Precious Human Life

Contemplation on the Rare Precious Human Life, Certainty of Death and Necessity of Dharma  We’ve been talking about the precious human rebirth that we have all achieved. This precious human rebirth has the eight respites and ten enrichments necessary for Dharma practice. We...

(1) As a Triumphant Ones’ offspring, having firmly gained hold of bodhichitta like this, I’ll strive never to transgress its training, without ever wavering. (2) For something undertaken all of a sudden or something I didn’t examine well, even if I’ve given a promise about...

The Eight Good Qualities and Their Causes Yesterday we spoke about taking refuge, putting a positive, safe and sound direction in your life. Taking a safe direction in life, a safe and sound direction, is a very important practice and a very important point, because it is on...

Following the Lam-rim Stages in Progressive Order We’ve been discussing the lam-rim, a scheme for organizing the basic sutra teachings. It presents three scopes of motivation that act as pathway minds that will lead to better rebirth, liberation from uncontrollably recurring...

Listening to teachings on our precious human life and then thinking about them in order to recognize and appreciate what we have precedes stabilizing and discerning meditation on it.

This dialogue with Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche explores how to practice the Dharma and build on the excellent working basis of a precious human form.

Repeatedly gaining precious human rebirths makes the ultimate goals of liberation and enlightenment possible. To understand rebirth, it is essential to understand the nature of our mind and to gain a proper understanding of karma.

Rejoice at being free to work on improving yourself, to get over self-pity.

Berlin, Germany, June 23, 2009

Using traditional examples, Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche explains the graded path, emphasizing the importance of appreciating and taking full advantage of our precious human life.