in mahāyāna buddhism it is said that enlightment should be reached for the benefit of all sentient beings.
someone who seeks enlightment for the benefit of all sentient beings is called bodhisattva.
my question is: how can the enlightment of a single person bring benefit to all sentient being?
if a person were enlightened, all other sentient beings may still be un-enlightened.
i came across this text [1]:
Be certain that all that appears is naturally manifest [in the mind],
Like the images in a mirror which [also] appear naturally.
[…]
There are no phenomena extraneous to those that originate from the mind.
so i asked myself: if a person has an illness, let’s say a tumor, is that caused by that person’s mind?
how does buddhism explain illness?
our experience of the world, of the body, of the illness, are inseparable from the mental processes through which we perceive and interpret them.