Do not compare one person to another . . . (Click image for video)

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.

Sincerity is a mind without wandering thoughts. (Click image for video)

View this world as a hotel 

where we are temporary guests. 

We’ve been advised to view the world as a hotel that we are visiting for a mere few days.

Since our time here is so brief, there’s no point in getting attached to the place. It’s not our home; it doesn’t belong to us. During our visit, we treat the facilities with respect—we keep our rooms clean, use only what we need, don’t bother the other guests, and make sure we leave everything in as good a condition as when we got here, or even better.

Since we’re just visiting, we won’t be taking anything with us because whatever we encounter will remain behind when we leave. If one of the other visitors needs help, we do whatever we can. But we don’t get attached. And we don’t have expectations for the lives of those we help because, being such short-term visitors, we have little time to make much of an impact.

Our plan is that in the future, once we get to our real home, we’ll come back often to truly help all those who are still staying at this hotel.