Belief in our Buddha-nature, that we have the ability to actualize it and become Buddhas, has no prerequisite other than to have faith in the Buddha’s teaching then take up the practice to get there. But many today don’t see it this way. They need more than just faith in the Buddha’s teaching as a prerequisite. What they want is tangible evidence beforehand that this nature is real before they have faith in it!
Trying to convince such people that we all have the Buddha-nature and we can actualize it by various practices laid out by the Buddha is an up hill battle and I am beginning to think, a waste of time. It is like sowing seeds on barren land. This attitude to me is more of a reflection of skepticism or the last of the five hindrances (pañca nivāraṇa) which is doubt.
People these days are almost anti-religious and have almost given up on the idea that there is anything above and beyond their corporeal body and a life of servitude to its sensual demands which is finalized in death. It is a very bleak outlook. Yet, on the other hand, the credulity of such people knows no limit when it comes to something they desire from recreation drugs to a big home in suburbia, or placing their belief in a political religion like Marxism and its versions which have come down to us all of which envision a utopia at the end of the road if only we can manage to remove the impediments to it.
This is credulity, maybe at its worst. This kind of childish fantasy flies in the face of Buddhist thought that life is really an illusion insofar as it is wrongly interpreted by our senses which makes it seem vital and real, but upon deeper investigation is found to be different than expected.
For those who don’t wish to see that this is all an illusion and, as with any illusion, it is a deceptive appearance that is always changing—yes, I can understand the skepticism towards the Buddha’s message which asks us to see through the deception and see the real thus ending our life as prisoners in samsara. But such people are shallow.
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