Lemme thrown in my two cents here:
Recently I've come across articles about how a portion of
society (article was focused on the US) is so poor that they
essentially have too little energy ( they term it "cognitive
bandwidth") to get themselves to change their situation. There's
apparently a book out about this as well, here's a link to those
interested: http://www.amazon.com/Scarcity-Having-Little-Means-Much/dp/0805092641
.
I'm wondering if this is applicable to what most people are
expriencing: They either have this idea, or they truly have no more
mental energy left to actually practice to get enlightened, what
with this crazy hectic pace of life in the developed world.
It isn't helping that few people even know what enlightenment
means or what it's not, or that all enlightened and
unenlightened monks aren't allowed to tell people they are
enlightened so everyone's just making guesses about what
enlightened people are like.
In this world where Google is working to give you your search
results before you even finish typing so that you can
optimize your ability to get instant gratification to soothe your
tired mind from overworking everyday, I'm afraid taking time to
actually practice something that's quite vaguely described and
definitely hard to quantify to the common person might be just a
tad too much. How do you completely let go when you don't even see
anything else to grab onto? We might require some super self-help
author to help us here. Maybe the four-hour workweek guy. Imagine
that: The four-hour nirvana!
Why else is the prosperity gospel so popular? Believe in a big
kind person in heaven and you can have riches in this very life.
Wow. And for those who don't believe that, just have so much faith
that your deity of choice will come and bring you up there when
your current life ends. Or accrue so much merit that in your next
life you can strive for enlightenment easier.Then you can really
practise.
What if... that's exactly what you said in your past life?
P.S. On the topic of having realised practitioners helping out,
perhaps internet forums and facebook groups will have to do for
now. Although I was thinking of suggesting this to my buddhism
organisation (I'm sure there will be some adequately realized
people when your group is 3000 strong) how we are actuall going to
get a support group up and going just boggles my mind.
