which is the cause for such a rebirth. In Precious Garland of Advice for the King Nagarjuna says:
From giving comes wealth,
From discipline comes happiness.
Even when we do observe moral discipline purely it is easy to destroy it by becoming angry or performing other actions that destroy our virtue. It is extremely rare to find anyone who observes pure moral discipline without ever losing it.
There was once a Mongolian who sat listening to a Lama giving these teachings, and when the Lama came to this point the Mongolian protested, saying ‘You think that human beings are rare only because you have never been to China! There are millions and millions of people in China.’ However this Mongolian had missed the point – a human life is rare not because there are so few of them but because we ourself rarely create the cause to be reborn as a human. Among all the actions that we have performed since beginningless time, very few are pure actions that lead to a human rebirth.
Our human life is also very rare in that each of us possesses only one. We can possess many books, many clothes, many homes – but no one can have more than one human life. If we lose it, we cannot borrow another one. Moreover, this single human life that we now possess is diminishing with every moment.
recognizing the rarity of our precious human life by analogy
In one Sutra, Buddha Shakyamuni asks his disciples ‘Suppose there existed a vast and deep ocean the size of this world, and on its surface there floated a golden yoke, and at the bottom of the ocean there lived a blind turtle who surfaced only once in every one hundred thousand years. How often would that turtle raise its head through the middle of the yoke?’ Ananda answers that, indeed, it would be extremely rare.
We are just like this blind turtle, for although our physical eyes are not blind, our wisdom eyes are. The vast and deep ocean is the ocean of samsara. The blind turtle remaining at the bottom of the ocean is like our remaining in the lower realms of samsara, to surface into the fortunate realms only once in every one hundred thousand years. The golden yoke is like Buddhadharma, which does not stay in one place but moves from one country to another. Just as gold is precious and rare, so Buddhadharma is precious and very hard to find. For most of our previous lives we have remained at the bottom of the vast and deep ocean of samsara, the lower realms. Only very occasionally have we been born as a human being, and even with a human life it is extremely rare to meet Buddhadharma.
recognizing the rarity of our precious human life in terms of numbers
Harmful actions that are the cause of lower rebirth are much easier to commit than virtuous actions, and so those who are born in the lower realms are much more numerous than those who are born as humans or gods. Of all the states of existence, hell has the greatest number. Fewer beings are born as hungry spirits, and fewer again as animals. Human beings are rarer than beings born in any of the three lower realms, and among human beings very few have a precious human life with all the freedoms and endowments. Among those who have a precious human life very few practise Dharma, and among those who practise Dharma very few practise purely and gain correct understanding and experience. We may sometimes get the impression that there are many pure Dharma practitioners and many people with realizations, but if we check we will see that such beings are extremely rare. Milarepa once said to the hunter Gonpo Dorje, ‘Buddha said that human life is precious but a human life like yours is very common.’ Among those who have a human life it is common to find people like this hunter who completely waste their opportunity and use it only to create causes for future misfortune. However, it is difficult to find someone practising Dharma purely.
When we meditate on the great value and rarity of this precious human life we are doing the analytical meditation that causes us to develop a strong determination not to waste a moment of our human life and to make full use of it by putting Dharma into practice. When this determination arises clearly in our mind we hold it as our object of placement meditation so that we become more and more accustomed to it.
Although we now have a precious human life with all the freedoms and endowments, we may still find it difficult to practise Dharma purely because we may lack other freedoms such as the time to devote to study and meditation. It is rare to find anyone who has ideal conditions, but the most serious impediment to our spiritual development is our own failure to generate a strong wish to engage in practice. Je Tsongkhapa said that to develop the wish to take full advantage of this life with all the freedoms and endowments we should meditate on four points:
I need to practise Dharma.
I can practise Dharma.
I must practise Dharma in this life.
I must practise Dharma now.
Before we can develop the wish to practise Dharma we must first recognize the need to practise Dharma. To do this we meditate:
I need to practise Dharma because I want to experience happiness and avoid suffering, and the only perfect method for accomplishing these aims is to practise Dharma. If I do so, I will eliminate all my own problems and I will become capable of helping others.
Even though we may understand the need to practise Dharma, we may still think that we are incapable of doing so. To overcome our hesitation and convince ourself that since we have all the necessary conditions we are definitely capable of practising Dharma, we meditate:
I now have a precious human life with all the freedoms and endowments, and I have all the necessary external conditions such as a fully qualified Spiritual Guide. There is no reason why I should be incapable of practising Dharma.
Even though we may understand the need to practise Dharma and may feel capable of doing so, we may still delay, thinking that we will practise in some future life. To overcome this laziness of procrastination we need to remember that since it will be very difficult for us to gain another precious human life we must practise in this very lifetime.
Even though we may see that we must practise in this very lifetime, we may still feel that our practice can be postponed until our retirement. To overcome our complacency we need to remember that the time of death is most uncertain and so the only time to practise is right now.
In this way we arrive at four strong resolutions:
I will practise Dharma.
I can practise Dharma.
I will practise Dharma in this very lifetime.
I will practise Dharma right now.
These four resolutions are invaluable because they make us generate naturally a spontaneous and continuous wish to take full advantage of our precious human life. This wish is our best Spiritual Guide because it leads us along correct spiritual paths. Without it, no amount of advice or encouragement from others will lead us to practise Dharma.
On one occasion Aryadeva and Ashvaghosa were about to have a debate. Ashvaghosa was standing on the threshold of a room with one foot inside and one foot outside. To test Aryadeva’s wisdom he said ‘Am I going out or coming in?’ Aryadeva replied ‘That depends upon your intention. If you want to go out, you will go out. If you want to come in, you will come in.’ Ashvaghosa could think of nothing to say to this because what Aryadeva had said was perfectly correct.
If we desire good things we will perform virtuous actions and if we desire harmful things we will perform non-virtuous actions. Since our desire is so powerful it is extremely important to abandon non-virtuous desires. If someone uses his mouth to give advice to others but in his heart cherishes the desire to steal someone else’s possessions, then
