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Just remember that words, concepts and ideas are not what Buddhism is about. It is the practices, and it takes years to even start to grasp what the Buddha was talking about. Personal first-hand experience and insight that produces inner change, does not come from words or ideas. We learn Buddhism from ourselves, with the help of our teacher. We cannot learn it from books. The purpose of the writings is to motivate us to DO the practices, and to confirm the insights that our practices have started to generate. And you cannot lead others until you have first led yourself.

The Tibetan Buddhists who get their "degree" in Buddhism (the Geshe degree) do so at the Dalai Lama's monastery and it is a 20-year program. They live in the monastery during that time.

Moreover if one undertakes teaching before their own teacher has assessed them as ready to teach, it blocks inner progress (too much ego involved in teaching ... it is too much negative involvement with the "Eight Worldly Concerns" if we are not advanced enough ourselves to handle the ego-involvement of being a teacher). And we are little help to others until we have first achieved some degree of insight ourselves. We are told our primary goal is to attain enlightenment for the sake of all other beings (the Bodhisattva Vow).

I am sure you understand that you do not need to become a monk in order to work towards wisdom and compassion. Start where you are, and where you are is perfectly suitable for inner growth. And since it is said that it takes countless lifetimes to attain even the first level of enlightenment (but subsequent levels are reached much sooner), we should be focused on the PROCESS of being a Buddhist, rather than the goal. Take care of the process, and the goal will take care of itself. More than that, even 10 to 20 years of doing the practices starts to change you inwardly, so it's not as if you have to wait countless lifetimes to become more at ease.

You have set your foot on the path .. you will benefit from this. Avoid those things that hinder your practice.

@FoibleFull said:
Strange things DO happen. And we seek to explain them. But most of the time, there is more than one possible explanation (one normal, one paranormal) so I just leave it with a sense of wonder, rather than trying to pin down what happened.

Indeed. He would brook no woo-woo talk.
He said things like..”You can’t yet follow your breath for two minutes without your mind wandering. What would you do with siddhis?”

Whenever I have a slightly paranormal experience, and I’ve had several, I tend to forget the specifics soon afterwards. The world is just the world, and sometimes it can be a little strange, but those things can be explained.

It’s like card tricks. They seem magical at first, but when you know how they’re done, it turns out they were perfectly ordinary after all.

When it comes to paranormal experiences, perhaps it has something to do with the release of karmic energy...cause (unfinished business) condition (avenue for release) effect (release/sighting/experience)

Strange things DO happen. And we seek to explain them. But most of the time, there is more than one possible explanation (one normal, one paranormal) so I just leave it with a sense of wonder, rather than trying to pin down what happened.

Just trying to inject some more magic and wonder in to my life...

Ah ha!
We haz plan!

As some of you know I keep the rainbow bodies of imaginary demons and deity pantheon of vajrayana in a REAL cupboard. I am thinking of moving this into a portable mandala sack similar to that used by Hotei/St Nick.

I regularly allow/imagine/visualise demons feasting on my endless bad karma/faults/impediments/pandemic viri etc. This is free service for the hell realms.

… and now for the magic and wonder.

Siddhi and super-natural qualities are really just refined sensitivities. The result of virtue/practice/reflective polishing of our real Bodhi Buddha Rainbow of Perfection. Here now.