People Are Ill-Prepared For The Dharma

We may know about the words and the rituals, but Dharma is the remedy to eliminate suffering. We first have to first recognise suffering, not just as a theory. The Dharma is not an academic study or a set of exotic rituals to make us feel different from others. 

Once we understand, we are prepared to help those in front of us, 
rather than an idea about those far away
Being practical is here and now.

If we use the Dharma to be competitive, that is not Dharma; that is Mara. Demons are not obvious to people – but they are to practitioners who are prepared.

Realising the true Dharma, we become compassionate, as we too have suffered, were depressed and doubted everything and everyone. We know what it’s like to live in the fog of confusion.

We are ill-prepared 
if we fall for the exotic, the charismatic,
rather than the need.

‘Exotic’ means foreign. We don’t have to adopt the ways of others; we can support and appreciate a culture, without becoming it. We work with what we have now, in our own environment. 

Being prepared is knowing what we’re dealing with,
which is common stupidity.

Empathy recognises when other feel ill at ease.