Becoming Enlightened

by Dalai Lama XIV

Now that you have a strong resolve to help others, when you analyze whether you have the capacity to actually help others, you realize that in order to be effective you must attain your own perfection in body, speech, and mind. This is accomplished by achieving the enlightenment of a Buddha so that you can thoroughly know others’ dispositions and also know what techniques to teach them. You must become enlightened in order to most effectively benefit others. When this double aspiration (to help others and to attain your own enlightenment in order to be of highest service) becomes as strong outside of meditation as it is in meditation, you have generated the altruistic intention to become enlightened, and have become a Bodhisattva (a hero intending to achieve enlightenment).