We’ve been going through the meditations on the precious human rebirth. We covered the eight situations of no leisure that prevent Dharma practice in order to recognize that we have a short respite them and that we could easily get into these terrible situations again. We also covered the ten enriching situations that enable Dharma practice and recognized that we have them.
Last time we went over the points concerning how the precious human life is important from three points of view:
- We can attain the temporary, or provisional, goal, namely, to have a higher rebirth, specifically a precious human rebirth. It is on the basis of the precious human rebirth that we are able to follow pure ethics, which is the main cause for a precious human rebirth.
- We can attain the ultimate goals, liberation and enlightenment.
- Each moment, we can come closer to achieving these goals. We can do prostration, meditation, mantra recitation, and other sorts of Dharma practices.
The last point covered in this topic is the difficulty of obtaining such a life. This is considered from the point of view of its causes, from the point of view of analogies, and from the point of view of the nature of the difficulty, which refers to the number of beings.
Difficulty in Terms of Its Causes
Keeping Pure Ethics
The causes for a precious human rebirth are, firstly, ethics. This is the most important cause: keeping pure ethical behavior, exercising ethical self-control. Ethical self-discipline is what differentiates us most clearly from animals. Although an animal can be trained to modify its behavior and to act with restraint, we, as humans, are better able to restrain ourselves because we are able to discriminate between what’s beneficial and what’s harmful. We’re not just driven by the forces of biology.
Making Dedication Prayers
The second cause is prayer – praying to have precious human rebirths. We’re not praying to God or to Buddha, or something like that; instead, we’re dedicating the positive force that we accumulate from keeping pure ethics, helping others, etc. to the achievement of that goal. The best way to do that is to dedicate that positive force toward the enlightenment of all sentient beings (sems-can, limited being). One can, of course, make one’s prayer more elaborate than that: “May I continue to have precious human rebirths all the way to liberation” – after liberation, we have the bodies of an arhat, so that’s a little bit different – and “May I continue to be the foremost disciple of the great gurus and have all the opportunities to be able to study and to continue on the Buddhist path. And may everybody have that.” That last thought is also important to include in our dedication prayers, although wanting to benefit all beings is implicit in the wish to achieve enlightenment.
It’s always said that our prayers need to be quite specific. The story is told of a monk who went with his teacher to the main temple in Ganden monastery, outside of Lhasa. They saw that a cow had walked into the temple and had sat on the throne of the Ganden throne holder, the head of the Gelugpa tradition. The disciple was quite puzzled to see this cow sitting there, so he asked his teacher, “What is this?” The teacher said, “Well, it’s very clear. In a previous life, this cow was a monk who made the prayer, ‘In my next life, may I be able to sit on the Ganden throne,’ but he wasn’t specific enough in his prayer.” It’s quite a nasty story, but it illustrates the point. It’s not enough just to wish, “May I meet the gurus and be close to them.” One could be a mosquito that meets the gurus or a fly that buzzes around their heads. That’s not what we want. So, we need to be specific.
Practicing the Six Far-Reaching Attitudes (Paramitas)
Ethics and dedication prayers have to be complemented by the six far-reaching attitudes, or perfections (the six paramitas), in order to obtain a precious human rebirth with the most conducive circumstances.
Generosity – from the practice of generosity, we will have wealth in a future lifetime. This is important for being able to help others. Nowadays, even to be able to attend teachings, we need some money. If we don’t practice generosity, we are likely to be born in very poor circumstances. Ethical self-discipline
Ethical self-discipline – if we don’t practice ethical self-discipline, we will not be respected, people won’t look up to us, and so on. If we practice ethical self-discipline, we’ll be not only well-disciplined but also an object of respect for others.
Patience – if we don’t practice patience, it is said that we will be reborn ugly, with an ugly form. This is because the opposite of patience is anger, and when angry, one’s face gets very distorted. When patient, on the other hand, one’s face is very calm and good-looking. Being good looking is a helpful quality to have because others will be easily attracted to us – though not necessarily. We’re not talking here about sexual attraction. It’s that if we’re teachers, for example, others will feel comfortable coming to us, will want to help us, and so on. If we’re repulsive looking, people could be turned off a little bit and not ready to listen to what we have to say.
Perseverance – without that, we’ll be very lazy and won’t be able to accomplish very much, whereas with it, we’ll have a lot of energy.
