We go about our lives sensing things and assessing relevance, importance and benefit. In order to do this, unfortunately, there has to be something against which to measure stimulus. Even more unfortunately, for most of us, this something is ourselves. Buddhist teachings talk about a way to circumvent this emphasis on ourselves which is obviously reinforced each moment we are aware of things. These teachings talk about measuring import without self reference. Such a thing is not easy, given our conditioning. So these teachings suggest that we look at benefit for all sentient beings, without exception.
We could do this in graded steps. We might begin with wishing freedom from suffering for ourselves and for those we love. But we do not stop there. We extend this wish to those whom we do not know and then to those we dislike or hate. Generating goodwill like this is certainly not easy, so the Buddhist pantheon discusses beings that have reached a state of complete and unconditional benevolence. We can look upon these beings as a wellspring of inspiration and the ground for shifting our motivations. These beings are said to consider all beings solely with the desire to enable them to remove suffering.
Perhaps our realist leanings might prevent us from believing in the existence of such beings. However, if we can appreciate the difficulty in generating kindness of this order, developing devotion towards such a selfless state becomes easier.