022107
THE EIGHT FREEDOMS AND TEN ENDOWMENTS

The Eight Freedoms (Page 46)

The eight freedoms are also sometimes termed the eight “rests”—the human is “resting” from these restless states. We may be born in one of the second four and the situation changes to a perfect human rebirth.

The Ten Endowments (Page 47)

1. The first of the ten endowments is birth as a human being. But this is not enough: check how many humans lack the other endowments.

2. The second of the ten is being born in a religious country, which means a country in which Buddhism is present. If we are born in a place where there is no Buddhism, it means that there are no fully ordained monks, and therefore we cannot become ordained. Ordination is a discipline for the mind at a high level. In Tibetan we say dom pa, which means protecting the mind from negative actions, keeping it away from delusions, freeing the mind. This is a quick and profitable way to practice Dharma and reach enlightenment. As the number of monks increase, so the teaching of the Dharma increases.

In the center of a religious country there are people—monks and nuns—keeping the different levels of ordinations and precepts. This enables us to practice morality, as these are the people who grant the ordinations. We are extremely lucky to be born in a country where there are such people. Some may think that this has nothing to do with them, that it’s only a tradition or custom, but the person who receives ordinations is very fortunate, because keeping the different precepts is a quick way to be led to enlightenment and freed from suffering. People who observe such precepts are in the safest place; it protects them against the outside enemies and their harmful actions, like a protective fence surrounding them. The enemies are outside interferences and dangers, and the ordinations protect from these. If we go outside and break the ordination, there are too many problems. If we have no fence then there is no protection from danger, and it is so easy to be disturbed by living beings, elements, and so forth. Ordination protects us from ignorance, and creates positive action.

3. The third freedom is being born with perfect organs.

4. The fourth is avoiding the five inexpiable sins. Avoidance of the five inexpiable sins is necessary for ordination. The deaf can’t hear the teachings or the sound of Dharma—there is much suffering, and no freedom. If one is born with an ugly body, no one will like it. One cannot be ordained. The extreme negatives are very difficult to purity. An arhat is one out of ignorance, who doesn’t himself suffer from death, but it creates very bad karma for the killer; the tathagata has full realization of absolute truth, and there are different levels of tathagata.

5. Fifth, if you are born with no belief in the three divisions of the teachings, you cannot develop your wisdom. Realizations depend on the complete understanding and practice of those teachings. Within the three divisions, Abhidharma contains the explanations on the evolution of the universe, both about the mind and the outer universe. Sutra explains much about the path and the absolute true nature of reality. Vinaya gives the details of the precepts and ordinations, the necessity of taking them, and many other things.

6. Sixth is being born during a non-dark period. This is a non-dark period because there are still highly realized beings in the world who have the continued lineage of the teachings from Buddha.

7. Seventh is being shown the teachings of Buddha or his followers.

8. The eighth is the existence of the experiential teachings in the world. Our present gurus have received the teachings from other gurus back to Guru Shakyamuni continuously, without a break in the linage. The Tibetan Dharma practitioners look upon the present teachers as representatives of Guru Shakyamuni. If there is no existence of the experience of the teachings in the minds of beings, then something is missing—it is not enough for the teachings alone to exist; there must be realized beings.

9. The ninth is following the path of Buddha’s teachings. We must follow the path of Buddha’s teachings as our future enlightenment is only a creation of our own mind, and so our suffering is the same. There would be no suffering for all sentient beings if there were no reason for it, but all suffering is a creation of the mind. It is important to know this at the beginning. Without looking for ourselves we will not find the solution to our problems for hundreds of eons. Yet as sentient beings become their own worst enemy they can also become their own best friend and helper. Through the purification of the mind, each human being can achieve enlightenment—the time it takes depends entirely on the person. Enlightenment is a creation of each being’s own mind. If suffering were not our own creation there would be no need to create our own enlightenment—but there is no suffering that is not a creation of mind, and if we don’t try from our side we shall not find the solution to our problems.

However, when we try to perform positive actions there is often much interference from the negative mind. That is why there are fewer holy beings than non-holy beings. It is difficult to be a holy person, with peace in the mind, the mind well-subdued, because there are so many disturbances to our good actions. So today, a short method to be able to prevent those interferences as much as possible is to practice and talk about Dharma. As we have more negative than positive minds, so that much easily the outside interferences can disturb us. Our negative minds interfere in the development of our Dharma practice. Even outside evil spirits and non-living outside interferences such as elements afflict us. But when there is pure positive mind, there is no way that interferences can disturb us, because these things themselves arise from the negative mind.

Consider two countries, India and China for example, who want to create war. India had some kind of negative aim towards China—they wanted to get some goods—so they put a bridge across the border. Then they had a disagreement and because of the bridge the Chinese were able to cross easily and cause many problems. So the bridge that was fixed by the Indians for that negative reason now causes the great problem of war. If those negative aims hadn’t been there, there wouldn’t have been the bridge, and there wouldn’t have been the problem. This is an example of how the negative mind creates problems. None of the interferences are the fault of the interference itself, but are only a creation of the negative mind, which makes the passage through which we receive interference.

Each topic in Dharma practice is correlated. This is why it is such a vast, profound, and deep subject. There are two perfect guides. One is internal—who you become, and one is external—the one who gives you the teachings. The outer guide is the causal guide, and the inner guide is the resultant guide. When we talk about an enlightened one we should not think that we are talking about something separate from ourselves. It is within.

10. The tenth of the ten endowments is receiving the kindness and compassion of others. We must have a compassionate guru, and someone to help with food, clothes, and so forth. In Tibet the practitioner’s life was easy as far as begging goes, because all the people greatly respected anybody who observed the precepts. Some benefactors gave food with faith and others with compassion, so there were no distracting problems of temporal needs. In most parts of the world this is more difficult.

So there are the chances to practice Dharma.

The purpose of meditating on these eight freedoms and ten endowments is to experience the suffering of these unhappy states, to feel beyond words, and to understand what it is to be a heretic—to see how ignorant we are, and what bad karma we can create. There is no such definite suffering as that of the narak realms—in these realms is as if the earth itself were made of red-hot burning iron with no escape and no control. In the cold hell it is as if we are on an ice foundation; the body is one with either fire or ice.

