Dharma Excursions

A young child is happy to play with other children for a while but its heart lies with its mother. It is happy as long as its mother is in sight.
Likewise, us modern day Buddhists are happy to play with the dharma for a while but our hearts lie with the world. We will happily go to retreat etc, as long as we know we can still have access to our worldly pleasures and our worldly lives are close at hand, should we miss them sufficiently.
It’s similar to how people like to go camping. It is not that the campers have become disillusioned with worldly life and its seeming pleasures. It’s that camping makes for a pleasant change. It is undertook safe in the knowledge that you can pack-up and head home at any time. Home is always the final destination.
Many of us give a lot of time and effort to the study and practice of dharma, more so than most campers to camping, but we do not really let go of the world. The world sits at the core of who we are and how we think, and the dharma is a side-activity. So it’s not surprising we are failing to see the results of the dharma, as described in texts. As long as we retain the basic samsaric worldly outlook, samsara will be our continued destination.