Everything you do, and say, and think, has an impact on how you experience the world. If you can train your actions, the world will seem very different. You cause less suffering for yourself and less suffering for others as well.

"Everything you do, and say, and think, has an impact on how you experience the world. If you can train your actions in this way, the world will seem very different. You cause less suffering for yourself and less suffering for others as well. Because the stronger you are inside, the less you have to lean on other people, the less you have to impose on other people, the less you create burdens for other people.

So it’s not as if working on your mind is a selfish activity. You’re working on things that other people can’t touch. They can’t reach in. You may have had this experience: You’re with somebody who’s really suffering and yet you can’t reach into them to help them. A very strong sense of helplessness comes when you realize, “This other person is suffering in a way that I can’t touch.” You see a baby crying, and no matter what you do, the baby just keeps on crying and crying. Or you see an old person who’s demented, and you can’t reach that person. Each of us has that inner area that nobody else can reach. When you’re training the mind, you’re training that part of yourself so that it can care for itself.

You notice that phrase we had in that chant just now: “May all living beings look after themselves with ease; may I look after myself with ease.” It’s good for all people to learn how to manage this really deep, inner area of themselves. When you’ve mastered that, then there’s really no suffering deep down inside. And when there’s no suffering deep down inside, you’re not a burden to yourself. You’re not a burden to other people.

This is why the meditation is a gift. You’re taking care of the area where you really are responsible. That’s another one of the Buddha’s basic definitions of wisdom: that you take care of the area that you really are responsible for and you don’t drop that to go meddling into other people’s affairs or into things where you’re not really responsible. The fact that we have the ability to create either suffering or happiness inside, and the fact that we use this ability to create so much suffering: That’s our problem. That’s something that we have to work on. Once you solve that problem, you solve all the other problems you’re responsible for. Then you have energy left over to help other people — to be, at the very least, a good example for them, or to give them advice so they can work on their inner responsibilities, too."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Training Your Minds"