Concentration – without that, we’ll have a great deal of mental wandering; with it, our minds will be very focused.
Discriminating awareness – without that, we’ll be quite dull-minded, slow, or stupid; with it, we’ll be quite intelligent and able to learn quickly.
So, the main causes to have an optimal precious human rebirth are ethics and prayer supplemented by these six far-reaching attitudes. OK?
A basic type of meditation that can be done with this, I think, is just an introspection. We examine if we are actually putting these things into practice and creating these causes. If we’re not, we try to see how we can put them into practice. I think that our ethical behavior is especially important to examine. Are we really behaving any better than an animal? Do we bark and growl at anything that annoys us? Or whenever we feel sexually attracted to others, do we just jump on them, like a street dog would do? In other words, do we just follow our animal instincts, or are we able to exercise some self-control and to practice ethical self-discipline? These are the types of thoughts that we can use to examine ourselves. Are we like a fly that can’t sit still for one moment and is constantly buzzing all around, or do we have some sort of stability? That’s another a factor that would be involved here.
So let’s examine ourselves in terms of these causes – ethical self-discipline, prayer, and the six far-reaching attitudes – and try to realize that having precious human rebirths in future lives is not going to happen for no cause. Things occur due to cause and effect, so it’s necessary to build up these causes.
If we discover that we haven’t built up these causes or haven’t built up very many of them, then we make the commitment to put effort into building them up. If we have been working in this direction already, then we rejoice in that and make the commitment to do even more. If we want to add a Mahayana flavor to this, we can also add the wish that everybody be able to build up these causes.
[meditation]
Any questions about that?
Participant: What is the difference between ethics and the far-reaching attitudes?
Dr. Berzin: None. Ethics is just emphasized as being the major cause.
Difficulty in Terms of Analogies
The next point about the difficulty of obtaining a precious human rebirth is seen from the point of view of analogies. A famous analogy is from Shantideva’s Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior: In the bottom of the ocean, lives a blind sea turtle that comes up to the surface once every hundred years, and on the surface, floats a golden yoke that is blown here and there by the various winds. How rare it would be for the turtle to come up to the surface just where the golden yoke is and to stick its head through it.
We are like the sea turtle, spending most of our time in the lower parts of the ocean of samsaric existence and being blind with unawareness. The golden yoke is the precious human rebirth. The winds that are blowing things here and there are the winds of karma. We come up to the surface only very rarely and have that opportunity – in other words, have some positive karma ripening – to have a precious human rebirth.
There’s also the analogy of mustard seeds poured on a needle: How difficult it would be for one of them to actually stick on the tip of the needle. That’s found in one scripture. Another common analogy is rolling a boulder uphill – so, working to attain higher rebirths, liberation, or whatever: How easy it would be for that boulder to fall back down the hill if we don’t keep pushing.
I think that we can put this point together with the third point, which has to do with the rarity of a precious human rebirth seen from the point of view of its nature, which refers to the number of beings.
Difficulty in Terms of the Number of Beings
It’s said that the number of beings in samsara are like the number of grains of sand on the Ganges riverbank. Those that have precious human rebirths are like the number of grains in a little pinch of sand between your two fingers, and those with other types of rebirths are like all the rest of the grains of sand. We can see that this is true especially when we consider that there are far more animals than humans, far more insects than animals, and so on. The lower the realm, the greater is the number of sentient beings.
Even among those who have human rebirths, very few have precious human rebirths. There are many humans, but there are not many who are sincerely interested in spiritual practice, in Buddhism, who are open-minded and so on, and who take advantage of the opportunities that are afforded them. Even with the Internet and the spread of more and more information around the world, even with teachers traveling everywhere, and so on, the number of those who take advantage of these opportunities is quite small compared to the total population of the planet.
So we think in terms of these analogies and numbers to try to appreciate how rare it is to have the opportunity we now have.
I think with all of these points, what one does is to use a line of reasoning: “The precious human rebirth is difficult to obtain for this and this and that reason. It really is rare. I appreciate how difficult it is to find; therefore, I want to take advantage of it.” We then let that sink in – the reason it’s so difficult to find, the rarity of having this opportunity, and the strong feeling of appreciation. We realize how much worse our situation could be – and will be if we don’t do something about it. Then we have a strong wish and determination to take advantage of this precious human rebirth.
