What should you do if you cannot relate to Bodhisattvas because they seem so out of the ordinary, like a fantasy? Having a vision of what we can become is very important in our lives, and not only for spiritual practitioners. One of the problems in poor or minority neighbourhoods that are oppressed is that the kids do not have a vision of what they can become. Without a vision of what you can become, you do not do anything. 

Maybe you cannot relate to emanating a hundred thousand bodies or visiting a hundred thousand pure lands right now, but there are some qualities that you have a very small amount of right now. Maybe we have a small amount of compassion that reaches out to sentient beings. We do not have the ability to create all these emanations, but we do have some intention in the present to do that. If you take that small intention, nourish it, and feed it, it will grow until eventually, you will accumulate all the other necessary causes and conditions for you to send out emanations. 

If you just go from your poor-quality view, which thinks, “I’m nothing,” to looking at the qualities of the tenth ground Bodhisattvas, you will be tempted to think, “It’s hopeless. There is nothing that they and I have in common,” as if those tenth grounders were born that way and never had to start like us! We are full of this kind of wrong idea, and you can see how it comes up in your practice sometimes when you say to yourself, “I’m not making any progress. It’s just the same distraction in every meditation session.” 

We have to oppose these wrong ideas. Otherwise, they sneak up and wreak havoc in our practice. By looking at them and our potential, we can begin to find within ourselves the small beginnings of the Buddhas that we can become. 

“365 Gems of Wisdom” e-book is out now!