Perfect Freedom:
The Great Value of Being Human
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
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Chapter Four: The Ten Richnesses
The first richness: being born as a human being
The first of the ten richnesses is being born as a human
being. A human being is generally defined as one who is able
to speak and understand. But, from the Dharma point of view,
the real human being is the person who prepares for the happiness
beyond this life, up to enlightenment. This entails much
more than just being able to speak and understand.
Without receiving this richness of being a human, there would
be no opportunity to practice the holy Dharma. "How
fortunate I am that at this time, as a human being, I have
received the freedom to practice Dharma. With this richness
I can accomplish any of the three great purposes I wish,
at any time - within these twenty-four hours, within this
hour, within this minute. This richness is much more precious
than diamonds equaling the number of atoms of this earth.
Wasting this by not practicing holy Dharma for an hour, or
even a minute, is a greater loss than losing that many precious
diamonds."
The second richness: being born in a religious country
The second richness is being born in a religious, or central,
country. There are two ways to think of this: in terms of
place and of existence of the teachings. If you had not received
this richness of being born in a religious country with all
the teachings of Buddhadharma, there would be no opportunity
at all to receive teachings. They would not be available,
and thus there would be no opportunity to practice Dharma.
This richness involves not being in a country where there
are only Hinayana teachings, so that you can achieve the
sorrowless state, or where there are Paramitayana teachings,
but where there is the quick path of Vajrayana, so that
you can achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient
beings.
Thinking in detail of being in a religious country makes
you appreciate more and more how precious this richness
is. The more you know, the stronger you feel its value,
as if
you possess diamonds or gold. Meditating in detail is very
effective for your mind and makes you feel more fortunate.
By recognizing the incredible richness you have through
being in a religious country, you become happier and
happier
The third richness: being born with perfect organs
The third richness is being born with perfect organs. If
you are deaf, you cannot hear the teachings, though in the
West there is more possibility of hearing them if you have
all the right equipment. In Los Angeles, when a newsman was
reading the news on television, I saw on one side a woman
giving the news to deaf people with mudras, with sign language.
I found this very interesting, and extremely kind. Using
the various methods developed in the West such as sign language
or braille, a deaf or blind person may be able to understand
Dharma to some extent. However, I think the details of very
profound subjects may be more difficult for them to understand.
Imperfect organs also include missing limbs. This may be
because this is one reason a person may be refused ordination.
A person who is deaf, missing a limb and so forth cannot
be granted the thirty-six vows or higher ordinations. According
to the Theravadins, such a person does not have the requisite
body for the pratimoksha vows. Also those having both male
and female sexes, or neither, cannot receive ordination.
"How fortunate I am to have received this richness
to practice Dharma through not being born with imperfect
organs. With
this richness, I can accomplish the three great purposes." Meditate
on this as before.
The fourth richness: being free of the five extreme actions
The fourth richness is not having committed the five extreme
actions. These are the five uninterrupted negative karmas
of killing your mother or father, killing an arhat, causing
blood to flow from a Buddha, and causing disunity among the
sangha. Other negative karmas, even if you have accumulated
them in this life, can be interrupted by other negative or
positive karma before you experience the ripening aspect
result of rebirth in the lower realms. You may have accumulated
the negative karma to be reborn in the preta realm but other
karma to be born as an animal or human being may become stronger
at the death time, and you then experience that result. In
other words, the karma to be reborn as a preta is interrupted
by the other karma so that you do not have to experience
the preta realm right after the intermediate stage.
These five uninterrupted negative karmas are such heavy negative
karmas that if they are not purified before the death of
the life in which they were committed, right after the intermediate
stage one experiences the ripening aspect result of rebirth
in the hells. Other karmas cannot interrupt this so that
one experiences other results after the intermediate stage.
One cannot take a preta or any other rebirth.
Having committed any of the five uninterrupted negative karmas
is also an obstacle to ordination; such a person cannot be
granted ordination. This is one of the questions asked at
the beginning of the ceremony, before ordination is granted.
