We need to help others to become free, but to be able to do that, we must first free ourselves

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

(from "The Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones"):

Patrul Rinpoche:

Alas! How depressing to see the beings of this [current] degenerate age!
Alas! Can anyone trust what anyone says?
It's like living in a land of vicious man-eating demons
Think about it, and do yourself a big favor. 

Commentary of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche:

If you were to find yourself in a land of man-eating demons, you would find it hard to feel relaxed, knowing that however friendly and polite they pretended to be, they might attack and eat you up at any time. In the same way, however agreeable ordinary people may seem, you are sure to end up in trouble if you listen to the advice they give you. And if you should try to give them advice, that will only lead to trouble, too. It would be much wiser to concentrate on your own shortcomings. Numerous as they may seem to be, they cannot be permanent, and it is always possible for you to transform them. Replace negative thoughts with faith and love, ordinary gossip with prayers, pointless activities with prostrations and circumambulations, and you will be doing yourself a favor. To take monastic vows, respect your teacher, and make serious efforts in study, reflection, and meditation, working on all your defects, is to do yourself an inestimable service. Just as the application of a drop of gold can transform an entire painting, so too the application of the teachings will completely transform your mind.
To do yourself a favor in this sense does not mean to be selfish; It means that rather than perpetuating your own and others' suffering by allowing yourself to be taken in by the ways of samsara, based as they are upon deluded attachments and aversions, instead consider carefully what the best way to use your life might be. The true goal of the Bodhisattva is to free all beings from samsara, but to be able do that he must first free himself; and to free himself from samsara he first has to understand clearly what is wrong with it. As it is said: 

Whatever is born will die,
Whatever is gathered will be dispersed,
Whatever is joined together will come apart,
Whatever goes up will fall down.

Like a pit of burning coals, a nest of vipers, or a city of demons, ordinary worldly life inevitably brings tremendous suffering. Imagine 360 holes pierced in your body, each with a burning wick set in it; the terrible pain you would feel is nothing compared to the inconceivably intense suffering caused by even a single spark of the fires of a hell realm. Whatever suffering we may experience now, we should use it to remind us of compassion and love, to sweep away our evil deeds and obscurations, and to spur ourselves on as we travel the path of deliverance. We must understand the nature of samsara and see clearly that its only antidote is the practice of Dharma.