We come from many different countries of the world. We live in many different societies and environments. But the most important thing is that we think of other beings, we keep them alive and present in our minds. If we forget other sentient beings, we lose contact with the very people that we want to benefit.
We are supposed to be Mahayana practitioners. The main practice is not to give up on sentient beings. If we can let the happiness and suffering of many other people arise in our minds, then that will help us to transform ourselves, to change ourselves.
If we just think of ourselves, saying; “I am alone, I am free, or if I change myself I am afraid I will
disappear or something bad will happen to me,” if we think like this, then there is no reason to change.
But if we think about other people, if we think about their happiness and their problems and we feel a certain kind of responsibility, a concern about their welfare, then there is the possibility that we might have a strong inclination to change ourselves. Because when other people are
really suffering, then an image comes to mind of the importance of other people, the importance of so many people, and that starts to change our way of being, our way of seeing.
In our mind and in our eyes the image and experience of all these other beings becomes an important part of the basis for practice, so that our own self-interest, our own self-cherishing can become a little less.