Practicing for the benefit of all beings

[u/rockwithtrees]

Every tradition has a version of this aspiration. Though I see the benefits of imaginatively extending the circle of benefitted of my liberation, I often find it kind of abstract and a bit hard to relate to. Do you use this kind of intention in your practice, and how do you make it meaningful for you?

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[u/Fishy_soup]

Well for one, we intrinsically want to help others. It's part of our biological imperative. We want the world to be a better place for others (and ourselves), and helping others gives us great joy.

Furthermore, for me at least, these intentions also guide us towards realization of emptiness/non-self. In a very real way, there is no separation between individuals and all other beings, and all of us are the same being. In another real way, we are individuals. Reality transcends both (that Zen poem about mountains being mountains and rivers being rivers). Furthermore, one act of kindness, to yourself or to others, ripples outwards, affecting the world, multiplying.

People who've had near-death experiences will frequently say it made them realize that hurting others is the same as hurting yourself, and vice versa. Same for helping others and yourself.

Cultivating compassion and love for others is an integral part of the path, in Theravada or Mahayana (and indeed in any serious spiritual tradition). Whichever perspective on "benefiting all beings" works for you at a given time is good.

[u/Positive_Guarantee20]

If you're inclined in this direction — And I would argue it's the sanest inclination! — consider the bodhisattva path, and particularly more modern lineages that integrate activism,.humanitarianism, etc with sincere spiritual practice.

Everyone wants this and... " All things are done for the sake of self". You have to really see your liberation is bound up with others to take this path to the fullest.

[u/EntropyFocus]

The path doesn't consist just of meditation.

All parts of the noble eightfold path are dimensions of development that can be followed to extreme depths if not infinitely. Most parts of the eightfold path are relational, so the connection to others yes even to all beings is much less abstract.

I'll give just one arbitrary example, you can find many more if you look for it:

Right livelihood can go far beyond not personally killing animals. How much CO2 emissions does your lifestyle produce? This will affect every living being on the planet, even those not born yet.

Keep in mind that the eightfold path are not precepts or duties that can be perfected. Even if your lifestyle doesn't emit any CO2, you could strive to live in a way that binds CO2 or helps the world in any other manner.

"There is no end to what a living world will demand of you." - Octavia E. Butler

[u/XanthippesRevenge]

On some level, every sentient being is suffering the same terrible pain and sadness that I experienced each day prior to awakening. It was horrible to go through that for 3 decades and I have great empathy and compassion for anyone who is in my former shoes. So it’s pretty easy for me.

But cultivating empathy takes time. Might be easier to start with practicing for the benefit of close loved ones and branch out from there.

[u/No_Top_8093 → u/XanthippesRevenge]

bodhi svaha 🙏🏼✨

[u/Ordinary-Lobster-710]

Im mostly influenced by the therevada tradition that doesn't have such a strong bodhisattva inclination. the issue with the world is that we don't know when it began or when it ends. if it goes on forever, or not. and it doesn't seem possible to benefit all beings, and besides that is a very big ask. My practice is about lessening my own suffering. and since I am part of the universe, then the suffering of the universe goes down. It also is probably beneficial to those around me. I think the idea is that the desire to free all beings from suffering is good and fine because it increases one's own compassion for all beings, but it's not a desire that is mean to literally be true. The goal of buddhism is, there is suffering. follow the 8 fold path and you will end samsara and suffering. and then it's clear what actually is the experience after you die as someone who ended samsara.

[u/No_Top_8093 → u/Ordinary-Lobster-710]

the irony of theravada is that Buddha was a shining example of the bodhisattva tradition

[u/duffstoic]

If "all beings" is too big, try imagining your practice benefiting the specific people in your life, like being calmer and more kind to people around you when they are struggling.

[u/Shakyor → u/duffstoic]

Love your content and I you have influenced my practice numerous times. 

I am a little unsure about this specific advice . I totally see where you are coming from and it certainly good. 

My understanding within the buddhist context is that the bodhisvatta path uses compassion primarily as a way of relinquishing self-cherishing. Which is a powerful way to destroy the self in the context of liberation. While buddhismn certainly has paths and roles based on conventional morality, they are usually not based liberation but merit making. Which is just another way of saying good karma, which is just another way of saying improving your experience of samsara - strengthening the self. So it might not fit the goals of the audience of the sub. 

Its the same when people advice doing metta meditation on stuff like gratitude. It is well intentioned, but misses a central point about the brahmaviharas. They are non-personal, i.e. non-dualistic emotions. 

[u/duffstoic → u/Shakyor]

Glad my previous content has been helpful to you!

My personal take, and feel free to disagree, is that there is no self to destroy. Being a martyr is therefore a kind of reifying of the self. Over-giving and never thinking of one’s self is weirdly a kind of selfishness too, because it involves seeing one’s self as the only being as not worthy of kindness. The bodhisattva path is a beautiful thing, and some people historically have taken it further than I personally think is necessary by becoming martyrs.

In terms of my previous comment, the OP was saying “all beings” was too vague for them, so I suggested something more specific to start with, ideally to go from specific to general, as metta practice often does.

Yes, the brahmaviharas are about universal love, not specific love for the individuals in your life. Absolutely. And, if your practice isn’t beneficial for people around you, maybe you have missed the point. I think it’s about the universal meeting the particular. But just my point of view.