So we can discover how precious and useful the perfect human rebirth really is, to help us to understand and develop the mind, and to escape from suffering. The human birth has great freedom compared to the other states. And we can see how lazy we are, following ignorance. Even if we receive the teachings, we don’t follow them.

This meditation destroys laziness. We can prepare to not be born in these states. It gives an answer to the question of the purpose of the human life—its great freedom to practice Dharma and to escape from suffering.

It is important to see the benefits of the human rebirth so that when we come into contact with the teachings we use them and are not lazy. Therefore, this meditation comes first. If we don’t understand the sufferings of other rebirths, laziness will stop us from using the method. The Enlightened Being’s method is like this—it stops many dangers with the discovery that this present human birth is extremely precious. We can gain enlightenment and escape ignorance. This is the technique of such highly realized pandits as Nagarjuna and Tsongkhapa; this is their method.

Meditating on the eight freedoms and ten endowments is not just counting numbers—it has great purpose. By realizing the previous examples we come to realize the value of the human rebirth. If we don’t know about these lower realms then we don’t see the importance of this human realm. This is due to our lack of checking with wisdom, not realizing the mental state of the beings in other realms, and deep ignorance.

We should check up and feel pleased—if we can sacrifice our lives for our possessions, why can’t we work for all sentient beings who have served and helped us since beginningless time? We should check up and feel joyful for as much as we have. And we should prepare to receive whatever is missing in the future—we should create good karma so as to be reborn with perfect organs for the development of Dharma practice. During our meditation time we should remember it all.

In this meditation we should feel joyful for our perfect human rebirth. Then in the true dharma way we should take care of it and not waste it. On this basis we can develop Dharma practice, and without it there is no possibility of following the true path. It was from this basis of the perfect human rebirth that the great yogis such as Milarepa gained enlightenment.

THE PERFECT HUMAN REBIRTH: HOW IS IT USEFUL? (Page 47)

When we really check up to see how useful the perfect human rebirth can be, we see that it stops the ignorance of using our lives as if we were animals. We should also compare our precious human rebirths to the lives of those humans who can’t practice Dharma. It is a sad thing to consider an animal born as a human.

The selfish mind suffers from the self-caring conception based on the delusion of the false self. This ignorant, impure mind prevents everlasting happiness. These mental hindrances must be destroyed—samsaric happiness cannot be everlasting. The clever person does not care for the present, small suffering because he knows that the future suffering is great. But the future cannot happen without the present suffering. Greed, ignorance, and hatred are not useful, even for a moment—this is the most important thing to realize. Kaka is better than chocolate since it doesn’t create greed and negative mind, and so is less of a hindrance to existence.

The great yogi Milarepa, Guru Tsongkhapa, and other ascetic lamas lived in the essential practice of Dharma by begging, under great temporal difficulties, before their powers were well developed. But they got great energy from understanding the nature of ignorance, which causes suffering. Also, by taking themselves as examples, they understood great numbers of other beings. They renounced their own greed, ignorance, and hatred, and had the great will to clear out their own negativities. In this way their compassion became energetic—the knowing of their own suffering to understand that of others—and so they could help other beings more quickly.

Temporal illnesses will continue to arise while the person is concerned only with these—we should control the future great suffering by eliminating ignorance. For the great yogis, each time a mental or physical temporal trouble arose, it helped their realizations and practice, since they deeply understood the cause as rooted in ignorance, which they further tried to control. Instead of feeling hatred towards other people, they would feel it towards their own ignorance, the enemy.

The Reasons the Perfect Human Rebirth is Highly Useful

1. The perfect human rebirth is highly useful because this is our chance to end the round of samsara and end all the mental sufferings and worries that we don’t desire. Yet still we keep on suffering as we have been from beginningless time. We often think that this suffering is new, but this is only due to our lack of understanding—each experience of suffering has no beginning, yet still we haven’t stopped it completely. We have always had imperfect births, births in irreligious countries where there is no Buddhadharma, thus creating more bad karma. So this time, having attained the opportunities of the eight freedoms and ten endowments, we have the possibility to extinguish suffering because we have so much freedom to practice Dharma. This is the life with the chance we didn’t have before—as this life we have the freedom to break the continuity of suffering.

If there was no suffering mind there would be no suffering body. Through Dharma practice we work to stop suffering by realizing the absolute nature of existence. This is the meaning of life, the reason we are born human having the freedom to practice Dharma. This is why we do the meditation course, this is why we came here from the West. An airplane is used for flying in space, not in the jungle or in bushes. The perfect human rebirth has been created by past lives for the same purpose and it is now in our hands to do it, it is up to us, the pilots of our perfect human rebirths.

We are trying to figure out how to best use our lives. Like traveling to America, how quickly you go depends on expenses; the time it takes to reach enlightenment depends on your will and the strength of your practice. The fewer mistakes in the practice, the shorter the time—but the practice must be pure, for purity is its foundation.

Different levels of realization are created by practices such as circumambulating. A variable amount of good karma is produced depending on the person’s understanding. Going around a blessed holy object creates good karma even for one of low understanding because the object itself is associated with the holy minds of so many buddhas to guide sentient beings and to allow them to create good karma. This is especially true when considering famous stupas such as that in Bodhgaya—many highly realized beings become associated with it, having invocated and blessed it, and such blessings stay with it and can help purify negativity and create good karma. Such objects remain holy until the earth is destroyed. And even without pure impulse one can create good karma by circumambulating these precious holy objects because of the power from the object’s side.

There are so many ways to create good karma, but without understanding the Dharma they cannot bring quick enlightenment. Any action done with the expectation of comfort for this life is negative. This is the greed that is to be destroyed by this meditation, and is the purpose of this meditation.

The student of one guru, with strong will and faith, freely cleaned around the guru’s house for many years. Due to this good karma he achieved enlightenment, despite difficulties in receiving teachings.

2. Also, in this lifetime, even if we do not attain enlightenment, we can become bodhisattvas and gain psychic powers to see beings of many past and future lives. According to the level of realization, we can help in the realms of many sentient beings by transferring our bodies there. As our realizations become higher, we will see more and more buddhas and great beings, and hear their teachings. This is also possible in this lifetime.

