The Aspiration to Attain Enlightenment Is Worth Encouraging

Wishing to attain enlightenment is a kind of aspiration, and a wholesome aspiration at that; without such a wish, there would be no practical action. The wish is the prerequisite, and practice is the supporting condition—using all kinds of practical actions to fulfill the causes and conditions for enlightenment and to complete the conditions required for it, so that when the causes, conditions, and season ripen, one naturally awakens to the Way. As long as the wish arises in accordance with nature, without harboring a mentality of luck-seeking or thoughts of opportunism, then when the thought of enlightenment arises after one has cultivated to a considerable degree, it is proper and worthy of encouragement.