(Clearwisdom.net) The ancients and the moderns have very different understandings of what is considered an "accomplishment."
The ancient Chinese people treated cultivators with respect and honor. For example, Buddha Milarepa (the founder of Tibetan White Buddhism) cultivated very diligently, and people at that time treated that as a big accomplishment and called him a "great man." People believed that those who would strive to return to their original selves truly realized life's preciousness.
However, people nowadays do not value cultivation of one's virtue and self. It is considered an "accomplishment" if one can do many things or attain some skills. Therefore, a lot of people spend their lives striving to achieve trivial things to satisfy their vanity, yet at the end one does not even know what one has been living for. Sometimes, because people don't value virtue, they treat bad things as good thing, like getting things for free. When they do something for others, they also want something in return.
Some people with the modern mindset even attack cultivators. They think cultivators don't make an effort to realize life's value. Actually, they don't know that what is truly precious for a human being is to cherish the heart for cultivation.
