I have thought about this too, howmuch is spiritual requirement and how much is him just wanting peopleto be good people and the Earth to be more civilized? I don'tthink we can ever know for sure.
This is something I’ve used to think about as well. When we look at different religion systems, there are clearly two main themes. One is being good, doing good, becoming more loving in our thought, speech and action. Second theme that is often present is some kind of practice leading to some superior realization like enlightenment, self-realization, etc.
One way to look at it is, to realize that the “do good” lifestyle results in a more peaceful state ofmind. If you ever helped somebody, not to get something, not to feed your ego, but just out of compassion then you know that this produces a good feeling. When you hurt somebody, it never feels right. You maybe blinded in your anger or lust for revenge, but it won’t take long until you will feel bad about yourself. Therefore I think doing good contributes to a calmer mind which makes meditation or different practice easier and more fruitful. This might be one of the reasons for the emphasis on working on your morality.
It’s also interesting that there are religions which only put emphasis only on one of those themes. Advaita is pretty much only about cutting through everything wordly straight to the juice, to the realization. Christianity is only about doing good. There are some interesting clues like “be still and know that I am god” or “the kingdom of god is within you” and plenty of others, but these are just hidden and without a clear context.
I personally suspect that both are important. The “big realization” is important because it is an end to our ignorance. An average man is to a large extent a slave to his fears and desires, and the workings of the complex human body-mind machine. The truth is supposed to be liberating, and you can’t be liberated being unless you are free of your impulses. Not necessarily that you don’t experience them, but you are aware of them, when and where they rise from so you don’t have to follow them. Being aware of all of that you are free to choose to act on them or not.
Working on morality might be also important, because there might be a much bigger picture of how the whole life works. Maybe we never really cease to exist. I doubt it’s about “you reincarnate here in this miserable world until you attain enlightenment and then poof, you will dissolve after death”.If that would be the case, then I think Buddha would just put emphasis only on attaining the enlightenment. And Buddha had at least decent knowledge and understanding of bigger picture, with it’s many different realms and entities.
But hey, due to the nature of the world we live in, we can never really know for sure as long as we’re here, so I think the only really important thing is, does what you’re doing contribute to a better life experience for you and people thatyou interact with? If yes, that’s a win-win and you can’t go wrong with that.
We have to get comfortable about living with uncertainty