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Here's something I've been thinking about. It's an observation from Lama Thubten Yeshe in his book Becoming Your Own Therapist:
"In Buddhism we're not that interest in talking about the Buddha himself. Nor was he; he wasn't interested in people believing in him, so to this day Buddhism has never encouraged its followers simply to believe in the Buddha. We have always been more interested in understanding human psychology, the nature of the mind. Thus, Buddhist practitioners always try to understand their own mental attitudes, concepts, perceptions and consciousness. Those are the things that really matter."
Studying the life of the Buddha can provide some motivation, but, ultimately, what's really important is using the teaching for self-study, understanding ourselves, our thoughts, our words, our actions. And, when those are unskillful, recognizing the fact and taking corrective action.
"In Buddhism we're not that interest in talking about the Buddha himself. Nor was he; he wasn't interested in people believing in him, so to this day Buddhism has never encouraged its followers simply to believe in the Buddha. We have always been more interested in understanding human psychology, the nature of the mind. Thus, Buddhist practitioners always try to understand their own mental attitudes, concepts, perceptions and consciousness. Those are the things that really matter."
Studying the life of the Buddha can provide some motivation, but, ultimately, what's really important is using the teaching for self-study, understanding ourselves, our thoughts, our words, our actions. And, when those are unskillful, recognizing the fact and taking corrective action.
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