When entering, so to speak, the temple of Buddhism, and I include Zen which is the means to the Buddha's awakening—beginners, almost always step over the threshold retaining their own beliefs and assumptions about Buddhism which they have gathered in the darkness of their ignorance (avidya).
This can only mean that they enter with a closed mind incapable of recognizing spirit. As to the time it will take for them to open their mind by throwing away their assumptions will be the measure of the personal challenge that faces them with regard to Buddhism—a challenge that they might never overcome.
They will face this challenge in a variety of ways none of which will suffice to give them the open mind they require to intuit the mysterious, spiritual Dharma. In the end, they will interpret Buddhism in conformity with their long held assumptions without ever shedding any of them. And if they become teachers will only manage to teach a profane creed, essentially, lying to their students.
In light of this, the huge majority who come to Buddhism will never take up self-purification, fully, which is more about renunciation of all profane assumptions. Instead, they will continue on a path of spiritual blindness (avidya) hoping for some kind of miracle to relive them of their abysmal ignorance — which never comes.
Making matters even worse are the teachings of those who take pride in external practices while wearing robes, all which serve to hide their lack of direct insight into spirit. They even fail to see the Buddha as just a personification of spirit which Siddhartha awakened to after many years of searching for it. What is important in the message of Siddhartha before he became awakened or a Buddha was his ability to not only master profound states of consciousness but also to detect and sense their inadequacy as regards his intrinsic awareness or smṛti which, by the way, is a special Buddhist term almost impossible to translate into English.
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