Something I wrote in FB:
Hi John, all appearances can teach us,
but only few lend ears to suffering and the lessons in samsara,
while most people continue or choose to delude themselves with
worldly foolishness. First of all, not many people know about the
dharma, but among those that knows, many continue giving themselves
excuses for dwelling deeper into "worldly foolishness" and not
bothering to learn and practice the dharma. Of the countless
excuses, some may include foolish reasonings like "maybe I'll
practice the dharma when I get old, now earning money is more
important" (well, how do you even know if you'll live until oldage
or even to tomorrow?), or even more foolish statements like "why do
I need the dharma?" or "dharma are for monks, I'm just a lay person
and probably can't achieve much from spiritual practices", etc
etc.
First of all, we have to consider that we have undergone
countless lifetimes (as stated in the "Life is like a passing
cloud," thread) suffering birth, ageing, sickness, death, and
countless untold sufferings in the wheel of samsara. Not knowing
this truth itself is folly, and we can say majority of mankind is
foolish or short sighted. Ignorance in fact was defined by Buddha
as the ignorance of the four noble truths. i.e. Most people are not
only unaware of the circumstance of samsaric cycles of rebirth,
they actually consciously ignore the "bad things" in life like
"sickness, ageing, death", they try to block these things off their
mind with endless sensual distractions, or they reason to
themselves "I'm brave, I can deal with death, no problem" (but
nonetheless when the time comes they can't cope with the
psychological trauma and attachments and fears), or the
materialists ignorantly think "well, sickness and death will come
anyway and then we'll be gone forever, we can't do anything about
it, so why bother about spiritual practices, just enjoy life while
it lasts" (but actually, you CAN do something to overcome mental
suffering and the cycle of birth and death, i.e. practise the
dharma).
These endless sensual distractions and worldly foolishness
and trying to ignore the facts of suffering, death, etc, do not in
fact change the reality of life (and afterlife). Ignorance isn't
bliss. When suffering comes, when death, ageing, sickness, loss,
etc etc comes they suffer more because they are not prepared for
it. They are confused, attached, in deep sorrow, agony, fear,
etc.
Even if we have found the dharma, the circumstances and
importance of dharma may not have sunk in deeply. We still
consciously or subconsciously choose self-denial, denial of
suffering, denial of the circumstances we are in, ignorance or
denial of the fact of the preciousness of our human birth, denial
of the importance of dharma, or we indulge in worldly foolishness
with lots of lame excuses, procrastinations, etc.
i.e. The Buddha said that the chance of obtaining a human
life is as rare as the chance that a blind turtle which surfaces
from the bottom of the ocean once every hundred years, will surface
and his head will enter a ring that is being tossed around on the
waves of the ocean.
Just think: what is the ratio of mankind to ants and other
animals, needless to speak about other lower and higher realms of
existence?
And among mankind, how many have the opportunity to encounter
dharma and practise it for their liberation?
Since this opportunity is more rare than striking a million
dollar jackpot, are we going to let it go to waste?
I actually had a dream before that sums this up: we are in a
collapsing building that is going down by the moment, and people
ignore it and are glued to the TV regardless.
Just as Buddha says: "But whatever priests or contemplatives
who have dwelt or will dwell or are dwelling free from thirst,
their minds inwardly at peace, all have done so having realized —
as it actually is present — the origination & disappearance,
the allure, the danger, & the escape from sensual pleasures,
having abandoned sensual craving and removed sensual
fever."