Bodhisattvas are beings who have vowed to help others find the Buddhist path without concern for their own personal benefit. Chan practitioners and other followers of the bodhisattva path should strive to cultivate such a selfless attitude. Those who think only of their own benefit will never attain the fruits of Buddhadharma, and will be more likely to cause undue suffering to themselves and others. Chan practice helps us to lessen self- centeredness in all its guises: greed, attachment, anger, arrogance, escapism, expectation, and so forth. When we begin to make progress in this aspect of our practice, we also begin to gain true benefit from our practice.

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 vows10 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 and cultivate bodhi-mind,11 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.

For a bodhisattva, the safest course is to constantly remind oneself of the initial aspiration to bodhi-mind. In this way, we will always think of ourselves as beginners, remain humble, and not feel pride or arrogance. Second, it reminds us that bodhi-mind is the mind of helping others while on the path to wisdom. So although we continue to diligently practice and move forward, in our minds we are always at square one, constantly generating this beginner’ s mind.

A student of mine says that at the end of a retreat, he feels like he has learned to practice for the first time. This is beginner’ s mind. He never thinks of himself as a ‘senior’ practitioner. Having a beginner’ s mind, you will not feel discouraged on the path, since it will always be something new. Those of us who have been practicing for years should realize and admit that we are still just beginning.