Generally speaking, this heavy karma makes it more difficult
to generate realizations of the path to enlightenment. Strictly
speaking, especially in the Nyingma sect, the definition
of an extreme action is accumulating non-virtue. With the
stricter definition, you would have this fourth richness
only while your actions were indifferent or if you always
lived in virtue. In this case, to avoid extreme action you
would have to accumulate virtue with every action: sleeping,
eating, walking, sitting. This strict definition persuades
you to do this.
You should rejoice: "How fortunate I am to have this
richness of not having committed these extreme negative karmas." Then
do the rest of the meditation as before.
The fifth richness: having devotion to the teachings
The fifth richness is having devotion to the teachings,
particularly to lam rim teachings. With much devotion to
lam rim and inspiration to practice it, your mind changes.
If you don't have this devotion and inspiration, you become
thick-skulled and careless. When you hear different lam rim
subjects, if you think: "Oh, yes, yes, I know that!
I have heard that a hundred times!", no matter how much
you listen, the teachings won't move your mind. Your mind
will be like a rock under the ocean, which can stay there
one billion years but still be the same rock. The outside
gets wet, but nothing else happens. Even if you hear lam
rim and thought-training teachings a hundred times, your
mind will be like this.
You should not let your mind become like a rock under the
ocean, or like leather wrapped around butter. In Tibet there
is a custom of wrapping salted butter in animal skin, perhaps
to stop it going rotten as butter can be kept like this for
many years. The leather becomes very hard and the whole thing
looks like a football. There is a Tibetan saying: "Dry
leather can be subdued by butter, but butter-leather cannot
be subdued by butter." In Tibet, in order to use dry
animal skins to make shoes and the bowls in which tea is
mixed into tsampa, they have to be softened. To do this a
lot of butter is put on the dry skin and then, in the hot
sun, the Tibetans knead it in very strongly with their feet.
After some time the leather becomes soft and extremely flexible.
It is then cut up and used to make different articles.
This very dry leather can be subdued, or softened, by putting
butter on it; however, the leather sack that holds butter
stays in contact with butter for years and years but is always
dry. The saying means that an evil being can be subdued by
the holy Dharma, but one who is thick-skulled about Dharma
cannot be subdued. It is very dangerous to have a mind like
this. When other tantra or sutra teachings, such as Abidharmakosha,
do not subdue your mind, lam rim is the only teaching that
can change it - lam rim is your last chance. If your mind
becomes thick-skulled in relation to even lam rim teachings,
it will be very difficult to subdue your mind. There is no
other method.
If you have much devotion to lam rim, you have much wish
to practice. Because of this practice, your mind changes,
realizations come and you are able to make your life highly
meaningful. It is very important to have devotion to the
lam rim teachings.
Again feel great joy as you think: "How fortunate I
am to have this richness of having devotion to lam rim teachings." Then
do the rest of the meditation.
The sixth richness: being born when a Buddha has descended
The sixth richness is being born in a time when Buddha has
descended. To remember the four great aeons is very effective
here. After this earth and this universe completely disappear,
there will be empty space for one great aeon. Then the evolution
of the whole universe - with the three lower realms, the
southern continent, the realm of the worldly gods and so
forth - takes one great aeon. The universe exists for one
great aeon, followed by its degeneration, which takes another
great aeon.
During the period that the length of human life is increasing
from ten years to 84,000 years, no Buddha descends. This
is the dark age, or dark aeon. Buddha descends only in the
period when the lifespan is decreasing, which is much shorter
than the other period. Also, the other human continents (the
eastern, western and northern continents), do not experience
Buddha descending and showing the twelve events.
"How fortunate I am to have this richness of being
born in a time when Buddha has descended, with the opportunity
to
practice the holy Dharma." Again, do the rest of the
meditation.