3. It is also possible that we might become a lower arhat, released from rebirth in samsara and having achieved everlasting happiness without going through the bodhisattva’s path.

4. This perfect human rebirth gives us the opportunity to realize bodhicitta, the will only to help other sentient beings.

5. We can also attain other realizations, such as perception of the absolute truth and the true nature of mind. The knowledge of Dharma mind arises from practice.

These points above are the higher usefulnesses of the perfect human rebirth.

6. Also, we can attain the possession of many universes.

7. We can experience worldly benefits that arise from the creation of good karma. Usually we don’t pay attention to the usefulness of our human life, due to lack of understanding the Dharma. So now we are checking it, to see.

The cause of the result of a precious human rebirth can be created in this lifetime and not necessarily in past lifetimes. If we look at the sufferings of lower beings, such as animals, we can discover how precious our human rebirth really is. This is important to discover, for understanding these differences causes us to not use our human life as if we were animals. In this way, we destroy our ignorance and use our human rebirth for a higher purpose. The more we realize this, the more energy will come to encourage us to do so.

Generally, such things as sleeping, eating, desiring self-happiness, killing other beings, and having sexual intercourse are all done by animals. If we do the same thing as an animal it makes no sense, and gives no purpose to our birth and life as a human being. There are more animals suffering than numbers of men—we are talking in big views, with a broad outlook. How can an animal perform good deeds?

The mind is beginningless and it takes rebirth in the six samsaric realms, entering the cycle of death and rebirth created by ignorance. After one life has finished, the mind takes another body in the same country or on the same planet, or in a different realm. This is determined by luck, according to karma—the positive or negative actions of body, speech, and mind. As the mind is beginningless, so is the experience of taking the human, animal, narak, and other realm bodies and forms. For instance, in one day, month, or year, a human being creates all kinds of different karmas for future rebirths in all six samsaric realms—good and bad karma, and even creates karma at the time of death. The experience of creating karma is also beginningless. At the time of death, of all the countless trillions of created karmas, whichever is the closer, heavier, or more habitual, brings the result for the next life. If it is the karma for rebirth as a pig, the craving and grasping of a pig arise and give strength to the seed of the ability to become a pig. At the death of the pig, if the karma to be reborn human is the heaviest, closest, most habitual, or done first, we take a human rebirth. Usually the good karmas for the human rebirth were created in the human realm; in the lower realms it is almost impossible to create such karma. But when human, we can break the continuous, beginningless chain of bad karma, so this rebirth is extremely useful and precious for our escape from samsara.

Meditation without sacrificing ourselves, our possessions, or our names to sentient beings can never purify us or bring enlightenment. We are fortunate in that we have a method of making even our breath beneficial to each sentient being. This aim we cannot see, it is formless, so each time we exhale we are sacrificing nothing to sentient beings, yet we are buying the perfect peace of enlightenment and therefore should feel fortunate. Many times we have been born human, but have wasted these many lives, using them for ourselves. So now we shall use the human life for other sentient beings. Also, doing this is offering service to the infinite enlightened beings. We become Buddha’s best servant by working for sentient beings, because enlightened beings exist only for the benefit of sentient beings, to lead them from suffering to enlightenment. So our helping sentient beings is the best offering to enlightened beings, like the army which fights to protect the country does service to the king.

We should compare a lot of people, especially those who don’t have freedom to practice Dharma, whose lives are not so useful. There are so many human beings on earth but the perfect human rebirth is very rare. And compared to non-human beings there are so few humans—they are rarer than jewels. Try to remember all the possibilities and compare them to those of beings who don’t have so much freedom. Then we can see more and more how precious the human life is. With such experience we can renounce possessions, we can use our rebirth for sentient beings in contrast to ordinary people who dedicate their lives to the care of material possessions and non-living things. With the perfect human rebirth we can enjoy as we desire—non-humans can’t enjoy both worldly enjoyments and the practice of Dharma.

There are two ways to see how the human life is useful, the Dharma way and the worldly way. Beings in the lower realms can enjoy neither, and those in the upper realms cannot practice Dharma. If we don’t check the usefulness of the human life in a Dharma way we may not use it most wisely.

Why are people on earth not yet in peace? Why are we not released from ignorance? Why are there so few with clean, well-subdued minds, and so many with suffering minds? The reason is that the latter do not understand Dharma’s perfect methods, or the usefulness of the perfect human rebirth in allowing Dharma practice. As a result they spend their lives in a low, unskillful way, according to their wisdom and understanding. We are really lucky that we can recognize the wise and beneficial alternative way of using this life. The limited view holds that life has no meaning and is to be used only in a temporal, worldly way: This is a short, sad view that brings feelings of loneliness and boredom, unhappiness and dissatisfaction.

If material possessions were the cause of perfect peace and happiness, we would already have received it, because in past lives we have had great wealth and numberless possessions. But still the mind is ignorant. To change the mind’s personality from negative to positive is the way to perfect peace. All the jewels in existence cannot even destroy one of the thousands of negative minds, cannot cut off even one of the negative mind’s branches. But the perfect human rebirth can be used to completely cease the billions of problems and their foundation—ignorance. Nothing can compare to one lifetime of a perfect human rebirth, even jewels filling infinite space, because these jewels do not stop the continuity of one single type of suffering. Momentary cessation by material means is not the cure or cessation of suffering. True cessation from the Dharma point of view is ending the continuity of suffering.

Unless we can recognize the nature of suffering we cannot recognize its cause. Nor can we recognize perfect happiness and the way to attain it. Trying to use temporal means for the momentary cessation of suffering is only creating the cause for more suffering; beings that do so are preparing for the arising of future suffering while thinking that they are stopping it. Because of attachment to temporal pleasures by greed, they do such things to fulfill the desire for momentary freedom from unpleasant things. We have been working for greed; we are slaves to it. Always check up all of your actions—each can be clearly seen to be following greed. As the three negative minds always see the object in the wrong way, not in the absolute way, they always cause problems.

WASTING THE PERFECT HUMAN REBIRTH (Page 48)

Shantideva said, “There is nothing more foolish or ignorant than one who does not subdue or train the mind’s non virtuous actions when he has received the highly meaningful perfect human rebirth.”