Any questions?
Participant: I understood it’s like a pyramid – that most beings are in the lowest realms, the hell-realms; fewer are in the ghost realms; fewer still are in the animal realms, and so on up.
Dr. Berzin: Right. That’s what it says in the teachings. The number of beings gets smaller as you go up through the realms. There are comparatively few beings in the god realms – not that you want to be in the god realms. In order to be reborn in those realms, you have to have achieved an unbelievably advanced state of meditative concentration and to be attached to being in that state. That’s the major cause of rebirth as one of these form and formless realm gods, for example. Very few would attain that.
Participant: Do we also want to have renunciation of the god realms? Is it only a precious human life that we’re aiming for?
Dr. Berzin: Although attaining a higher status – so, one of the three better rebirth states – is the provisional goal, we don’t really want a god realm rebirth. It’s specifically a precious human rebirth that we want. Remember, rebirth as a divine being is listed among the situations of no leisure. So, we’re not aiming for that. Nonetheless, it’s included as one of the better states of rebirth. As I explained in one of the earlier classes, I think that it is possible to achieve the state of an arya in one of these god realms, but that’s quite rare.
[meditation]
Any questions?
Participant: I’m a bit surprised about the progression of these various meditations. In a sense, you start from the end and build yourself up to the understanding of how important the precious human rebirth is. Why is it not the other way around – that you start by appreciating the opportunity you do have, then go on to consider how you might not have that opportunity, and then look at what the causes for that are?
Dr. Berzin: That is the order. We started with recognizing the eight situations of no leisure, these terrible situations in which we wouldn’t be able to practice Dharma and from which we have a temporary respite. Next, we go through the ten enriching factors, looking at all the opportunities that we have. Then we think how valuable these opportunities are, how difficult it is to achieve them, and how important they are in terms of what we can do with them. Then we think what the causes for obtaining a precious human rebirth are – so, appreciating how rare it is.
The Three Points for Developing the Resolve to Take Advantage of the Precious Human Rebirth
Then we have a final step, which consists of three points.
- Thinking of the need for spiritual development
- Analyzing whether we have the ability to develop ourselves spiritually. So, we recognize that we have the external enriching circumstances, such as a spiritual teacher. We also have the personal enriching circumstances: we have precious human rebirths and are fairly healthy, intelligent, and so on.
- Understanding that we have no excuse – that we need to practice the Dharma now and not put it off.
The example that Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey always used to use for the types of excuses we make is that, even if a concert is extremely crowded, we push our way in. We’re willing to sacrifice so much to go to a rock concert, but we’re not so willing to go to a spiritual event if it’s going to be crowded or difficult to get to. Or we’d rather go to a birthday party rather than go to a Dharma teaching. So, our values are reversed. We don’t know which will come first, practicing tomorrow or dying today.
Let’s do this final step. Then we can put the whole thing together.
First, we think of the necessity of developing ourselves spiritually. What is the necessity?
Participant: It’s to avoid suffering.
Dr. Berzin: Right. And it’s to avoid suffering not only in this lifetime but in future lifetimes as well. We don’t want to fall into the states of no leisure, the worse states – hence, the need for spiritual development.
Second, do we have the ability? Do we have a spiritual teacher? Well, the lam-rim usually starts with appreciating the teacher because it is assumed that one has a teacher. Do we have the personal enriching circumstances of a precious human rebirth? We’ve identified that we do.
Third, considering that it is necessary to practice and that we have the circumstances and ability to do so, we have no excuses not to practice. We realize the difficulty and rarity of having these opportunities and don’t want to waste our time indulging in animal behavior or other types of behavior that will lead to a rebirth in which we’d have no opportunities. We’re going to try to take the best advantage of this precious human rebirth by following a spiritual practice, which will be the practices of the lam-rim that can lead us to liberation and enlightenment.
[meditation]
Any questions or comments on that?
Participant: I liked His Holiness’s approach, which was to show the benefits of Dharma practice from another side. He said that his immune system was better, that he was healthier, that he had a calmer mind, that he was not afraid of operations, and things like this.
Dr. Berzin: Yes, a few days ago in Frankfurt, His Holiness the Dalai Lama talked about the benefits of Dharma practice – for example, having a calmer mind and a stronger immune system. So, after he had had his gall bladder operation, he was able to recover at a phenomenally fast rate, despite his being seventy-three-years old. Plus, he was able to face the operation with a very calm mind and so on.