The seventh richness: being born when the teachings have
been revealed
The seventh richness is being born in a time when the teachings
have been revealed. Even if a Buddha descends, immediately
after he becomes enlightened, he may show the aspect of passing
away into the sorrowless state, so no teaching would be given.
This sometimes happens. If you were born in such a time,
there would be no opportunity to practice holy Dharma. Sometimes
Buddha does not give verbal teachings after achieving enlightenment,
but works for other sentient beings by sending beams from
his holy body. If this had happened with Guru Shakyamuni
Buddha, we would not have our present opportunity to practice
Dharma; we have this opportunity now because Buddha did teach
and his followers recorded the teachings. A Buddha's descent
does not necessarily mean the opportunity to practice Dharma.
At this time, not only has Buddha descended
but he has also revealed the teachings, so you have this
richness. Think: "How
fortunate I am!" Remembering the three great purposes,
do the rest of the meditation on how precious this richness
is.
The eighth richness: being born when the complete teachings
exist
The eighth richness is that the teachings still exist. Like
just making it onto a plane before it leaves, we have just
made it. We haven't arrived too early and we haven't missed
it completely. If we were born too late to receive the teachings
- when all the Tibetan lamas had passed away and no one could
reveal the teachings of the complete path to enlightenment
- it would be very difficult on this earth. Even if you were
born as a human being, it would be extremely difficult to
plant the seed of the entire path to enlightenment. Besides
training your mind in the complete teachings, it would be
very difficult even to hear the teachings of the complete
path.
Even though many other Buddhist countries might exist,
this wouldn't mean that you could receive the complete
lam rim
teachings, without mentioning extensive tantric teachings.
Some teachings might exist in other countries but, since
the complete teaching from guru devotion up to enlightenment
would not, even if you trained your mind in the path, you
could actualize only part of it, only some of the realizations.
You could not achieve enlightenment. We are in the time
of flickering, like a candle flame just before it goes
out.
There is still a little light, though not as much as before.
Like just catching a train or plane, we have just caught
these teachings.
Seeing how even in the past year so many lamas have passed
away one after another, we can understand that we have
less opportunity to receive the complete teachings. Before,
even
if one lama didn't have time to give a teaching, another
could give it. There were many choices from amongst those
who were holders of the complete teachings of Hinayana,
Paramitayana and Vajrayana. There were many perfect,
qualified gurus who
could reveal the necessary teachings and lead a disciple,
according to his capacity, to whatever goal he wished
to achieve. Even now both teachings, the infallible understanding
of the meaning of the teachings and also the realizations,
exist in the holy mind of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
and in the minds of many other high lamas and meditators.
Experiential
understanding and also infallible intellectual understanding
of the entire teachings do exist. Many meditators nowadays
are experimenting on the lam rim and tantric paths and
developing realizations.
Feel great joy at receiving this richness of the existence
of both teachings.
The ninth richness: being able to follow the teachings
The ninth richness is being able to follow the teachings.
The actual definition of following, or entering, the teaching
is having refuge in the mind. When refuge is actualized in
your mind, you have actually entered the teaching of Buddha.
Refuge is the door to the teaching of Buddha. The beneficial
fear of samsara is one cause of taking refuge; another is
devotion to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. To rely completely
upon Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is the definition of refuge.
Understanding the qualities of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,
and how they are able to guide you, you take refuge in them.
With these two causes (fear of samsaric suffering - either
of the three lower realms or the entire samsara - and devotion
to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, with complete reliance upon
them), you have entered the Dharma. This, rather than simply
listening to teachings, is the actual meaning of entering
the teaching.
In many places on this earth, no matter how much someone
may want to receive teachings on Buddhadharma and practice
them - perhaps after finding some Dharma books in a shop
- there is nobody in their country they can ask for instruction.
No matter how desperately they may want to practice, there
is nobody who can guide them completely - in bodhicitta,
emptiness or the general path. Even though from his own
side the person may have much inspiration to practice,
because
the teachings do not exist in that country, it is extremely
difficult to find such a guide. There is no one with the
complete experience and also the infallible understanding
of the whole teaching of the path.
