(9.76) (Other schools) “If living beings do not truly exist, who will gain the results of meditating on compassion?”
It is true that the cause, meditation on compassion, and the result, Buddhahood, do not truly exist; but they do exist nominally.
Thus, so that the suffering of all living beings may be completely pacified,
We should not reject the nominally existent compassion which leads to that result.

For us when we hear that they are dreamlike beings or that they are nominally existent and so forth it robs some of the thunder. We think therefore it does not matter. The extent to which we think this comes from are having fallen into the extreme of nothingness thinking that if things do not exist inherently then that means they do not exist at all.

All of the problems that arise with these sorts of doubts come from grasping at believing there is some part of reality that exists and some part of reality that does not exist. We hear the Prasangikas say that things do not exist inherently and even if we accept that, we then say OK all of those things do not exist, but there is something that does exist that is reality that I should worry about. But if everything is equally empty then this problem goes away. Our dreamlike self engages in dreamlike actions which create a dreamlike enlightenment to help dreamlike sentient beings. Everything is the same nature of a dream. It all functions, it all makes sense, it all has a point in the context of emptiness.

And finally:

(9.77) It is suffering and its causes that need to be abandoned,
And it is the ignorance of self-grasping that causes delusions and suffering to increase.
(Other schools) “But there is no way to abandon self-grasping so that it will never recur.”
On the contrary, meditation on selflessness, or emptiness, is the supreme method for accomplishing this.

In this world, more and more people are desperate to find solutions to their problems.  There are many samsaric methods for finding release from suffering, but they are all temporary and the problems come back, so they are not real solutions.  All the sufferings come back because we do not address the root cause of our suffering, our identifying with contaminated aggregates.  Only when people realize that none of these things are truly existent does sickness or any kind of suffering come to an end. Why?  Because we cease identifying with that which has problems.  In fact, we cease to appear such things in the first place.

It is our responsibility as Kadampas to provide the real solution, actual methods. It is our responsibility now to teach emptiness, the actual method to remove suffering from this world.  We need to gain knowledge of emptiness and experience of emptiness.  It is particularly important that we know how to teach emptiness, isn’t it?   We can start by helping people realize that their opinion of things, and therefore their experience of things, depends on their mind.  They have a choice what opinions they have of things.   Help people view their situations differently, as opportunities to improve themselves as people.  Even ordinary people can understand that your world is what you make of it.  Help them realize this and that they have choice.  Choice is the very essence of emptiness.

One thing that we are all learning is that we have to stop protecting ourself by self-cherishing means, because it doesn’t work. On the surface, self-cherishing seems to protect us, but through examination we know it just brings us more suffering.  Yet we keep being duped, don’t we?  We must rely upon wisdom in order to protect ourselves from suffering and to bring us happiness.  But this means choosing to listen to and follow our wisdom, which is not always easy because of strong habits and we think it is no big deal.  Geshe-la says we actually need to just forget about the object of our self-cherishing, more simply, forget about ourself.  Just work for others, which will include taking care of this instrument that we normally refer to as our self so we can help them more.

We also need to let go of the person we think we are.  So often we grasp at who we are, and then think we cannot change.   We need to give the spiritual guide a chance to change us, and he can only do this if we let go of our grasping at who we ‘are.’  We need to actively try to change ourselves – who wants to remain who we are, we need to aspire to be better people.  We need to want to leave our ordinary self completely behind.  This is easier for people who get ordained, but internally we need to do the same thing.  When you let go of self, and you just cherish others, wonderful changes will naturally take place.  A bodhisattva becomes whatever she is needed to be.  Such flexibility.

But to let go of our ordinary self and allow change to take place, we need to realize that our self-cherishing is not protecting us, but keeping us imprisoned.  Then, we will be able to break free.