Joyful Path of Good Fortune. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
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Moral discipline and stainless prayer to gain a human rebirth are the main causes of being born human. Having respect for our parents, our Spiritual Guides, the Three Jewels and other beings is the main cause of gaining nobility. Patience is the main cause of great beauty. Generosity is the main cause of great resources. Offering protection to others is the main cause of great power. Studying and rejoicing in Dharma is the main cause of great wisdom. Healing and looking after those who are ill is the main cause of good health. Saving the lives of others is the main cause of long life. With our precious human life we can create all of these good causes. If we do so we will be sure to experience the results, just as when we strike a match and put it on a dry haystack we are sure to have a fire. With this precious human life we can create the cause to have whatever kind of human life we wish. We can be a millionaire, or we can be a wise politician, or we can be an ordained person who keeps pure moral discipline.
the great value of our precious human life from the point of view of our ultimate goal
Our ultimate goal is to attain the pure, eternal happiness of liberation and full enlightenment. Now that we possess a precious human life we can practise and complete the three higher trainings that lead to liberation. The human form is said to be like a boat in which we can cross the ocean of samsara and reach the shore of liberation.
As Shantideva says in Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life:
By depending upon this boat-like human form,
We can cross the great ocean of suffering.
Since such a vessel will be hard to find again,
This is no time to sleep, you fool!
Furthermore, with this precious human life we can train in all five main causes of full enlightenment: renunciation, bodhichitta, the correct view of emptiness, and the generation and completion stages of Secret Mantra. Since the human body possesses the six elements that are necessary for the practice of Secret Mantra (skin, flesh, bone, channels, winds and drops), with this human form we can attain all the experiences of Secret Mantra, including the ultimate realization of full enlightenment, in just one lifetime. If we are reborn as a god of the form or formless realms we will not have such an opportunity. Even the higher Bodhisattvas born in Pure Lands such as Sukhavati do not have such an opportunity.
We meditate:
Since beginningless time without interruption I have taken samsaric rebirths without freedom or control, in sorrow and in fear. Samsara is the most terrifying prison. Now for the first time I have all the conditions I need to break the bonds of my imprisonment. Therefore, I must not waste this precious opportunity to attain liberation and full enlightenment.
the great value of every moment of our precious human life
With this human life, each day, each hour, each minute, can be completely worthwhile. Every single moment of our precious human life has great meaning. In just one hour human beings can create the same amount of merit that a god creates in one aeon. If we meditate on love for just five minutes, or if we make just one prostration to our Spiritual Guide regarding him or her as an emanation of all the Buddhas, we will create immeasurable merit.
In a very short time we can purify all the negative karma that we have created in the past. The potentialities that we have created in our mind by our past negative actions are formless. Since we cannot see them it is easy to forget that they exist, but if our negative karma were to possess form it would fill the entire universe. All this negativity can be quickly consumed if we use this human life to do strong purification, just as a haystack is quickly consumed by a strong fire.
Je Tsongkhapa said:
If we contemplate the great value of these freedoms and endowments we will feel strong regret for having wasted our human body and our time.
Someone who is very miserly but who has to spend a lot of money travelling around will develop a strong sense of loss because he or she greatly values every single penny. In the same way, if we were to develop full appreciation for the value of every single moment of our precious human life we would develop powerful regret whenever we squandered a moment. Je Phabongkhapa said:
Instead of feeling so much regret when we lose our money, we should develop regret when we waste our human life.
Even if we were to lose all our money we could borrow some, make an appeal, or find a way of making more; but if we lose this human life without having put it to good use it will be almost impossible for us to recover our loss.
This body with all the freedoms and endowments is more precious than the legendary wishfulfilling jewel. With a wishfulfilling jewel we could live in an environment made of precious gems, but what happiness could we derive from that? What happiness could there be in having the power to transform all our possessions into gold? During this life such possessions would be a source of anxiety, and at the time of death we would have to leave them all behind. This precious human life is infinitely more valuable than gold. It is the real wishfulfilling jewel, the real philosopher’s stone that makes every moment meaningful and enables us to enter correct spiritual paths.
By meditating on the great value of this precious human life we will come to see it as a very special opportunity that is not to be wasted. We will make a very strong determination to use it to accomplish both our temporary and ultimate purposes, and we will feel a great sense of loss if we waste even a single moment. If we think like this we will definitely take the essence of this precious human life. However, if we do not meditate in this way there is a great danger that we will let our life slip by without any meaning. As Shantideva said:
If, having found the freedom and endowment of a human life,
I do not strive to practise Dharma,
There can be no greater self-deception,
There can be no greater folly.
meditating on the great rarity of our precious human life
This has three parts:
1 Recognizing the rarity of our precious human life in terms of its cause
2 Recognizing the rarity of our precious human life by analogy
3 Recognizing the rarity of our precious human life in terms of numbers
recognizing the rarity of our precious human life in terms of its cause
Even if we understand the great value of our precious human life, we may still waste it if we think that it will be easy to be born a human again. In fact, it is very rare to be born a human because it is rare for anyone to