If there is nothing to be done to “gain” enlightenment, why are so many yearning for a revelation, likely to remain unfulfilled?

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This question, in my estimation, is perfect for diving into just how Buddhism tends to fail Western seekers.

Westerners who are attracted to Buddhism, in general, want to try to understand Buddhism using concepts they’re familiar with. And so they take concepts that they aren’t thinking of as Christian, to conceptualize Buddhism.

And so this question introduces the concept of revelation, a very Judeo-Christian concept, philosophically connected to teleology, the idea that concepts and topics have natural and ultimate ends, to a framework that is ultimately circular, where there are no beginnings and ends.

Revelation drives you ever-closer to ultimate salvation. It re-contextualizes all of one’s experience in the light of new understanding. The history of Christianity is the history of people coming to revelation after revelation, and then changing themselves, their societies, and their theologies as a result.

But the East doesn’t work like that, never did. India and China are massive, endlessly-dynamic civilizations where the idea of revelation, of changing your whole life around some new understanding you just received, is dangerous. It’s not going to lead you anywhere but astray. There are established pathways to walk, pick one of these pathways or society is going to treat you like a nail sticking out and hammer you down.

Reifying Western individualism onto Eastern spiritual traditions is just never going to be all that fulfilling for Western seekers. It’s true, the Buddha did say you could gain enlightenment in a single lifetime. But he didn’t give any real outlines or methods how.

If you want spiritual paradigms that fit your Western sensibilities, you need to get those paradigms from the West.