Self-cherishing 2

Garchen Rinpoche taught about self-cherishing here in San Francisco in 2001. To paraphrase, he said all our problems stem from self-cherishing instead of cherishing all sentient beings. It made me curious and I began an observation of the truth of this statement. After almost ten years of intermittent contemplation on the subject of self-cherishing and its negative connotation, I cannot find even an instance where this is not true. Even on a large worldly scale such an international political opinion, this is the case. When a government does an injustice, it is still an injustice in eyes and I become aroused and even angry that this government is doing something I don't want it to do. We can all relate to that. So, how do I give up self-cherishing in this instance? I have to look at the impermanent nature of all things. I have to modify my behavior to cherish all sentient beings first in everything I do. In my case, this is a full time task. I look to my teacher, how does he do it? He looks at all beings with unconditional love. He is not forming an opinion of dislike and understands that through our karma (or causes and conditions) the labels of good and bad, virtuous and non-virtuous, arise interdependently and have no inherent (independent or separate) existence. My teacher's purpose is to guide sentient beings through the torment of their ignorance to the light of wisdom and compassion. This not something I cannot do. I can. I must think of Garchen Rinpoche, be vigilant in my thoughts and behaviors, to focus on patience, generosity, integrity, and meditate on these. This will build the foundation in me to renounce self-cherishing and allow everything to be as it is without labels and judgments. This is cessation and the nature of mind as such in my opinion.