Since animals have no chance to know Dharma, they have limited opportunity to create positive karma and create negative karma instead. Many humans, such as barbarians and heretics, are in the same situation. Therefore, those who have the perfect human rebirth, with its eight freedoms and ten endowments, and do not train the mind in Dharma practice are much more foolish and ignorant. To waste this chance is the worst thing. To use it for the pursuit of temporal happiness, higher samsaric happiness, or for our own peace is selfish, and the greatest waste there is. We must use this time for the purpose of enlightenment, and not be like the man with great wealth who dies of starvation because he doesn’t want to spend any of it.

Shantideva said, “If I have the fortune to lead a virtuous life and don’t do virtuous work, what will I do when born in the animal realms, where beings are deeply ignorant?”

The meaning of this is much the same as that of the previous quotation. If born an animal, we will be unable even to enjoy samsaric pleasures, let alone practice Dharma.

A human is reborn as an animal when there is the appropriate negative karma. As Chandrakirti said; “If one does not regard a person from whom one receives teachings, even if just a few words, as a guru, the result will be rebirth as a dog.”

Nagas are sentient beings living in ignorance. They can make or stop rain, and they are related to the karma of the beings living at that place. Special pujas can influence these beings.

If Buddha sees an object it exists, even if we don’t see it. If we see an object and Buddha doesn’t, the object does not exist.

022108
THE EIGHT TEMPORAL DESIRES (Page 49)

Lord Buddha said, “Life continues until death, starting from the time of conception in the mother’s womb, following worldly ways without following a new path.”

The sufferings of death and after death are the fault of not following the new path as shown by the enlightened being in this lifetime. Any kind of worldly life, in the East or the West, is the old life, the life experienced countless times in previous lives; there is nothing new.

“One should not be attached to one’s own body.” Milarepa said many important things in his teachings, including this. He also said, “Food is like the spice of devils—as we enjoy more and more it brings worse and worse effects. Therefore give up clinging to food and other enjoyments, which tie one like a rope.” In other words, give up the eight temporal desires.

The main problem is not the object but the mind, the negative creator. Control the mind and objects cease to be a problem. The pure mind, free of illusions and delusions, can change poison to medicine or kaka to amrita; it can prevent the penetration of a thorn and can bring infinite happiness.

The senses of touch, hearing, and so forth are limited, a result of the negative mind, and result from enjoying objects in the wrong way. By changing the creator (mind) we can definitely change dirty objects into clean objects, ugly into beautiful. But the method works at different levels, according to the level of wisdom, and it can’t just be done straight away.

Consider a friend who always speaks beautifully. One day, instead, he speaks angry and ugly words, and he is no longer seen as beautiful, but now is ugly. His appearance has not really changed, yet the sight of that same face induces anger. Then we make up—with words, gifts, and so forth, and it changes again. Greed sees beauty, anger ugliness. Purification of the negative mind brings perfect peace.

Milarepa said, “The riding friend is the devil’s daughter.” As values change we will be betrayed, therefore be cautious.

Also, “Our own homeland is the devil’s prison; it is difficult to get out of, so better escape soon.” Milarepa says that as all these things have to be left at death, better to do so now—leave those friends, that homeland. Then, “If one can do all this then one has the fortune of practicing Dharma.”

The door to the understanding of our own nature, the door to positive mind, is the recognition of problems created by the negative mind, such as not wanting to meditate. Of course ignorance objects to new subjects, new practice. Ignorance always likes things that are wrong and false. But Dharma is meditation on ignorance, suffering, death, and so forth, and therefore not “pleasant.” Since beginningless time we have taken great care of our greed, ignorance, and hatred. Suffering will continue in all of the future lives of the person who continues to work for those things—keeping ignorance in comfort and out of problems and confusion, out of positive action. Lord Buddha’s way of helping people is to make them understand, and to then let the person make a free choice about following the method. There is no with force without understanding in the Buddhadharma.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, “If we can’t renounce the momentary life through the practice of meditation on impermanence, the Dharma actions we perform become a service to the eight temporal desires.”

Any actions not done under the influence of the eight temporal desires should be done with a mind living in the practice of the meditation on impermanence. If the mind can renounce the temporal life, actions can then become positive, Dharma actions.

“Dharma” is not just a name. It has great meaning. It does not only belong to Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and so on. The pure practice of Dharma belongs only to oneself—it is created by the mind. It is the method shown by the enlightened being; it is the method he followed, practiced, and experienced completely. In the same way, truth and impermanence belong to no sect.

Literally “Dharma” means “holding” or “guiding” living being from the suffering of:

1. the three lower realms
2. the total samsaric suffering of ignorance, greed, and hatred
3. and the subtle obscurations.

Dharma leads from these three states to enlightenment. Each of us has to create our own essential practice of Dharma and become a positive guide instead of an enemy to ourselves. For example, following the negative mind, the ignorance of the suffering result that will follow, we are led by greed to steal.

Even if our main aim is not working for the food and clothing of this temporal life, we still work against enlightenment unless all of our energy is devoted to achieving this result. If we live in the pure, essential practice of Dharma we will get still food and clothing. After death we will not be able to work for enlightenment. In traveling to another country we see many things on the way, even though this is not the main purpose.

Since we don’t know the time of our death, it is most worthwhile to seek enlightenment soon. For one living in the essential practice of Dharma there are fewer problems. Through understanding comes a great mental change, less physical activity, and as a result less physical worries. We renounce the eight temporal desires.

All problems depend on mental conception—they don’t exist by themselves, but arise from the way that we judge situations. The same person is sometimes a friend, sometimes an enemy. Avoiding the eight temporal desires cuts off so many problems. Our conception changes and with deep understanding comes perfect peace. We must realize the shortcomings of the eight desires, and be as afraid of them as we are of even the smell of a poisonous plant.

Attachment to the eight desires brings worry when they can’t be fulfilled; renunciation means cessation of such worry. There are more important things to worry about, such as the creation of bad karma, the suffering of the three lower realms, and so on. This kind of attachment disturbs meditation.

