Many people believe that Buddhist practice is selfish, that we are pursuing only our own happiness.  Yet all traditions of Buddhism stress generosity, compassion for others, and doing all possible to help other beings be free from the suffering of life.

I always end meetings by dedicating our practice to all beings.  “May the goodness that comes from our practice together today benefit all those touched in any way by our lives, and radiate out from each of them to all the beings they influence, and on and on, until the goodness arising from our practice benefits all beings, throughout space and time.”

In a way, those words are unnecessary.  It’s going to happen whether or not we say anything like this, or even think about it.  Becoming mindful of our own tendency to make ourselves miserable naturally encourages compassion for others, and with any luck, for ourselves, too.  It encourages kindness, and makes us want to avoid adding to the misery already in the world.

This practice changes us, almost always for the better, in the sense that we care far more about our impact on others.  Our lives become an agent for making life a little easier for all.  Ironically, this is often the least visible – while the most potent – effect our practice has on others.  Quite possibly no one knows it happens, let alone how.  But social scientists have shown over and over that people influence each other in subtle, unspoken ways, so that a group will adopt a course of action without any verbal discussion of what to do. 

A new form of proof that we’re practicing for the whole world is now emerging.  Mindfulness is spreading through our culture like flowers in the spring.  It’s popping up in schools, sports teams, board rooms, prisons and work places.  You can pay to download it, or you can get it free at thousands of meditation groups and on my web site and on countless others.  Since I started meditating a quarter century ago, mindfulness practice has gone from obscurity to ubiquity.

This has been accomplished by people who meditate and seek to live with awareness.  A few of us have devoted our lives to making this practice available to any who want it, and letting everyone know what it is.  The vast majority who only meditate in their free time have probably made a much greater impact on the world, though, just by living the difference that this practice makes.  They may never see that they’re doing it, so I wanted to point it out.  Thanks, people.