Change our minds not our location

I just came across a blog by http://www.tysonwilliams.com/2007/09/your-natural-pure-presence.html
Where he eludes to the real purpose of dharma, and that is to change our minds not our location.

When I became a monk a friend of mine who currently works for Microsoft in the UK, said “Sometimes I wish I could go off and hide in  a cave.”

I didn’t say anything at the time, but this is so far away from where the tradition of Buddhism I follow is. That is to say that although there is the notion of doing retreat and spending hours meditating. This in no way excludes living in the world! In fact the real purpose of retreat from a Mahayana Buddhist point of view is to help others. You meditate in order to develop more compassion, more wisdom and then your love and wisdom to be of benefit to others. Buddhism is a humanist endeavor…or I should say…a living being-ist endeavour.