I think that one has to differentiate the benefits of practicing Dharma from the benefits of merely having a precious human rebirth. The benefits of having a precious human rebirth are that we can use it to build up the positive force to gain more peace of mind, more calmness, etc. What you’re speaking about is a further step: the advantages of practicing Dharma as opposed to merely having this type of rebirth.
His Holiness’s example is about what we can accomplish with a precious human rebirth. That’s quite phenomenal. The example that’s always used is that of Buddha Shakyamuni himself: He started in the same situation that we are in, and look what he accomplished. We can accomplish the same if we put in that amount of effort. It’s the same type of example but taken even further.
Review of the Meditation on the Precious Human Rebirth
To put all of this together, we go through all the steps. We realize that we are free of the eight situations with no leisure to practice and that we have a respite, just a temporary break from these situations.
Remember, when we do this type of meditation, we imagine these eight situations as heavy burdens on our backs that would prevent us from practicing. Then we feel the lightness and freedom of having these burdens taken off our backs.
- I’m temporarily not a trapped being in a joyless realm, a hell creature.
- I’m temporarily not a desperately clutching ghost, a hungry ghost.
- I’m temporarily not a creeping creature, an animal.
- I’m temporarily not a long-lived god, a divine being.
- I haven’t been born as a barbarian in a savage border region.
- I haven’t been born as a human in a land where the Dharma is unavailable.
- I haven’t been born with severe learning disabilities.
- I don’t instinctively hold a distorted or negative outlook on life that makes me closed to the teachings.
We’re temporarily free of all that. Instead, we have all the opportunities of
- Having been born as a human,
- In a central Buddhist region, where there are Buddhist monastics and laypeople keeping vows,
- With complete mental and physical faculties,
- Not continuing to experience the repercussions of having committed the most extreme destructive actions,
- Having instinctive belief in what is spiritually beneficial and true.
We’ve been born in a society, a time, and place where and when
- A Buddha has actually come
- Has taught the Dharma,
- The Dharma is still being maintained after so many centuries,
- With a monastic community following the Buddha’s example,
- With others compassionately supporting the monastic and lay communities.
What an incredible opportunity.
With this precious human rebirth that’s so important,
- I can keep basic ethical discipline, which will enable me to have precious human rebirths and to continue working toward the ultimate goals.
- I can achieve the ultimate goals of liberation and enlightenment.
- Every moment, I can come closer to those goals by engaging in spiritual practice – study, meditation, prostration, etc.
Such a rebirth is so difficult to obtain,
- Given the difficulty of creating the causes – ethical self-discipline, prayer, and the far-reaching attitudes –
- Given that, like the chance of the sea turtle sticking its head through the golden yoke, the opportunity to obtain it is so rare,
- Given that so few have actually obtain it.
Finally, we realize:
- Spiritual practice is so important. Without it, I will not be able to avoid suffering, specifically worse rebirths, and I won’t be able to help others.
- I’ve met with the teachings and qualified teachers, and I have all the personal enriching situations of a precious human rebirth that enable me to practice.
- There are no excuses that I can make. I will definitely take these preventive measures of the Dharma and train myself without any delay. I’m not going to put it off, because who can tell which will come first, practicing tomorrow or dying today?
Try to synthesize all of that into one feeling, one understanding – free from these worse states and filled with the positive opportunities; the importance and rarity of the precious human rebirth; what we can do with it; the wish to make use of it. All of that is in one moment of cognition, one moment of mind. It’s the same thing with bodhichitta or enlightenment: it’s free of certain factors and endowed with other factors; appreciation of its value; an intention to use it. All of that is together in one mind.
[meditation]
The Focal Object of the Meditation Is Our Five Aggregates
Were you able to put it together? In the process of putting it all together, each state of mind needs to have a focal object. What’s the focal object?
Participant: The emotion behind having it together.
Dr. Berzin: That’s not the focal object. The emotion accompanies the state of mind.
Participant: The focal object is the absence of these factors.
Dr. Berzin: That’s one aspect of it. But is there a larger context something more encompassing that is the focal object?
Participant: The precious human rebirth.
