Lesson 25 from A Comprehensive Commentary on the Words of My Perfect Teacher examines the nature of the freedoms and advantages from two angles: a careful self-analysis of what it truly means to possess them, and the famous analogy of the blind turtle and the wooden yoke.
On the first, the lesson argues that even accomplished scholars and respected monastics may fail to qualify as true Buddhists if their goal is only this life — that seeking worldly benefit constitutes a conflicting lifestyle regardless of rank or reputation. The minimum threshold for a true Buddhist is uncontrived faith in the Three Jewels that holds even at the cost of one's life, illustrated by the Gelug geshe Gen Lamrimpa who refused to remove his robes even under arrest, and by the Ming dynasty scholar Luo Hongxian who abandoned a top imperial post upon recognising impermanence. On the second, the lesson develops the blind turtle analogy through multiple canonical sources, enriched by the story of a child who tested it in a pool and thereby generated spontaneous renunciation and took ordination.
The lesson closes urging a hundred-day retreat on the common preliminaries as the only genuine test of whether conviction has truly taken root.
