INSTRUCTIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS OF LESSER CAPACITY
This has reflections on five aspects: the difficulty of obtaining the freedoms and riches; death and impermanence; the sufferings of the lower realms; the causes and consequences of karmic actions; and going for refuge.
1. The difficulty of obtaining the freedoms and riches
At the beginning of each session, repeat the session preliminaries, as explained above.
Carefully examine your home, body, and possessions, thinking, “This human body that I have presently, which is the foundation of everything to come, is extremely difficult to attain. Therefore, I will not let it go to waste. I will devote this precious human rebirth to the dharma.” Make this kind of resolve in a sincere way from the core of your heart.
The Buddha said in the White Lotus of Compassion Sutra, the Saddharma Pundarika Sutra:
It is extremely difficult to be reborn as a human being
And even more difficult to attain the perfect freedoms.
It is difficult for the Buddha to appear in the world, and
It is difficult to have the determination to practice the virtuous dharma.
It is difficult to make the perfect aspirations to achieve this.
Thus it is said.
The support of a precious human body is extremely difficult to attain, in terms of its having the eight freedoms, the opposite of the eight unfree states. It is also extremely difficult to attain the ten extraordinary riches.
1 To be a hell being, who experiences incessant suffering from heat and cold;
2 To be a hungry ghost, who is constantly scorched by the flames of hunger and thirst;
3 To be an animal, mute and stupid;
4 To be a long-lived god, who is distracted by sense pleasures and samadhi and, thus, has no time to persevere in dharma practice;
5 To be a barbarian, a class of humans born in a border land with the mindset of an animal;
6 To have wrong views, lacking trust in the cause and effect of virtue and misdeeds, in the higher realms, and in liberation;
7 To be born in a world where the Buddha has never appeared; and
8 To have impaired faculties, rendering you mute and stupid and unable to discriminate between good and bad.
One possesses the eight freedoms if one is not subject to these eight unfree states.
1 In general, to be a human being;
2 In particular, to be a human being born in a place where the buddhadharma is present;
3 To have unimpaired faculties and basic intelligence;
4 To have an unmistaken livelihood, meaning that you do not have wrong views or engage in the five misdeeds with immediate retribution and the like; and
5 To have trust in the virtuous phenomena, the buddhadharma.
1 The Buddha has appeared in your world,
2 The Buddha has taught the sublime dharma,
3 These dharma teachings are still accessible,
4 Many are still practicing the sublime dharma, and
5 Dharma teachers still provide conducive circumstances to spiritual practitioners.
If you posess all eight freedoms and ten riches, then you have what is known as a precious human body. Just like a wish-fulfilling jewel, once obtained, you must not let it go to waste; rather, exert yourself in every way possible in the dharma.
It is also difficult to obtain these freedoms and riches, as measured by numbers. Hell-beings are equal in amount to the number of atoms on the earth. Hungry ghosts are equal in amount to the number of snowflakes in a blizzard. Animals living in water are equal in number to grains of brewed chang. Animals living on the earth and in the sky are so numerous they could fill an entire valley. In comparison, beings in the higher realms are as few as the number of dust particles on the top of your nail. Moreover, in general, there are very few humans and exceptionally few in the Jambudvipa continent. In particular, those who practice the dharma are as rare as stars in the daytime. Most sentient beings indulge solely in misdeeds; those performing virtue are very rare indeed. From among the virtuous, those who are able to maintain discipline, the cause of obtaining a human body, are extremely rare. To illustrate this, we have the analogy from the scriptures of the blind turtle in the rough ocean.
You must also reflect on how this human life is extremely meaningful. By means of having this human body, you can accomplish worldly success and pleasure in this life and all your future lives. You can attain liberation and also the highest fruition of enlightenment, buddhahood.
There is no guarantee whatsoever that one will have these freedoms and riches in the next lifetime. So casting aside the dreamlike worldly pleasures and activities of this life, one must persevere in practicing the dharma. As Shantideva said:
If one, after having attained the freedoms and riches, then squanders them away, there is no greater waste than that.
2. Death and impermanence
You must reflect on the fact that your death is imminent. In the sutras, Buddha said, “Bhikshus, all composite things are impermanent.” In general, everything that is composite is not beyond the four limits of disintegration. Especially, the life force of beings is just like a bubble; one is never sure when it will burst. Even though we have obtained a human body now, we will definitely die, since no one in the past has escaped that.
Since the body is something composite, it is not permanent or stable. Life does not linger on for a single moment. It passes by with each moment, as we grow closer and closer to death, just like an arrow shot by a skilled archer, like water cascading down a waterfall, or like a person being led to the scaffold. Buddha said in the Between Tree Sutra:
Like a convict being led towards the scaffold,
With each step you come closer to death.
