ASK THE TEACHERS

GUO GU: This is an important question, and one not so dissimilar from another common question, “In what timeframe can one reasonably expect to learn meditation and reach awakening?” These are difficult to answer because whatever assumptions we may bring to perceiving ourselves and others, buddhadharma is definitely not meant to be a measuring stick for judging people. It is a practice, and it is up to each of us to engage with it and integrate it in our lives so eventually there’s no separation between buddhadharma and our lives. Done correctly, our self-referential attachments diminish.

That said, naturally there are ups and downs in different periods and circumstances of our lives. Common notions of progress and regress do not apply here. What a “Buddhist” does may appear one way but