The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso given at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Ngondro:
Motherly sentient beings are spread throughout this universe. As much as space has expanded, so sentient beings are extended throughout space. We cannot perceive the edge of space, and in the same way, we cannot perceive the numbers of sentient beings. Visualize the countless sentient beings that exist in this universe, and in the thousands and millions of other universes, which are also filled up with thousands and millions, countless, sentient beings. Visualize and understand all sentient beings as one’s mother. And taking them as one’s mother, then generate compassion, realizing and experiencing the suffering of all sentient beings—all the different kinds of suffering, all the different kinds of obstacles, all the miserable lives. Experience all these for oneself. If one really tries to experience that, there is no way that one cannot generate compassion. You must generate compassion for all motherly sentient beings. When you have compassion, then you really want to know how to help all these sentient beings. “How can I benefit these sentient beings? I need some kind of energy, some kind of power. I need all the qualities whereby I can benefit all sentient beings so that they can be liberated from cyclic existence, from the suffering of samsara.
When one has this strong desire to benefit sentient beings, then there is a way, a possibility, that one can give rise to the Bodhicitta, or the Awakening Mind. One thinks, “Now I need to get some kind of realization. I really need some kind of power or energy or noble qualities or omniscient mind. I really need to get enlightenment. Otherwise how can I benefit all these sentient beings? How can I help them? How can I liberate them from cyclic existence?”
