Before we can taste the fruits of practice there must be a flowering, and before that the sowing and cultivation of seeds. This sustained care is driven by a mind intent on uncovering bodhi-mind, or bodhicitta. The germination of the bodhi-mind comes from an insight into the seed of buddhahood which is already present in our own nature. The intent to grow a bodhimind is the care with which we nourish this seed first into bloom and then into fruit....
...Many practitioners, particularly those who have been reading too many books, think only about getting enlightened. They may give little consideration to the problem of uprooting the weeds of vexation or helping other sentient beings, even small animals, in distress. Such a practitioner is hoping for the fruits without being willing to make an effort. Such a limited approach cannot fulfil the causes and conditions essential to realisation. Such a practitioner is merely dreaming. Enlightenment happens in its own time on the basis of right causes and conditions. It is not something to be anxious about.