The peace of renunciation is inexpensive and doesn’t depend on rockets, factories, weapons, armies, or presidents. Such peace continues into enlightenment, growing stronger and greater. It starts with renunciation of the eight desires, which is like opening a door—a simple step that requires an understanding mind, and not an ignorant action. We must know the evolution of such an action—the reasons for it and the expected results. Most actions are done with ignorance of their evolution, such as taking drugs—but instead of making us more and more crazy, renunciation makes us less and less so. It is like a saw, cutting problems and confusion, and is opposite to the temporal desires that actually stop all happiness, including samsaric happiness.

Many people who don’t understand Dharma and have no experience of it are shocked by those who follow a spiritual path and give up temporal things. This is especially true in the case of parents of Westerners. Many of them get a big shock and think that this is a great suffering and the action of a limited mind. They think that those who do such free actions are foolish and leading a nonsensical life. They think that it is only causing more problems and that it is not a non self-supporting life. However, all this is judged with ignorance, without understanding the benefits of such true actions. Since they have not been through the experience they cannot know. Besides not seeing the future benefits of such actions, they think it causes us problems in the present, which is a view opposite to the true evolution. In reality, these actions bring future benefits and immediate help. Renunciation of the eight desires releases us from the mental troubles of confusion and samsaric worries, bringing peace. Thus the practice of Dharma brings future happiness, and peace and happiness to this life.

It is very dangerous to think, “I was happier before doing this.” Such thoughts destroy the merits of good actions, are poisonous, disturb the practice, and bring the good life down. If we have a problem with our practice it means that there is something wrong with the practice, so we should check what is wrong and check its cause, which is some mental action. Until we sort this out continual practice is difficult.

With renunciation, the power of practice grows stronger, our future improves, and we get things without trying. But if we try too hard we might be reborn a preta.

As it is said, “Has there been any great meditator who dies of starvation or suffered cold through not trying to collect materials?” This passage refers to the sincere meditator, and applies to both the present and the future.

There was one Tibetan who had trouble satisfying temporal needs until he practiced the essential Dharma, after which it was easy. He said, “Before I practiced Dharma my mouth had trouble finding food; now the food has trouble finding my mouth.”

The unenlightened mind is a friend to ignorance. This helps us to understand how things are created by the mind. Others might use these troubles to build ignorance and agree, but the holy beings use temporal problems for enlightenment and peace.

The eight temporal desires must be renounced—freedom from them creates real peace. Renunciation is a mental action arising from a decision. It is difficult; it is harder to change mental actions. To do so requires a positive mind, and to not allow it to happen is a creation of the negative mind. The problems are not the objects or pleasures, but the desires themselves, the mind—suffering is created by the mind. We must understand how this works beyond intellectual knowledge.

The craving desires and our negative mind have caused us to continue in the samsaric realms. From the smallest animal to the biggest, from beggar to king, those whose lives are not focused in the practice of Dharma are concerned only with present momentary problems, not with future suffering, and they lack understanding of the nature of suffering. Their greatest mistake is to always create the cause for greater sufferings while trying to stop or cure the temporary ones; they do not understand the nature of suffering nor its cause. Therefore there is no recognition of true happiness. Actually, they think of trying to stop temporal problems by temporal solutions, yet that itself is the real cause of more temporal problems in the future.

How do we cease this? If we don’t recognize our mistakes it is important to know this essential Dharma point: temporal methods never help—if they are checked up those methods only create the cause for the continuous arising of future temporal sufferings. And the reason for this is that such methods are done mostly for the eight temporal needs, done for greed as this negative mind wants. Greed is attached to the eight temporal needs, which can all be seen in the light of greed. They all depend on greed and work for it, like servants cooking for the master. We are the same, most of us have been working for greed: check up your own actions even now. Ask, “What am I doing this action for?” We can discover how to stop temporal problems by asking, “Is this what greed needs?” We can discover this greed more and more. But the result of actions done with greed, ignorance, or hatred is always suffering and problems.

Greed is the creator of samsara. Love mixed with greed is love created by ignorance, and one still remains in samsara. This love is not the same as real love, and its results have to be experienced in the three lower and three upper realms. Why doesn’t it bring peace? Because the principal cause is the unsubdued, untamed mind; the root mind is confused, is a wrong mind, because the three negative minds always see the object in the wrong way and not in the absolute way. They see the object in a way that is not true to an enlightened mind. So the rest is like this, just as one with a black mark on his face can’t expect to see a clean face in the mirror. It is impossible for peace to arise from those three negative minds, so the whole problem is their fault. All methods done according to greed for temporal needs are negative actions. We use all those negative actions to cut off all those temporal problems that were created by a previous mind’s karma in a previous lifetime. And that method of the eight temporal needs is the cause of future temporal problems. The present methods of solving our problems bring the same problems because the methods are negative, arising from a mind that is not well-subdued. It is just a cycle: to stop that which was created by previous negative karma we use a method similar to that used before, and so it continues.

Besides the actions that follow greed—for example, having a job as a butcher where one lives by killing animals—we may also cause much suffering for other beings. This is like a double negative action. But a butcher does that job to keep his life in comfort, this is his method to take care of the temporal problems that arise. He doesn’t think of himself as a negative person. However, his life is the result of previous negative karma whose result has to be experienced. But as long as he doesn’t try to understand the method in the Dharma he will definitely have to experience the suffering result, if not in this lifetime, then in some other lifetime.

That method doesn’t really take care of all temporal problems, the physical and mental sufferings—they are not completely ceased. Furthermore, this method creates negative karma—simply in order to take care of this life he is creating the cause of suffering, creating bad karma to stop bad karma—an impossible thing. This is no one’s fault, but he will have to suffer in a future life and so it always circles round. To stop suffering on the temporal level he is creating the cause of suffering for the animals he kills.

Also, stealing and telling lies are double negative actions, because besides the action of our own greed, they create suffering for others. Such actions are also done by animals.

Any actions—even reciting mantras or making music—done with greed, hatred, or ignorance only bring the result of being in the cycle of samsara for a longer time in which more suffering results.

Buddhadharma has no definite form of action—every action can be either of the two, Dharma or non-Dharma—eating, writing, playing, dancing, and so on. No matter how they look, if any actions are done without involvement in the eight temporal desires and with bodhicitta motivation, they are Mahayana actions, and if they are done with attachment and greed for the sake of the eight temporal desires they are non-Dharma actions. The method that avoids the eight desires is a method to stop the continuity of bad karma, leading to escape from suffering and to enlightenment. This is a perfect, true method.

