Words On Enlightenment From The Dalai Lama

[Consept]

I'm reading a book in which the Dalai Lama shares his thoughts on a range of topics, I thought this passage might be useful to some- 

"It's important to make a clear distinction in your mind between your ideals and the standards by which you judge your progress. As a Buddhist, for instance, you set your ideals very high: full Enlightenment is your ultimate expectation. Holding full Enlightenment as your ideal of achievement is not an extreme. But expecting to achieve it quickly, here and now, becomes an extreme. Using that as a standard instead of your ideal causes you to become discouraged and completely lose hope when you don't quickly achieve Enlightenment. So you need a realistic approach. On the other hand, if you say, ‘I'm just going to focus on the here and now; that's the practical thing, and I don't care about the future or the ultimate attainment of Buddha-hood,’ then again, that is another extreme. So we need to find an approach that is somewhere in between. We need to find a balance."