born in a savage and uncivilized place or in a country where religion is not tolerated, it would have been impossible for me to meet Dharma and put it into practice. There are many places in the world today where there is no religion or where people can be imprisoned and even tortured if they try to practise their religion; and there are many places where people have no opportunity to meet a Spiritual Guide who can show them how to train their minds. How fortunate I am not to be in such a place.
freedom from being born and remaining in a country where there is no buddhadharma
We meditate:
If I had been born in a country where religion is tolerated but where there is no one practising Dharma and no one to teach it to others, it would still have been impossible for me to develop interest in Dharma and to learn how to put it into practice. How fortunate I am not to be in such a place.
freedom from being born and remaining with mental or physical disabilities
We meditate:
If I had been mentally disabled for life I would not have been able to understand and apply Dharma, and if I had been physically disabled for life it would have been much more difficult for me to make contact with the teachings. If I had been blind I would not have been able to read many Dharma books. If I had been deaf I would not have been able to listen to teachings. If I had been physically disabled it would have been difficult for me to visit Dharma centres or temples and to learn how to meditate. How fortunate I am to be free from mental or physical disabilities.
freedom from holding wrong views denying dharma
Holding a wrong view is a state of mind that is like a door closed and locked against Dharma. It is a mind that clings stubbornly to a view that denies the existence of any object that it is necessary to understand in order to attain liberation or full enlightenment. An example is a mind clinging to the view that past and future lives do not exist, without having the openness of mind to investigate whether or not this view is correct. A wrong view may be held dogmatically or opinionatedly as a result of incorrect or imperfect reasoning, or it may be held blindly without even a pretence of reasoning. We meditate:
Holding wrong views is the main obstacle to pure Dharma practice because it prevents us from developing faith in Dharma, and faith is the basis for attaining every spiritual realization. How fortunate I am not to be holding wrong views.
the ten endowments
The first five endowments are personal endowments:
1 Being born human
2 Being born and remaining in a country where Dharma is flourishing
3 Being born and remaining with complete powers, free from mental and physical disabilities
4 Not having committed any of the five actions of immediate retribution
5 Having faith in the three sets of Buddha’s teachings
We can understand the importance of each of the five personal endowments by contemplating the following analogy. Being born human is like possessing a car. Being born and remaining in a country where Dharma is flourishing is like getting the car on the road. Being free from mental or physical disabilities is like having petrol in the car. Being free from still having to experience the results of any of the five actions of immediate retribution is like having a licence to drive. Having faith in Dharma is like having the confidence to drive. Just as when any of these five conditions of successful motoring is absent we cannot arrive at our destination, so when any of the five personal endowments is absent we cannot reach enlightenment, which is the proper destination of this precious human life.
The five actions of immediate retribution referred to in the fourth endowment are the five worst negative actions: killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, killing a Foe Destroyer, drawing the blood of a Buddha with harmful intention and causing division within the Sangha or Dharma community. If we commit any of these actions it is very difficult to gain realizations and when we die we go straight to hell. When that hellish life comes to an end we continue to experience the heavy results of our action as mental obstructions to our Dharma practice. There have been a few exceptions, such as King Ajatashatru who killed his father Bimbisara but later felt regret, purified and in dependence upon the instructions of Buddha became a Stream Enterer. However, in general, if we commit any of these five actions there is no way to attain liberation in this life.
The remaining five endowments are favourable characteristics of the world in which we take our human rebirth:
6 Taking human rebirth in a world where Buddha has appeared
7 Taking human rebirth in a world where Buddha has taught Dharma
8 Taking human rebirth in a world where pure Dharma is still being taught
9 Taking human rebirth in a world where there are people practising pure Dharma
10 Taking human rebirth in a world where there are benefactors and sponsors for Dharma practitioners
If Buddha had not appeared in this world and turned the Wheel of Dharma, and if pure Dharma had not remained in this world, it would have been impossible for us to receive Dharma instructions and put them into practice. If we are to practise purely and correctly we also need the help of a Spiritual Guide and spiritual friends, and we need the support of benefactors and sponsors. Therefore, all of these endowments are necessary if our spiritual practice is to succeed. We should realize how fortunate we are to have been born into such a world.
When we meditate on these eight special freedoms and ten special endowments we are doing the analytical meditation that causes us to develop joy and deep appreciation for our present human life, seeing that it is perfectly endowed with all the conditions necessary for training the mind in the stages of the path to enlightenment. What is the purpose of deliberately generating joy? It is so that we will take full advantage of our present opportunity. If a person discovers a piece of gold but does not recognize its value he may throw it away; but if he understands how precious it is he will be delighted with his discovery and he will keep the gold safely and use it meaningfully. In the same way, if we understand that our human life is now perfectly endowed we will take delight in it and use it meaningfully. This precious human life is impermanent. It may be lost tomorrow. No one can predict how long this opportunity will last. Therefore we need to appreciate our life right now.
When our meditation causes us to generate a special feeling of joy we do placement meditation, acquainting ourself with this feeling more and more closely so that we never lose it.
meditating on the great value of our precious human life
This has three parts:
1 The great value of our precious human life from the point of view of our temporary goal
2 The great value of our precious human life from the point of view of our ultimate goal
3 The great value of every moment of our precious human life
the great value of our precious human life from the point of view of our temporary goal
The goal or aspiration of every living being is to experience happiness. There are two kinds of happiness and hence two kinds of goal – temporary and ultimate. Temporary happiness is the happiness that can be experienced by humans and gods; it is the limited happiness that can be experienced while beings remain bound within samsara. Ultimate happiness is the pure, eternal happiness of liberation and full enlightenment.
If
