Best motivation for actions and non-actions?

I don’t see how this is possible literally. Buddhas have finite lifespan, and true parinibbāna is not some kind of heaven like thing where people can manifest bodies to act like a Buddha in the world.

I only see it’s possible in a loose causation manner. Each time a fully enlightened Buddha appears, they produce a finite amount of arahants, but also they give predictions to those who are Bodhisattas, and perhaps even the first prediction for those, so new Bodhisattas are on the path to Buddhahood. In this way, they support the arising of new Buddhas, and the future Buddhas in turn produces more arahants. And so on down the line. So, it’s a very loose causation manner. Not personally teach and liberate all beings one by one.

  1. No one can save ourselves, but ourselves. The Buddha merely show the way. The Buddha cannot practise for us and we get the result.

  2. Given that the Buddha spent so long perfecting the perfections just to become a Buddha and produce arahants, how can we let the Buddha down by not practising for our own liberation?

  3. It’s actually more selfish not wanting to escape the burning house ourselves, citing that there are other people there. It makes it so that the person telling us to escape is wasting their energy and time.

  4. Arahants eradicated conceit, ignorance, self view. There’s not even the sense of self to be selfish in their actions.

1 Like