This is from Kyabje HH DalaiLama.
The Buddha’s activities- from the beginning of his cultivating the wish to help others to the accumulating of merit and his eventual achievement of enlightenment- were ALL done for the sake of other sentient beings.
The welfare of other sentient beings is classified into two types: Temporary welfare, which is the achievement of favorable rebirth, and ultimate welfare, which is the achievement of liberation and the omniscient state. All the teachings associated with the achievement of favorable rebirth in the future are said to belong to the category of small scope.
When talk of our ultimate aim, it is of two types. Liberation from suffering and omniscience. All the teachings related to the practice of achieving personal Liberation are teachings of the middle scope. For this purpose practioners of middle scope engage in the practice of ETHICS, concentration and wisdom and then ELIMINATE the delusions and achieve liberation from suffering and rebirth.
All the teachings that outline the techniques for achieving the omniscience of Buddhahood, including both the Sutra AND Tantra vehicle are teachings related to practioners of great scope. A being of great scope is someone whose mind is motivated by great compassion for all other sentient beings and who wishes to achieve enlightenment FOR THEIR SAKE.
Thus one group can think only of a future life; these are people of little scope. People in the second group are not preoccupied with the concerns of the future life alone but are able to think of something more distant, liberation from rebirth; these are beings of the middle scope. Yet other people are not concerned only with their own welfare but are more courageous. They are concerned with the welfare also of other sentient beings, and THESE are the beings of GREAT scope.
From Kyabje His Holiness the Dalai Lama, extracted from “The WAY TO FREEDOM.
OM VAJRASATVA HUNG! OM MANI PEDME HUNG!
