Which Buddhist vehicle do you think is more dificult?

[wisdom]

They are all impossible!

[deepbluehum]

I don't think so. These days most people prefer dharma light- we had a thread about this a couple of months ago called "Comfort Food Buddhism". People want easy answers and progress while having to invest as little time as possible. This is the modern age.

We have to go with it. Another thread somewhere talks whether dharma will just be like therapy sessions. I've been thinking this might be the best way to go. There are so many very special and unique methods that cut through right away, working with specific emotions or directly to innate wisdom. Why not have a session and charge money? If that means someone will show up and do the instruction it better than giving free instruction so people can go home and do nothing.

Dharma must morph. In some respect Vajrayana is already broken. Initiations are not done as they once were, even thankas are not done properly anymore. There's nothing traditional really to hold on to. Lost so long ago. All those Tibetan innovations arent traditional. Their nuvo. Yet the very core material is well preserved and can morph into whatever comes next. People need comfort. Comfort is very very important. What we really need is the best way to make most comfort, beautiful inspiring feelings and blissful energy.

[JKhedrup]

To get people in the door I agree. But it is our duty to try and offer them more, challenging them if necessary. Otherwise Buddhism becomes a commodity rather than a path of true transformation (which is necessarily challenging).

[PadmaVonSamba]

I have known and been friends with a few Thai monks and a few Lamas. I don't think either one has a particularly easy life, or that either one is on an easier or more difficult path than the other. We create these options of easy and hard in our own minds. One of my Thai monks friends had been a forest monk. He definitely lived a more austere life. He used to meditate in the woods with wild elephants and tigers coming up and checking him out. Can you imagine, sitting there, meditating, and a giant carnivorous cat is suddenly sniffing at your neck to see if you would be a tasty meal or not? At the same time, his strict vows prohibit him from having any physical contact with women. So, at a casual public gathering, if a woman happens to sit down next to him, he panics and jumps up. My closest lama friend has students all over the world, but mostly in Taiwan and India. His wealthier Chinese students pay for his plane fare and other needs. But he needs nothing, owns nothing, and any cash given to him is quickly used to help others. But he is responsible for so many people, many of whom have a lot of problems, and he has vowed to help them, and he does, constantly, and they call him night and day with their suffering, and he really does a lot to help a lot of people. And if you are a close student and are having a very distressing problem, you might suddenly get a phone call from him wanting to know what is wrong! That is a lot of responsibility.

Monks and nuns live at the mercy of others. None of the ones I know think of their own path as hard or easy. They just do it.
Few, I think, regret it.
.
.
.

[deepbluehum]

I have known and been friends with a few Thai monks and a few Lamas. I don't think either one has a particularly easy life, or that either one is on an easier or more difficult path than the other. We create these options of easy and hard in our own minds. One of my Thai monks friends had been a forest monk. He definitely lived a more austere life. He used to meditate in the woods with wild elephants and tigers coming up and checking him out. Can you imagine, sitting there, meditating, and a giant carnivorous cat is suddenly sniffing at your neck to see if you would be a tasty meal or not? At the same time, his strict vows prohibit him from having any physical contact with women. So, at a casual public gathering, if a woman happens to sit down next to him, he panics and jumps up. My closest lama friend has students all over the world, but mostly in Taiwan and India. His wealthier Chinese students pay for his plane fare and other needs. But he needs nothing, owns nothing, and any cash given to him is quickly used to help others. But he is responsible for so many people, many of whom have a lot of problems, and he has vowed to help them, and he does, constantly, and they call him night and day with their suffering, and he really does a lot to help a lot of people. And if you are a close student and are having a very distressing problem, you might suddenly get a phone call from him wanting to know what is wrong! That is a lot of responsibility.

Monks and nuns live at the mercy of others. None of the ones I know think of their own path as hard or easy. They just do it.
Few, I think, regret it.
.
.
.

So beautiful.