Question: I heard Buddhism has many wise teachings. Why is Buddhism hard to understand in these modern times?
by Khenpo Tashi
Our ‘modern’ way of thinking is always thinking about ‘for me’, ‘for mine’. ‘I am special’, ‘I am great’. They are about making ourselves feel special and unique.
Buddhist practice is the opposite. It is to make us feel really ordinary. Buddhism is supposed to make everything be ordinary for us.
Buddhist teachings are to remove our self-grasping, or our feeling of self-importance. You can say by removing this self-grasping, it is to make us feel ordinary.
This ‘pride’ or ‘self-importance’ always makes it hard to practice Buddhism.
Especially in this age, this kind of pride in us is very strong and stubborn, very solid. So, it is difficult to practice Buddhism because of this self-grasping. It is the obstacle, the biggest obstacle.