Aspiring to be a Bodhisattva in a family life

Question: “Being in a family life, taking care of family can still someone aspire to become a boddhisattva. Family life is full of affliction of desire, attachment, wants etc.”

Of course! You can aspire to become a Buddha and be the father of a household of twenty people! But the keyword here is aspire! Many texts say it’s important and even required to renounce and emancipate your current life in order to find true liberation. But because we probably won’t find liberation or get to the level of Bodhisattva in this life, we can at least set the foundations and create the path towards it for our future lives.

I don’t have many desires or attachments, but that doesn’t mean I would find liberation before you. Your Buddha Nature is just as equal as mine. You might be surrounded by all these distractions, whereas I’m not, but that doesn’t mean I’m better than you. You could be a better practitioner than I am, maybe you have more virtuous merits than I do – so as long as you aspire and KNOW that you will find liberation, you will become a Buddha one day, that’s all that matters.

All you can do is practice. If you have a local or nearby temple you can go to, visit often and attend their services. Temple is the one place (for me at least) where you can go and forget about all your worldly problems and just be at peace for a couple of hours. By regularly practicing meditation, you can learn to handle and ease the emotions that might arise by all the afflictions, desires, and attachments that surround you.

 

Smile and be well!

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