Universal Responsibility by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The purpose of our life is not simply to solve our own problems, to gain happiness for ourselves. The purpose of our life is to be of use to others, to benefit other sentient beings, whether it be one or many. 

However, the real reason we're alive is to free the numberless other sentient beings from suffering and lead them to the unsurpassed happiness of full enlightenment. That is the meaning of our life. Each of us has this universal responsibility to bring the greatest happiness to all sentient beings.

How is it that we have this responsibility?

If you generate compassion in your mind, you will not harm others. Peace and happiness is the absence of harm. By not harming others, you are offering them happiness and peace. Not only that, but by having compassion, you also benefit them in a more active way. The greater your compassion, the more you help other sentient beings. 

So all this peace and happiness that others experience as a result of your compassion has come from you, depends upon you. It is in your hands, because it is up to you whether or not you generate compassion towards others. If you do not, they do not receive the peace and happiness you have to offer; if you do, they receive all this peace and happiness from you. Therefore, you have the universal responsibility of bringing peace and happiness to each and every sentient being. 

Pause here for a moment, stop reading, and meditate on the feeling of universal responsibility as I've just explained it: that if you have compassion for all living beings, each one receives great peace and happiness from you; each one receives no harm. Think, "All this peace and happiness that they experience and enjoy depends upon me". Think of the reasons for this and keep them in mind as you try to feel universal responsibility for all sentient beings' peace and happiness. 

Meditate on the thought, "I am responsible for all sentient beings' peace and happiness". 
It would be wonderful if you could practice mindfulness of this in your everyday life. Even if you cannot do many other practices—mantra recitation, sadhanas of deities, various other preliminary practices—if you can just keep in mind that the purpose of life is to bring happiness to all sentient beings and feel responsible for this, if you can maintain this attitude, remembering it again and again, you will give your life great meaning and naturally, automatically, benefit others in this way. 

If you can maintain mindfulness of universal responsibility, everything you do—walking, sitting, sleeping, working, talking, eating, whatever actions you engage in—will be transformed by this positive attitude. Every action of your body, speech and mind will immediately become service for other sentient beings. When you sleep, you sleep for others; when you eat, you eat for others; when you work, you work for others; when you talk, you are talking to benefit others, to bring them happiness. The moment your attitude changes in this way, whatever you do becomes an action that benefits others. 

An hour, a minute before you changed, you were acting out of ego and self-centeredness, and whatever you were doing was impure and not a cause of achieving enlightenment. Because you were motivated by ego, attachment ruled your mind and your actions did not become a cause for everlasting happiness, liberation from samsara, the six realms of suffering and their cause. They did not even become a cause for a good rebirth or happiness beyond this life. Since your actions were done out of ego and attachment, clinging to this life, they became only the cause of suffering. 

But as soon as you generate the thought, "I'm responsible for all sentient beings' happiness; this is what my life's about," and feel this universal responsibility, suddenly, whatever you're doing completely transforms. It becomes work for others. It becomes healthy. It becomes a pure action unstained by ego. It becomes Dharma. Your actions become Dharma; this is the best meditation you can do. 

While you are working, you are meditating. While you are studying, you are meditating. No matter what you are doing, you are meditating. There's no separation between your life and meditation; your whole life becomes your practice of meditation. 

If you can just keep your mind focused in this way, even though you cannot do many other practices, this positive attitude, the thought of benefiting others, converts everything you do into the best kind of Dharma, the best cause of happiness. Everything you do becomes a cause for happiness and enlightenment. Your entire daily life brings you closer and closer to the ultimate freedom of Buddhahood. 

If there's no compassion in your heart, what you're left with is ego, the self-centered mind. That means your entire life is dedicated to your own happiness. 

But what about others?

They also want to be happy. You're not the only one who needs happiness; others also need happiness. Therefore, when you're under the influence of ego, it's very easy to clash with others in your daily life. You can see how the self-centered mind causes problems, difficulty getting along with others, disharmony and so forth. The stronger your ego, the more problems in your life. 

Other people find it difficult to be with you. Even if you find a friend, sooner or later—as your ego generates attachment and that causes anger to arise—your ego and those other emotions will make your friend an enemy. 

As long as you act out of ego, you harm others, because your ego is intent on achieving happiness for yourself at the expense of others. Because of ego, other discriminating thoughts, such as anger and jealousy, arise. They produce negative actions, which cause you to harm other sentient beings. As you go from life to life with ego and the other emotional discriminating thoughts, you continually hurt others, and all sentient beings receive harm from the one person, you. 

But if you generate compassion, all sentient beings receive peace and happiness from the same one person, you. If all sentient beings get angry at you and harm or even kill you, you are just one person. But if that one person, you, doesn't practice compassion, the good heart, numberless other sentient beings are at risk of being harmed by you; there's the great risk that the one person, you, will harm numberless others. 

Therefore, whether other people practice compassion or not, first you should do so. Develop the good heart.