“Because they are afraid and weak, which is why most of them tragically miss this
opportunity,” he replied.

“What was that… how does it relate to weakness and fear?” I asked.

“If you have to do something by yourself, or travel somewhere by yourself, especially to
a place you’ve never been before, you often lack confidence. You will feel anxious or
fearful, and this will result in a lack of inner power or courage. Let me give you an
example. Suppose you are floating in the middle of a dark river. If you know nothing,
you will naturally feel lost, unsafe, and most certainly, afraid.

Now, suppose there are two people on the shore trying to help you. One person throws
you an inflatable lifebuoy to hold onto, along with a rope for you to grab so they can
pull you to shore. The other person shouts to you to try kicking your legs alternately to
keep yourself afloat, then teaches you to use your arm and leg strength to try and swim
ashore in the direction of their voice. Whose method of help do you think you would
choose?”

“I would definitely choose the lifebuoy and the rope,” I replied.

“Exactly… this is the fundamental weakness inherent in all human beings because most
people will choose to receive help from others rather than help themselves,” he replied.

“But since it can get me to the shore the same way, and it’s easier and faster, if I’m not a
good swimmer, trying to learn to swim in that situation might be too late or more risky,
wouldn’t it?” I commented.

“And this is the basis of weakness. When someone is in a fearful situation and is
seeking a way out of that fear, they will usually look for refuge and help first. In fact,
every human being, even the Buddha himself, usually starts by seeking from the
outside, because everyone is still in a state of weakness, fear, or ignorance.
And the knowledge they don’t know they need to know is that they can access that
‘knowing’ by themselves. This is ‘knowing’ who they are and how much potential they
have, because this is the key that unlocks much more knowledge, which your Buddha
discovered. Although this kind of knowing seems easy, the difficulty lies in the
decision,” he explained.

“What decision?” I asked.

“The decision to choose to rely on one’s own potential. Because usually, you will choose
convenience by having someone pull you ashore. Therefore, you lack the potential that
is inner power, or self-knowing. If you reach the shore, you won’t be able to climb up
because from now on, everyone must do it themselves. No one can help anyone else.Everyone must go up on their own. So, when you are floating near the shore, if you are used to relying on someone, and in the past you had no inner power at all,
you have no swimming experience, you don’t know how to adapt, you don’t know how
to use your own wisdom, especially if you don’t have the courage to do it yourself, you
won’t have the skills to overcome this final difficult and complex hurdle,” he explained.

“Why is that?” I continued to ask.

“Because you are afraid, so you are powerless within yourself. Because all the so-called
wise people often create fear and make others dependent on them forever. In the past,
there were many people who had experienced this state of wisdom, but they told
people that it was difficult, that only special people could do it, and that reaching that
state required going through steps, training, and accumulating over many lifetimes.
They would choose to tell only the knowledge, rather than the method to access the
knowledge, because they had an important objective: the desire to make people see
them as special, important, superior, or more skilled than ordinary people, so that
others would have faith in them and have to rely on them. Even though the truths or
knowledge they conveyed might be true, what they concealed was the method that
would enable self-knowing. Because if this secret were revealed, people would
immediately know that they were not special at all, because in reality, everyone has the
right and the potential to access it equally. If anyone realized that it could be done by
themselves, that anyone could do it, they would lose their importance, and no one
would have faith in them anymore. So, they chose to tell only the knowledge they had
obtained from that state, and some might have known only certain parts of it. They
then wrote it down as textbooks or scriptures. This method also effectively catered to
the weaknesses of most people, because most people naturally want ready-made
knowledge, they want others to tell them what it is, stemming from the fear and
weakness I already told you about.”

“Lord, I’m curious. Why did the Buddha create his religion in the way you’ve described,
such as compiling scriptures for people to memorize, and especially having monks for
people to respect, prostrate to, and rely on?” I asked.

“The things you see in the present day were not determined by the Buddha, nor were
they his wishes. Everything happened later. The factors that led to these processes all
stemmed from the basis of weakness and fear. Let me reveal another thing you need to
know: the Buddha knew well that these events would occur after his passing. Because
he understood these fundamental mechanisms, he entrusted you all to correct these
misunderstandings at this time,” Lord Phoche explained.

“Entrusted us… what do you mean?” I asked, because I didn’t know when I had received
this entrustment.

“The reason I brought you to know and see all these stories is to make you understand
the roles and missions of you and your friends, to finally realize who you truly are and
what you must do,” he replied.

“Could you please explain the details?” I requested.

“Be patient, you will surely know. Let’s just say, for now, that the scriptures that exist
today were not written down by the Buddha himself. Because at that time, it was just
conversations between him and people, with close associates and followers also
listening. It was only after the Buddha’s passing that the recording began, at the behest
of the kings who respected and had faith in the Buddha, fearing that the various
teachings the Buddha had spoken would be lost over time. In the early stages, only the
core teachings, the various stories the Buddha had told, and the history of the Buddha’s
life were recorded.

Those who recorded these were the Buddha’s disciples who were known as noble
individuals or enlightened ones, and they all knew where the most important
knowledge lay. But as hundreds of years passed, some Brahmins realized that people
had more faith in the monks of Buddhism than in them. So, they infiltrated the
Buddhist monastic order and blended Brahminical traditions into it. This also well
catered to the needs of the general public, which was to address their fear and their
need for reliance or their weakness. This led to the division of the teachings into
numerous principles, creating a curriculum for rote learning, by taking the Buddha’s
words and distorting the meaning of attaining Buddhahood. They embellished the
stories of the Buddha’s life, making them elaborate and fantastical to portray the
Buddha as a supernatural being with miraculous powers. Especially the final point was
about the status of the monks, whom they made into representatives of the Buddha,
bringing back customs similar to the Brahminical way of life, where Brahmins were
representatives of the gods. Thus, meeting a monk required prostration, criticism of
monks was forbidden, and respect and faith had to be given, even if their behavior was
inappropriate. The Buddha spent almost his entire life abolishing these rules because
he knew well that everyone is a soul from the same original consciousness, everyone is
a sibling, and importantly, he knew that such methods were obstacles to attaining
Buddhahood within oneself, or wisdom from one’s own soul. Because if people had
faith in others or relied on external things, the opportunity to have faith in themselves
and rely on themselves would be closed off. As more and more heretical Brahmins
infiltrated the Buddhist monastic order, it was as if Buddhism had been reclaimed by
the Brahmins by default.”