> >Yes, the intention is to create a useful set of courses or exercises
> >that really helps people in a major way.
>
> To which Richard Brodie replied:
>
> >There are many such courses already. Marketing is more of a problem than
> >engineering here. People don't see a benefit for themselves in being
> >enlightened.
>
> Yes, marketing is more difficult than creating the courses. How do we
> persuade people that it is to their benefit to participate in such courses
> and improve themselves?
>
One answer is to misrepresent the aim of the self-cultivation program.
Why get enlightened? 'Cause enlightened people make lots of money, get
to have sex with beautiful people, and appear on TV!
The Amida Buddha has created a paradise, and all you have to do to get
in is say, "Namu Amida Butsu." So Buddhists of various Pure Land sects
chant "Namu Amida Butsu." They aren't particularly intereseted in the
idea that this "pure land" is a place free of the distractions which
keep people from reaching a state of perfect understanding; an
understanding that will allow them to negate their individual identity
and pass into nothingness. What the Pure Land lay person wants is to go
to heaven when he dies. The Pure Land is an intermediate step, but the
unenlightened adherent sees it as the final end, and this is good
because the actual final end, dissolution of the ego and passage into
final Nirvana, is not something that most people would find particularly
attractive. Focussing the unenlightened mind on an intermediate step
gets the subject moving down the path. Once they reach that
intermediate point, they will realize that their journey is not over.