Dr. Berzin: Exactly. The focal object is basically our five aggregates – our bodies, minds, emotions, intelligence, and so forth – which constitute our precious human rebirths. Of course, we can focus on these aggregates from the point of view of the suffering of having tainted aggregates; however, we can also focus on them from the point of view of the advantages of having a precious human rebirth, and so on.
Eventually, we want to be able to put the whole lam-rim together and to be simultaneously aware of all the different lam-rim points, focused on and understood in terms of the five aggregates that we’re experiencing in each moment: These aggregates constitute each moment of a precious human rebirth, but they are not going to last and they entail various types of suffering. We need to then include among the aggregates renunciation of the aggregates and their suffering, the determination to overcome all that. The aggregates can also contain compassion and the methods for increasing compassion, and bodhichitta as well. We also need to include the impermanence and voidness of the aggregates and the aggregates need also to include the understanding of both. All that eventually needs to fit together in one moment of cognition.
Participant: Do you have to keep these things in mind all the time? Isn’t it more the case that you have a state of mind that encompasses all these aspects?
Dr. Berzin: Right. It’s not that you have to consciously think of all of these things all the time. It’s that you have a state of mind that encompasses all of them.
Building Up an Unlabored State of Mind
It’s like what it says in the first chapter of Bodhicharyavatara : “Once you have developed bodhichitta, you are constantly building up more positive force day and night. No matter what – even if you’re drunk or unconscious – positive force is still getting built up.” What does that mean? It first of all means that you have an unlabored state of bodhichitta. You don’t have to build it up step by step; you just have it all the time. That’s when you’ve reached the first of the five paths – the path of building-up (path of accumulation), the first pathway mind. When you have that, it means that bodhichitta is the whole direction of your life. It’s so fundamental to you that you don’t have to consciously think of it all of the time.
It’s the same thing with all of these points – precious human rebirth, death, impermanence, and so on. They are so ingrained that you don’t have to go through all the steps to be aware of them. You’ve integrated them. They’re part of you, in a sense. You certainly don’t consciously think the words, “precious human rebirth, oooh.” You don’t have to remind yourself. However, until you’ve reached those stages of the pathway minds, you will probably have to go through all of the steps in order to remind yourself and to regain an appreciation. Later on, you might only need to use a few words. OK?
Well, there are eight more minutes. Rather than go on to the next meditation, which is the meditation on death and impermanence, maybe we can just use the time to do a final meditation on the precious human rebirth.
Do I need to go through all the steps, or you can remember them? Can you remember them? Eight states of freedom, the leisure, that we have; the ten opportunities or enrichments that we have; then the importance – how we can use this precious human rebirth; the difficulty and rarity of it; so, now I’m going to really use it. We build it up in stages. More and more weight is off of our backs; there is more and more lightness and joy of what we have. Then add to that the appreciation of it, what the causes are, the rarity, how we can use it, and the intention to use it. Okay?
It’s hard to describe, but what we are focusing on are the ever-changing phenomena that make up each moment of our experience. So, it’s not as though we are visualizing a Buddha, or something like that. Basically, what we are focusing on are the various aspects of the basis for labeling “me.” That would be a more technical way of describing it. That basis is free of the states of no leisure, it has these endowments, it is important and rare, and it can be used for this and that. So, what we feel is almost like the pride of the deity – which doesn’t mean feeling arrogant. It’s just the feeling of “me” labeled on such a basis – which is, of course, a very good opponent to “poor me,” to self-pity
[meditation]
One last thing: I think it is appropriate to accompany this meditation at the end with rejoicing. It’s always said that positive force is increased by rejoicing. So, we rejoice in having the precious human rebirths that we have. We feel happy about that – not arrogant, but happy. And although it might not be a standard thing to include, we can have a feeling of appreciation for our previous lives in which we had built up the causes to have precious human rebirths now. We can also think of our future lives and how, in our future lives, we will really appreciate having built up the causes in our previous lives to have precious human rebirths – not rebirth as a cockroach. That’s sort of analogous to remembering the kindness of our mothers, appreciating that kindness, and wanting to repay it. Here, though, we are directing that appreciation toward ourselves.
Remember: in the end, with the formal meditation, we’re not saying anything in our minds. There’s just a feeling and an understanding of all these mental factors sinking in… but it’s also not spacing out.
[meditation]