What makes a Buddhadharma action? Positive action avoids the eight temporal needs and opposes them; it is against greed and attachment. Such action creates good karma and brings happiness in this and future lives, human rebirth with better conditions and a religious life, bodhicitta, perfect peace, and enlightenment.

When one comes to really understand Dharma it can come as a kind of shock. Many people think it is easy, just imitating another person—if he closes the eyes, I close mine. But the real Dharma is the person’s actions that are pure of the eight temporal needs, positive, against greed, free of hatred and ignorance. It doesn’t matter what he is called because the action doesn’t depend on the title Buddhist, Hindu, Zen, Missionary, or Muslim. He may even be called “evil,” but if his actions are pure and positive they have the power to destroy the negative mind and to create good karma. Such actions arising from pure motivation are called Buddhadharma because they can bring enlightenment and escape from ignorance. This must be created by the mind, not by the actions alone.

The form of Dharma actions is not definite and Buddhadharma is open to anyone, something that everyone can do as their freedom to practice allows. But we, sentient beings, close it off ourselves. It has nothing to do with class, caste, occupation, titles, color of skin—beings do not create good karma as a result of ignorance. Any deep, profound subjects, any deep Dharma teachings difficult to discover, are only a creation of our mind—they are not something that the Enlightened Being made deep and profound, but only a creation of mind. The level of Buddhadharma that can be practiced depends on the person’s level of wisdom. Why aren’t more people practicing? Because their ignorance doesn’t give them a chance. Renunciation and avoidance of the eight temporal needs is more powerful than the atomic bomb. The bomb destroys the place and the people, which would end anyway, but it cannot destroy the mind, which is continual. The bomb also causes danger to our comfort by causing danger to others. Even if it were to destroy all other beings and we were left alone on earth, still other enemies would arise to make us unhappy. Even if this ended, the body ends, the mind transfers to another realm because it has not been released from ignorance, the delusions are not cut off, and the continuity of previous bad karmas are still present. In other realms we meet other enemies, and we will always do so until the problem is cut off. The real cause of the outer enemy is the mind, the real enemy is the inner enemy, ignorance. As long as we travel in the six realms behaving as friends with the inner enemy instead of destroying it there will be no end to the problems with the outer enemy. Rather than helping, actions such as destroying our outer enemies with atomic bombs only create great bad karma.

The action of avoiding the eight temporal needs, however, doesn’t depend on madness or chemical things for its practice, and is done in our own mind. This mental action is the main power, the energy that brings enlightenment and all the paths. It is like fuel for a rocket and brings quick escape from ignorance and the illusive mind; it is a direct method to cut off the continuity of the bad karma and all branches of the negative mind, bringing perfect happiness.

Guru Shakyamuni became enlightened by completely purifying his mind of all negativity, and he became the object of respect and refuge for all sentient beings. All this was the result of his practice of avoiding the eight temporal desires, allowing him to work for the happiness of all sentient beings. This mental practice has great power.

Due to the power of Guru Shakyamuni’s practice and realizations, many people are able to create much good karma by keeping statues of him with the knowledge of what this represents, and making offerings to remember his knowledge. Now, many Western people are starting to realize what the mind is, that life is meaningful, and so on—this too is the power of Guru Shakyamuni’s practice and enlightenment.

The power of the atomic bomb is nowhere, is lost, and has only negative effects. This is unlike the power of avoidance, the benefits of which can affect numberless sentient beings, including those we’ve never heard of. Practice in the mind, as Guru Shakyamuni did. Even this meditation course results from the existence of his teachings, the power of his enlightenment, and his practice of avoiding the eight temporal needs. The mind that has this practice is shapeless and cannot be seen, yet this mind has incredible power such that numberless sentient beings can achieve enlightenment. The person who says he wants to be exactly like Milarepa has to practice the avoidance of the eight temporal needs. This is the fundamental practice of the Mahayana teachings and meditation. Many ask why should we study these subjects, why not kundalini yoga? So many people have wasted the perfect human rebirth without knowing the highest and best purpose of the human life, so many humans have achieved psychic powers from such methods only to die and be reborn in the lower realms. Many people waste their lives like this; they make mistakes and do not use their lives in the most precious way.

Practicing Dharma is the wisest way to use the human life and make it meaningful. We do not do this in order to destroy the comfort or to miss the happiness of this life. Using the life in the most beneficial way is for the purpose of not causing suffering. Dharma practice has the power to give subdued peace in this life. It can give the happiness of release, whereas any pleasures that are received from the action of greed are pleasures of bondage. The happiness from the practice of avoiding the eight temporal needs is the peace of release. We must check up, we have to experience it.

With practice, renounce greed. Renunciation of the eight temporal needs doesn’t mean physical separation—this is not the definition of renunciation. A king who has everything can live in renunciation; the beggar who doesn’t practice renunciation doesn’t depend on physical separation. We have to check up—how do we generate renunciation? What is the definition? Avoiding the creator of suffering and renouncing the greed that desires the eight temporal needs is something to do with the mind, the inner mind. Pure renunciation can never cause problems—as the cause is pure the result will always be pure—happiness. But if we make a mistake it can cause hassles for us and for others. However, correct renunciation brings release. “Release” has a very tasty meaning. The main problem is not merely the attachment to the temporal life but the greed and ignorance that lie in the mind—we have to avoid the negative mind, and at the same time avoid the actions of the negative mind, because the negative actions make the negative mind’s existence continual, like a cycle. This practice helps now because as it is done, even though we don’t renounce, is important to know.

Not understanding is ignorance. If someone says bad words to us, slander, and we have attachment to the eight temporal needs, we won’t like to hear them, we will suddenly get angry and at the same time see that person as ugly. All this creates bad karma of mind and may create bad karma of body and speech. We have so many problems, why did it all happen? Anger arises from the greed that is attached to the temporal life. Greed sees beauty, but it is poisonous, one of the worst things. A very tricky mind always causing suffering, created from attachment. Negative karma and the negative suffering result arises; this continues in a circle. All of the above arises from attachment to comfort with pleasing words and from the dislike of displeasing words. For a person in the essential practice of Dharma—avoiding the eight temporal needs, not following the action of attachment—there is no anger, as the mind is opposed to this in the way it works; there is no reason for anger to arise so the person doesn’t care. The other’s words are like the sound of the wind; we see no difference and don’t care about sounds. Such a mind is really a strong mind—no anger and no attachment, no bad karma so such peace. That is something that brings complete perfect happiness; that mind is very free, loose, and released, but the other is very tight.

