Retired to a Forest to become Buddha

A few people may like to lead a lonely life in a quiet place to practice Buddhism, for their own reasons. There is nothing wrong if a man spends some time away from the hurly and burly of life as a part of spiritual and intellectual training to come out stronger; such a person would be of greater help to fellow human beings. But it is certainly more praiseworthy and courageous to practice Buddhism living amongst your own people, helping them and to have empathy, mutual love and concern for all. But if a man lives all his life in solitude without caring for family community and tries to become like Buddha this is not in keeping with Buddha's teaching which is based on compassion and service. Once my wife Padhmawoti said, "there is a human tendency to become imitators". People are trying to imitate, to become somebody else. Don't try to be anybody else. You cannot be! You can try, and you can deceive yourself and you can promise yourself and you can hope that someday you will become somebody else, but you cannot become. These are only illusions that you can go on having. They are not going to become realities ever. You will remain yourself whatsoever you do. An incident in Buddha's life shows how much importance he gave to family life. A young man, used to worship six cardinal points of heaven: east, west, north, south, nadir and zenith — as instructed by his religious head. When he met the Buddha to embrace his religious doctrine, Buddha told the young man that in his religious discipline the six directions were: east — parents, west — wife and children, south — teachers, north — friends, relatives and neighbors. At the bottom were others and at the top, seers. Six Families are as sacred in Buddhism and one should perform duties towards them truthfully. In Hinduism, parents are referred to as Brahma. Second in the order comes Guru, or teacher. Every pupil is expected to respect and obey his teacher. Third is the sacred relationship between wife and husband. Both husband and wife need to respect each other and express their love and regard by caring and sharing. The Buddha didn't forget to mention that a husband could gift clothes and jewellery to his wife — as a way of demonstrating the fact that he cared for her physical well-being, too. Love is the energy that helps us to heal, whether we give this love to ourselves, or we receive it from another. When we look at having loving relationships in our life, why not start with ourselves? Because that is where love comes from. This is what transforms our relationships and our lives. It is clear those in order to practice Buddhism you are not expected to become a monk or retire to a forest or cave. You can practice it even while living with and caring for family and discharging your duties towards family members.