[u/Shakyor → u/duffstoic]

Oh I 100% agree with everything you said.

I honestly think the mahayana teachings are lot more complicated to understand and execute correctly. Also the practices are alot more intricate (not harder, better or deeper - but noting is really hard to "do wrong") than Theravada, which is kind off the point. I do think that there are problems with the narratives around gurus, secrecy and extensive preperation stages. But I also think its problematic to sort off assume that it is all superstitous nonsense and to think one can just do all the practices with all these warning. (I suspect you agree, please dont understand this as me interprating your opinion.)

On this note, the whole martyr aspect of the bodhisvatta is something I think we bring from our western cultural background and I 100% agree with you that both the allure and execution of this approach to the bodhisattva path will likely result in an increase of the self. There can still be spiritual benefits, but probably more in line with the spiritual goals of christianity or even hinduismn.

The dalai lama has said that he finds it really iritating that there is no word in western languages for having compassion with your self. A common way to prepare for bodhicitta is lojong, or mind training, where you consider different slogens. And while they have slogans such as:

"Victory to others,
defeat to myself"

This is paired with:

"Gain is loss,
Loss is gain."

And:

"Remember to start with taking your own suffering and giving yourself happiness".

In fact with the practice of tonglen, traditionally there is great emphasis and first spending a considerable time just breathing in your own suffering and breathing out happiness towards yourself. In the same manner a tibetan lama warned as considering yourself noble as one of the greatest hinderances, asking:

"You are doing these practices, to free yourself from the suffering of your self obsessed karma. In what way exactly are you noble?"

So I do think the actualy practice is quite well covered around a reasonable goal and as always in buddhismn starts love with loving yourself. You yourself is obviously included in all sentient beings from their perspective.

Also as I said, at advanced stages, where you take the perspective of being a series of mind moments with no discernable beginning or end, always being in the "eternal now", and everything being an imputation of your own mind, a phantom, nothing but a dream - the practice quite cleverly evolves in viewing all your future mind moments of suffering, as rebirths of seperate sentient beings into hell realms as such - causing you to use the eternal present moment to save your negative karma (regretable past actions leading to future suffering) and take care of your future self (acting in a way to avoid rebirth into suffering states of mind).

This is all of course a bit of a simplification, but paints a reasonable picture I guess.

I do like Ken McLeods notion of different paths using different energy "engines" to generate penetrating insight:

Theravada using Equanimity, aka enduring to the space of peace.

Metta based practices of Theravada, Love based practices such as Christianity or Faith based practices such as Vajrayana as ways to ecstaticly open to Experience as an engine.

And Bodhisattva or other "serving" based approaches using Compassion to open up to difficult experience.

[u/duffstoic → u/Shakyor]

Good stuff! Yes, lots of subtleties in these teachings. One of my wife's teachers taught Tonglen as first requiring a recognition of emptiness or even rigpa, and then you breathe in the suffering and exhale it dissolves into emptiness or awake awareness. Without that it can be just an exercise in making one's self miserable, which is clearly not the point! Mahayana teachings I agree are pretty complex sometimes, but rich with depth.

[u/CestlaADHD]

To make this meaningful to me I had to learn to include myself in ‘all beings’. 

As in for me the amount that I can unconditionally accept (and therefore love) what is in ME is the extent that I can offer unconditional love and acceptance to others. 

So from my view, if you are a bundle of coping mechanisms and triggers, you can’t benefit other people.  You have to work through your own shite and that is imo the best thing you can do to help others*. It’s like you learn to hold space for yourself, and that allows you to hold space for others. 

*IFS therapy, any somatic trauma work, mindfulness, healthy personal boundaries all really help here. 

Trying to develop compassion by compassionate actions is sometimes like putting the cart before the horse. Compassion and practicing for the benefit of all beings naturally arises as your practice (and insights) deepen.

That being said charitable work or doing something of benefit to others is wonderful, just don’t overlook yourself in the process.  Looking after yourself as in looking after your own needs is also unconditional love. 

So don’t overlook yourself in this. Obviously this is what happened to me, but it is a very very common misinterpretation in Buddhism. And I hate to say it but this often happens to women practicing or disabled or minority groups. Not always, but often these types of groups already put others first and the balance is off in the other direction. 

It’s very nuanced though! 

[u/Future_Automaton]

If you allow yourself to have wholesome (or effortless) intentions during your sit, then it will be to the benefit of all sentient beings. No extra practice is required.

[u/Shakyor]

So my practice is based around this,  it is very powerful for alot of reasons such as that it is a relate able motivation that is easy to get behind and much more compatible with the conventional western life that hardcore renunciation. 

However, the reason it works is very different to my understanding. There is conventional bodhicitta  - Compassion and is mainly about destroying self-cherishing. This will deconstruct a large part of the self. 

To dumb things down to the level of maybe not being useful, later on the bodhisattva path comes ultimate bodhicitta and a basic analogy is that you now use compassion to dismantle various parts of your personality, for example hangry you, as sentient beings trapped im suffering - thus also dismantling identity view. 

In general whereas theravada renunciates all negative karmic activity and looking at everything as "this is not me" - mahayana and vajrayana actively introduce behaviour that will destroy the sense of self. So again probably too simple, but instead of analyzing no self you are demonstrating no self.