Listen to Venerable Ru Jun address a similar query (in Chinese, from 3:14 min onwards)
I got a very useful analogy from Venerable’s discourse.
If you told a small child to choose between some food they love (e.g. a pizza) and a cheque for $10000 (that can buy lots of the food), the likelihood is the child will choose the food.
Even after informing the child that the cheque can buy lots of things, the possibility is high that the first instinct of the child is to go for something they understand better and are familiar with, i.e. the food.
Similarly with us, our habit is to desire something like material goods rather than to aim for Buddhahood.
We must start aligning our practice (串习) towards that of Buddhahood !
Using the analogy of the small child, I guess a child would choose the pizza because at their age, they have experienced how delicious pizza is but they have not experienced how useful $10000 can be. Thus, same as for us, we have experienced the benefits of material goods but still have not developed the wisdom of understanding what attaining Buddhahood can do for not only us, but including all everyone else around us.
thank you @julieng for putting it so concisely!
It triggered me to contemplate that I am still so far away from understanding the benefits of Buddhahood.
With the help of the Teachers, I hope to strive bit by bit and progress in my practice.
