Are we learning Buddhism to benefit ourselves? 

Or others? 

The response depends on how far along we are on the path.

Let’s say it’s early days. We’re just getting a handle on rebirth and all those different paths including the hells and hungry ghosts. Then there’s causality, pervasive and timeless. What karmas have we sown, we wonder. We also realize that suffering could be just one step away, lurking behind current happiness.

It should come then as no surprise that, at first, we learn Buddhism to benefit ourselves. Who wouldn’t want to end their suffering and improve their future lifetimes! As time passes, and with further cultivation and learning, we begin to look anew at those vows of helping others that we read of. Yes, it’s not only about helping ourselves! We help ourselves so that we can help others. That’s our ultimate goal. And if we don’t know how to help ourselves we certainly won’t be able to help others.

So, don’t worry. Yes, we start with “ourselves.”

In time, we graduate to “others.”