Difficult to teach, 

we are like children ignoring a parent’s advice. 

With infinite patience and compassion, and in fulfillment of their vows to help all beings, Buddhas and bodhisattvas await the opportunity to help us. So we wonder, why don’t they just come?

Okay, let’s say they do. If they come to us looking like a Buddha, we’d be too in awe to listen to them. After we finally stop gaping and actually pay attention to what they teach about suffering and its end, what then? Very likely, we’d still be too attached to our current existence to let it all go. We’ll make excuses. To practice the teachings to end our suffering—that’s a big leap! We’re just ordinary people.

And what if they came in the guise of an ordinary person?

We’d just waive off their advice—hey, they don’t look like Buddhas. Like children, we’ll be too self-absorbed to listen to advice, too stubborn to ask for help, too self-indulgent to want to change.

Little wonder that it’s so difficult for awakened beings to come to help us.