I find it very useful
to meditate in the following way. You Western people
first work in a job in the West for many years in order to
save
a lot of money. At considerable expense, you then come
here to Dharamsala. After making it here to Dharamsala,
you meet
many obstacles and problems. You are often unhealthy,
run out of money, have problems with your family or sometimes
can't live here very long because of passport and visa
problems. Even after coming all the way here, you encounter
so many
other obstacles. Sometimes you come here by accident,
but
many times you come purposely to receive teachings and
learn how to have a better life. Even though there
are many problems,
without wasting time, you try to practice, receiving
teachings and doing retreat. While you are here in the East
where
you have all the opportunities, you try as much as
possible to
practice Dharma.
The Tibetan Government opened the Library of Tibetan
Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India, not in the
West, yet
it is Westerners who study there, not the many Indians
who live
just here. They don't have to spend thousands of dollars
to come to Dharamsala; they live so close that it would
be easy for them to come to the Library. Here in Dharamsala,
they are living near to His Holiness the Dalai Lama
and many
other high lamas, who came here to India more than
twenty years ago. They are not living in the West, but
in India.
In each year, however, perhaps one or two Indians study
for a few days at the Library; the rest of the people
are from
the West. You can see the different karma; this itself
is an example of good and bad karma.
All the Buddhist teachings that made the land of Tibet
holy, and through which so many Tibetan practitioners
have achieved
enlightenment in one brief lifetime, originated in
India. And there are now many monasteries and Geshes
here. In
the West, you have to invite Geshes from India, which
can be
very difficult. There are unbelievable problems in
getting a passport; it can take years and years.
But there are
plenty of Geshes here in India - as many as you want.
The entire
teaching exists here. But how many Indians study
Buddhadharma or come to the monasteries? How many become
nuns or
monks? You don't see any. Even though the teaching
exists in
this country, the Indians do not follow it. Because
they do
not try to meet the teachings, because they have
not received the richness of following the teachings,
they
have no understanding
and their minds do not develop from stage to stage,
higher and higher.
You were not born in India, but somewhere completely
different - an unexpected, amazing place that is
like something from
another planet! Actually I was very surprised when
I went to the West for the first time. I had been
in Nepal
during
the time there were many hippies. Lama Yeshe and
I arrived in Nepal during an interesting time.
Wherever you went
in Kathmandu, on every corner, you saw people with
pale skins,
as if they had dust on their bodies, dressed in
all kinds of things. They were everywhere. Sometimes
there
were
more hippies than Nepalese people. After some time,
I think
some Western countries told the Nepalese Government
not to allow
the hippies to stay. The Nepalese visa law was
changed and there were then fewer and fewer of them.
At the beginning I didn't feel very much surprise
that Westerners were coming to stay at Kopan
and take teachings.
Their trying
something like this was not much of a surprise.
However, when I went to the West and saw the
houses in the
cities (in Nepal the hippies lived in broken-down,
smoky houses)
and the general conditions in Western countries,
it seemed impossible that Westerners would think
of Dharma.
It
seemed impossible that the thought to do something
else, such
as meet Dharma, could ever arise.
First of all, in the West there is such a great
development of sense pleasures and, second,
the customs and the
environment are quite different. I was very
shocked. Actually, in
terms of Western living standards, culture
and way of thinking,
it seemed an impossible thing to have happened:
for Westerners to think to live such a new
life. It is
an impossible
thing, like a dream - but it happened!
Seeing the West made me feel greater joy and
surprise that Dharma was spreading there,
that changes were
happening. You should rejoice at having this
richness of being able
to follow the teachings. In some ways, thinking
back to
your own country, you have much more cause
for joy than Tibetans,
for whom it is normal from birth always to
have lamas nearby or to be near His Holiness
the Dalai
Lama.