We are all equal in desiring happiness. We all come to this meditation course seeking happiness, not suffering. We must make our actions positive so that we create good karma, for this is the cause of happiness. At least we should have this small little idea or thought. We must make our motivation positive, even when listening to Dharma: just taking the teachings isn’t enough to avoid rebirth in the three lower realms or to attempt rebirth in the three upper realms. Even taking the teachings with the thought and will to release ourselves from suffering is the low and selfish thought of a self-cherishing mind, despite the fact that it will bring perfect peace. Not realizing other sentient beings’ sufferings never helps anyone. All other beings and I are exactly equal in not desiring suffering and in desiring happiness, so there is no reason to care more for myself than others. But the others are unlike me in that they have not met the teachings and do not have the wisdom to recognize practice and avoidance. They are always suffering and creating its cause. From them come all my happiness, realizations and enlightenment, they have always been kind and always will be, and therefore they are more precious than any possession. I should repay and take care of them, dedicate myself to them, for there is no other way to enlightenment. The best way to take care of them is to enlighten them, but now I do not have the power to do so, therefore I must receive this power. To do this I must destroy all negativity, so I shall listen to the teachings of the graded path, meditate, and purify myself. In cultivating such a pure motivation the action of listening to the teachings becomes that much more powerful, beneficial both to myself and to all sentient beings.

The knowledge of avoidance of the eight temporal needs is infinite; the power of this practice of renunciation is such that we can never finish explaining the value of knowing it. The more we recognize Dharma the more we recognize the infinite, transcendental knowledge of the buddhas. At the same time we discover for ourselves how powerful and precious this practice is—it is more precious than any jewels and there is no danger of its ever being lost or stolen. The more jewels we have, the greater the worry in the mind, the more the thoughts of them arise—how to use them, protect them, and so forth. But the more purely we practice the avoidance of the eight temporal needs, the more quickly we escape from ignorance and wisdom arises, and the sooner the problems associated with material possessions disappear. The more we live in the practice the purer it becomes.

The person living in renunciation of these needs at the time of death definitely avoids rebirth in the three lower realms. But anyone who has not renounced greed, despite any high psychic powers he may have developed, must be reborn there. In ancient times there was a Tibetan who practiced tantra without practicing renunciation, and with merely a look he could kill one hundred people. But when he died he was reborn in the narak realms. Anything that does not cut off greed and attachment only keeps us in suffering and cannot guide us to release.

The power of renunciation can allow us to transform a stone into a flower. There are three powers in dependence upon which one can do miraculous things—the powers of medicine, mantra, and the elements. But the power of this practice is the safest, firmest power that protects our mind. So many meditators in past times could protect themselves by this practice. Take the example of the meditator Kharag Gomchen. Before his achievement of Dharma practice he was in a greatly miserable condition, suffering much sickness from leprosy. Nobody wanted to contact him and so he was always away from people, which made him very upset. He decided to make this situation worthwhile, and left his place to stay in a little cave on the road, live there, beg and recite a mantra—there was no other practice. One night he dreamed he was in water and a white man appeared and took him out of it; much water came out of his body and when he awoke he found he was cured. This was due to his strong mental condition—the mind that caused this was the mind working against attachment, living in the avoidance of the eight temporal needs. Even momentarily, instantly, mental suffering can be cured by this practice—it protects and helps even in this temporal life, helping one with temporal problems and bringing happiness. The happiness arising through this practice can be developed until enlightenment. The leper didn’t aim to be cured, but this came about as a result of his pure practice.

Many people think that Buddhadharma is all about renunciation and not having a happy life by enjoying things that cause suffering. Many think that they cannot experience happiness because they renounce. Such a conception is completely wrong, completely opposed to the logical experience gained from this practice. The more the mind works in the opposite way, the more the mind is put into confusion.

This can be proved clearly by personal practice. If you want to check up, the observation has to be made by mental practice. Do not be attached to temporal comforts. As practice is done it can bring happiness in this and future lives. The conception that renunciation doesn’t bring happiness is wrong.

Shantideva said (page 49), “The perfect human rebirth, the most difficult to find and a greatly beneficial foundation, is, however, received by good fortune. While having the wisdom to know practice and avoidance, if one again leads oneself to the narak realms, one is purposely making oneself ignorant.”

Engaging in any action opposed to the renunciation of the eight temporal desires is like purposely keeping ourselves in ignorance, in the cycle of death and rebirth, and will bring rebirth in the lower suffering realms again. That is why it is very foolish and nonsensical. The fact that it is crazy is not recognized by a worldly person because ignorance does not see ignorance as being crazy, it only sees its own actions as positive and good. The ignorant mind thinks that understanding suffering is crazy. This kind of craziness is worse than temporal craziness, because the latter is the fault of this ignorance. By not avoiding the ignorant mind, without purifying the inner craziness, one can never cease temporal craziness, that which is recognized as craziness by worldly people.

Many practitioners practice Dharma by surmounting temporal sufferings. This is a wise action, because such beings are trying to stop the continuation of suffering—bad karma and ignorance that arise from past lives. They are also trying to not create any bad karma for future lives. For this reason they practice Dharma, not caring about temporal problems, and thinking that by cutting off the cause of all suffering they will cut off all temporal difficulties. If you can practice like that, with such great will, temporal problems will be overcome. Disturbances will be overcome, and then temporal problems will be overcome. Disturbances depend on your mind, how you think, your wisdom. The ignorant mind is a very limited mind and always gives you the method to continue the cause of suffering. The Dharma mind is completely opposed to that.

The negative mind is that which is attached to the pleasure of samsara, and using this human rebirth for these purposes always creates suffering. The negative mind never helps. There is not the tiniest bit of help or happiness that can come from the negative mind, from greed, so how can it be useful? It is important to know that its effect is always harmful to the person.

