self benefit and benefiting others　自利利他 The goal of bodhisattva practice is the enlightenment of oneself, called self-benefit, as well as the enlightenment of all other beings, called benefiting others. That persons seek enlightenment for themselves is taken for granted; thus what is crucial is that all others are included in their enlightenment process.
　In Pure Land Buddhism the bodhisattva practice par excellence is ascribed to Dharmākara Bodhisattva, who accomplished the dual goal of benefiting self and others. The Primal Vow, five kalpas of meditative discipline and practice, and attainment of supreme enlightenment were all for his self-benefit. But this supreme enlightenment is contingent upon the birth of all beings in the Pure Land. This means that if sentient beings are unable to attain enlightenment, then Dharmākara’s enlightenment remains incomplete. Here lies the absolute necessity of benefiting others in the enlightenment process.
　This dual goal, however, involves not only Dharmākara Bodhisattva but persons who live the nembutsu, for in shinjin they have received completely Amida’s virtues of self-benefit and benefiting others, which means that automatically they combine the wish to attain enlightenment and the wish to benefit sentient beings. Shinran expresses this concisely when he says, “True and real shinjin is the aspiration for Buddhahood. The aspiration for Buddhahood is the aspiration to save all beings (Passages on the Pure Land Way).”
　Shinran also uses “self-benefit” to refer to self-power, and “benefiting others” to Other Power. The following quotations underscore the working of Other Power as the benefiting of others: “Pure shinjin is the profound and vast shinjin, which is Amida’s benefiting others” and “The realization I speak of is the wondrous fruit that is perfect in benefiting others (ibid.).”