This is nothing
unusual. In this sense it is more like a
dream for Westerners. If you think back to your own
country, the majority of
the people there have never met Buddhadharma
and their way of
thinking opposes it completely. This should
make you rejoice more and appreciate how
precious the richness
of following
the teachings is.
Then do the rest of the meditation.
The tenth richness: having the necessary conditions to practice
Dharma
The final richness is having others, out of compassion,
help you to practice Dharma through providing the necessary
conditions; and having a virtuous friend, out of compassion,
reveal the teachings to you. You can relate this to both
past and present teachings of the three vehicles. "In
the past the virtuous friend, out of compassion, revealed
to me whatever sutra teachings, tantric initiations and commentaries
I wished." It is good to remember both the present and
the past. Feel great joy at having met the virtuous friend
who, out of compassion, is revealing the teachings. "With
this richness I can achieve the three great purposes." Make
the decision not to waste this precious human body qualified
with eight freedoms and ten richnesses, but make it highly
meaningful by constantly practicing bodhicitta.
When you meditate in detail on having met a compassionate
guru to guide you, you should not think it sufficient to
have met a guru revealing the graduated path of the small
scope, so that you can receive a good rebirth in your next
life. However, simply meeting a virtuous friend who can
teach the infallible method by which you, the disciple,
can definitely
accomplish your wish to receive a perfect human rebirth
in your next life is unbelievably fortunate. Even if
you do
not complete the path in this life, you can take a human
rebirth again and continue to follow the path.
Remember that at this time there are many people in the
world who want happiness now and in the future. However,
even though
they want to follow a spiritual path for peace of mind
now and for future happiness, they meet a guru who is
a non-virtuous
friend.
Unless you create good karma, the cause of happiness
- whether in this life or future lives - there is no
way
to experience
happiness at all. For example, a person who lives by
robbing banks or killing people may make money and
become rich.
To ordinary people in the world, who do not understand
Dharma
or karma, it looks as if that happiness has come from
his profession of stealing or killing. Or if someone
is a very
successful butcher who makes a lot of money and has
every comfort, to ordinary people who do not understand
the
inner evolution, it looks as if his happiness comes
from killing.
It is the same with a successful businessman: for ordinary
people who do not understand karma, it looks as if
business is the principal cause of his happiness.
If it were true that happiness resulted from external
factors such as these non-virtuous actions, the more
negative karma
you created, the more happiness and peace of mind
you should experience. This is contradictory because
peace
of mind
comes only by diminishing selfishness, desire, ignorance
and anger.
The more negative karma created out of selfish attitude
and the three poisonous minds, the more selfishness,
ignorance, anger and attachment develop. From beginningless
rebirths
until now, you have been suffering in samsara because
you have always followed disturbing thoughts and
created negative
karma through these disturbing thoughts. The disturbing
thoughts
have not lessened and have continued until now.
For anyone to expect peace of mind and happiness
when their actions follow disturbing thoughts and
the dissatisfied
mind is completely contradictory. Lama Tsongkapa
says in
The Great
Lam Rim Commentary:
Following desire in the hope of gaining complete satisfaction
is the most painful suffering of samsara. No matter how much
you follow desire, the result is always greater suffering.
As long as you follow desire, suffering has no end.
You try something, but don't get satisfaction. You try again,
but don't get satisfaction. You try something else, but again
don't get satisfaction. Your hope is to get full satisfaction,
but as Lama Tsongkapa says, as long as you follow desire,
suffering has no end. This is the nature of life for everyone
on this earth, non-human and even human. As soon as you stop
following desire, however, confusion and suffering end. As
long as you continue hoping for satisfaction, more and more
problems come.
If peace of mind did increase and disturbing thoughts decrease
as a person became more and more wealthy, millionaires would
be the ones with realizations of renunciation, bodhicitta
and emptiness. Only wealthy people would have these realizations.
Since beggars are not wealthy, they could not be happy and
would not have the opportunity to gain greater peace of mind
through these realizations.
