Buddhadharma* exhorts us to practice with the welfare of others foremost in our minds. The practice of altruistic compassion is, in fact, the first of the four vows of the bodhisattva: "I vow to deliver all sentient beings." The vow to attain personal liberation, as supreme buddhahood, is the fourth and last vow. This is true Mahayana practice. From the beginning, it is important to aspire to cultivate bodhi-mind, the altruistic mind of enlightenment that seeks to deliver sentient beings from suffering. When we lapse from our vow to cultivate bodhi-mind, we should remember the true meaning of practice, and recall this initial aspiration.
---Master Sheng Yen---
*The Teaching and the Practice of Buddhism
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