore, it is essential, extremely important, that you, this one person, change your negative attitude and transform your mind into compassion, bodhicitta, in this life, immediately—now. Why? Because this life gives you every opportunity to do so. From beginningless rebirths up to now, you have not changed your attitude of self-cherishing—the source of all the problems and suffering that you yourself experience, and the source of your giving many problems and much harm to numberless other living beings—into the attitude of cherishing and benefiting others—the source of all peace and happiness for both yourself and numberless other living beings. You have not changed your ego, your selfcentered mind, the thought of seeking happiness for only yourself, into the loving compassionate thought of bodhicitta. In this life, however, you can.
From your own side you have received the precious human body that has eight freedoms and ten richnesses. Furthermore, you have met not only a qualified virtuous friend who shows you virtue—the unmistaken cause of the happiness of future lives and the unmistaken path to liberation, freedom forever from samsara—but you have also met a qualified Mahayana virtuous friend, who reveals the complete, unmistaken path to full enlightenment, the non-abiding sorrowless state. You have met not only Buddhadharma but the Mahayana teaching. Even if you haven’t met such a teacher yet, you have every opportunity to do so. Especially now, you have the opportunity of meeting the virtuous friend, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is proven by historical quotations of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha to be the Buddha of Compassion. This is like a dream come true; it is so difficult to express.
If you, one living being, develop compassion in your heart, you no longer give harm to numberless other living beings. You stop harming others. The absence of harm that your compassion brings numberless other sentient beings is peace and happiness. That is what they receive from you.
Not only that. As well as not receiving harm from you, others also receive benefit. Out of compassion, you help them. Thus, numberless other sentient beings receive much peace and happiness from you. All that is in your hands, because it is completely up to what you do with your own mind—whether you generate compassion for others or whether you don’t. Numberless other sentient beings receiving harm or peace and happiness all depends on what you do with your own mind. It’s all up to you. Therefore, each one of us here has complete responsibility for the peace and happiness of every single sentient being. Each of us has universal responsibility.
Therefore, twenty-four hours a day, from morning till night, as much as you can, you should put all your effort into generating the thought of universal responsibility: ‘‘I’m responsible for the peace and happiness of numberless other living beings; the purpose of my life is to bring happiness to other sentient beings.’’ Get up in the morning with this attitude; get dressed with this attitude, this feeling of responsibility: ‘‘I’m responsible for all sentient beings’ happiness; their peace and happiness is up to me.’’ Know that this truly is the meaning of your life. Get dressed with this attitude, bathe with this attitude, eat breakfast with this attitude, go to work with this attitude.