Ordinary people who do not understand karma may think that
happiness comes from success in business or from other external
conditions. Being a butcher by profession could be the condition
for someone to be happy, since he obtains money from this,
but it is not the principal cause. The principal cause of
his having comfort and wealth is his good karma; the other
factors are conditions. This is why someone with a very good
education may have difficulty finding a job, while someone
without much education may have a very happy life with a
good job earning good money. It is not necessarily the person
who is very smart, with many thousands of ideas, who succeeds.
For example, other people - and the person himself - might
believe that a person's business will succeed because he
is very smart and has many, many ideas as to what can be
done. However, if he has not created the good karma to experience
the result of happiness or success at that time, no matter
how smart he is or how much education he has, there is no
way he can succeed. Without dependence upon karma, there
is no way to have success. This is why so many educated people
who are intellectually clever and who, according to their
own plan, should be more successful than others, in practice
do not succeed. For other people who are not brilliant, things
may work out very well. Without creation of good karma, there
is no way at all to gain happiness.
If it were dependent solely on education and intelligence,
all smart, educated people should have happiness and success.
However, there are many people, especially in the East, with
no education at all, who cannot even sign their names, but
who lead very successful lives. It is completely wrong and
unreliable to believe that happiness comes from business,
that the conditions for happiness are its principal cause.
If you create good karma, you will definitely experience
happiness as the result. As long as you do not destroy the
good karma, it is one hundred percent reliable that you will
experience the resultant happiness from that particular good
karma.
Without dependence on the creation of good karma, there is
no way to experience happiness in this life, or in future
lives. Without the practice of moral conduct, there is no
way to receive a good rebirth, the body of a happy transmigratory
being, in your next life. If you as a disciple meet a non-virtuous
friend who says that you don't need to practice moral conduct,
since he does not reveal the infallible method, you will
have no opportunity to receive the body of a happy transmigratory
being in your next life. If you meet a non-virtuous friend
who teaches his disciples that non-virtue, what is opposite
to the moral conduct of the ten virtuous actions, should
be practiced, that guru cannot save you even from the lower
realms. He simply leads you to the lower realms.
Many people practice a spiritual path because they want to
find peace of mind but when they try to find a guru, meet
a non- virtuous friend. They then have no opportunity to
receive even the body of a happy transmigratory being in
their next life. You should feel very fortunate to have met
a virtuous friend who can show even the infallible method
to receive the body of a happy transmigratory being in your
next life. So many gurus talk only about the happiness of
this life, never about preparing for the happiness of future
lives. If the practice the guru reveals results in good karma,
there is a hope of creating the cause of happiness through
that practice.
Many spiritual seekers on this earth have met a guru, but
one who has no understanding of the Four Noble Truths, so
is not qualified to teach them. Or who has no understanding
of the cause of suffering, and not even the correct intellectual
understanding of the infallible right view, or emptiness.
Since what he believes is emptiness is wrong view, there
is no way his disciple can have the correct realization of
emptiness, nor even an intellectual understanding of it.
As there is no remedy to samsara, it is impossible for the
disciple to cut the root of samsara and achieve the sorrowless
state.
Think of all the people who have met a non-virtuous friend
who cannot lead them to the sorrowless state. "How fortunate
I am to have met a virtuous friend qualified to show the
entire path to the sorrowless state." Think of the many
others who have not met a Mahayana virtuous friend who can
show them the complete path to enlightenment. "How fortunate
I am to have met a Mahayana virtuous friend." Since it is uncertain when your death will happen, before
your death, while you have all these opportunities through
having a perfect human rebirth, you should practice as skillfully
as possible. Of the ten richnesses, five come from your own
side and five from the side of the place: being born in a
religious country, when a Buddha has descended and given
teachings, when the complete teachings exist, and when there
are qualified vajra gurus. During this short time that you
have all these opportunities, you should use every capability
you have. You should be careful with your life and practice
Dharma as carefully and skillfully as possible in order to
make your life meaningful and of benefit to all sentient
beings.
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