Many people think, “Without greed, how can we enjoy food and so forth?” If we don’t check up we can make this mistake, this wrong conception. Perfect peace has to be achieved by removing the negative mind, greed. Many think that happiness comes from greed, and without it things cannot be enjoyed. This represents a lack of understanding of where greed comes from. Happiness doesn’t arise from greed, ignorance, and hatred. It arises from the mind of non-greed, non-hatred—it comes from positive actions and positive minds.

The happiness that arises from Dharma practice is free and loose; its nature is release. Samsaric happiness that is recognized by the limited mind is of a tied or binding nature. All happiness that is not the suffering of suffering is never caused by the negative mind. The principal cause of samsaric happiness is ignorance—not having the realization of the absolute true nature or the reality of existence—and any actions that are done without this realization. The mind living totally in the conception of self-existence intuitively conceives of charity as self-existent, and due to this ignorance causes human rebirth and the enjoyments of temporal needs. The samsaric happiness that comes from this type of ignorance is suffering from the Dharma point of view, and true happiness is that which does not arise from the negative mind.

The craving to hear sweet words or sounds, the craving for praise and admiration, and so forth are defined by ignorance as happiness. Such pleasures do not continue—in time they become suffering. As such they are not real happiness.

Attachment to the eight temporal needs is following greed, as a servant follows his master.

It is stressed in the teachings of the Enlightened Being that we should not trust desire and that we should not be attached to samsaric happiness, which is created by the deluded mind, is suffering in nature, and is not true happiness. As long as we believe in such pleasures we shall remain in samsara. The true Dharma happiness is that which arises from the practice of renunciation of the eight temporal desires. This kind of happiness can never end, its enjoyments can never finish, yet the work to achieve this state can be finished. In the case of samsaric happiness, however, the enjoyment and happiness always end, so the work to attain them will never finish. The action of trying to be happy never ends, and in samsara there is no end to working for temporal enjoyments. This is like eating and defecating. Until we cut off the karma created by ignorance we have to go round and round like this, and as long as we still have the cause to take rebirth again we die, always cycling around. Until we cut off the cause it can have no end. The Dharma practice of renunciation can end in time, but samsaric actions have no end.

The wise, holy beings who know the meaning of life, comprehend its best use, and understand the evolution of karma always try to do the work that can be finished. The peace that arises from renunciation can be developed at higher and higher levels, and the experience of it can never end. Samsaric happiness cannot be developed. We get pleasure from bathing but if we stay in the water too long it becomes cold and we crave warmth. We are happy eating food, but if we eat more and more, we lose the taste, our stomachs fill up, and we vomit. All this proves that the nature of such “happiness” is suffering—it cannot be developed, it always turns to suffering, and it is not permanent. Sherpa people who enjoy drinking wine drink one cup and then drink another because they liked the first, and so on until they become very uncontrolled, with no discipline. Usually they fight and use nonsensical words, then they break things that were usually obtained through many difficulties. Their minds are not happy, caused by the wrong belief that does not see the true nature of suffering. The same things can be said about the use of drugs.

THE PERFECT HUMAN REBIRTH: IS IT EASY TO RECEIVE? (Page 50)

Shantideva said, “The perfect human rebirth is extremely difficult to get and brings all good success in the future life. He who doesn’t create good karma in this lifetime will not receive a perfect human rebirth in the future.”

This quote explains the cause of the perfect human rebirth, that is, good karma arising from actions that are beneficial to the pure mind and not to ignorance. It also emphasizes that the future life depends on the present life’s actions. That’s why the present is so important and precious, and is as useful as the earth itself. There are so many good things that we can do—especially, in this lifetime we can cease the cycle of death and rebirth. The quotation also emphasizes that the present rebirth depends on causes from the previous life. For the human it usually results from knowledge of the teachings; there is a logical reason for the human rebirth—the creation of good karma through virtuous mental actions and virtuous deeds. But any actions based on ignorance and done with greed or hatred for the comfort of this life causes rebirth in the three lower realms, and such actions are not Dharma actions, for the fundamental definition of Dharma actions is that they be done without ignorance, greed or hatred, and with future lives in mind.

Good karma is Dharma—it should be created with positive understanding, not by instinct or intuition. It is the aim or motivation of an action that creates the karma, not the action itself. Karma is an inner subject, and is something to be checked with the mind.

“Without the aim of the comfort of the temporal life” doesn’t mean that we should not eat or wear clothes, and so forth. If there is no understanding of Dharma, then no matter what the action, even virtuous behavior is not Dharma practice. There are many levels of motivation for good actions, but the ultimate motivation is to consider future lives—for example, having the motivation to reach enlightenment so that we can best help others. Other motives have less power, such as the motivation to attain our own perfect peace. If we help others expecting a reward in this life, we do not create good karma.

As we eat fruit and plant the seeds to grow more, in the same way as we enjoy the results of good karma we should create the causes to experience more.

Karma is evolution based on cause and effect. If we fully understand the inner evolution, we can understand the outer evolution better and more deeply. The best way to study science is by studying inner evolution. The practice of Dharma clears obscurations. All depends on karma, therefore all is created by mind. The earth that we see is created by our minds although it is not necessarily mental. Mind has the power to perceive objects, and that which is not mind does not. Samsara is a creation of mind, but buildings, mountains, and so forth, which are also created by mind, are not in samsara.

The life related to this rebirth depends on the karma created by the previous life’s minds. This means that the present is created by mind. If there is no mind, then there is no creation.

There are so many ways to understand Dharma—just a few words can mean many things to those who know.

The great, highly realized Tibetan pandit Atisha said, “As one has received the perfect human rebirth this time, one must try to fulfill the cause to achieve it again in the future.” This cause cannot be created by the negative minds of greed, ignorance, and hatred. Bad karma is principally a creation of mind, expressed through actions of body, speech, and mind. But greatly evil actions can be created in the mind without the involvement of body or speech. This is one of the most dangerous things. Even if we stay in silence in one place for our entire lives, we can still create bad karma and suffer for countless eons. The mind can be very dangerous, especially as it is responsible for the actions of body and speech. Yet every good thing is also created by mind. The whole object of Dharma practice is to stop the negative actions of the mind. We do this by increasing the positive mind so that there is no room for the negative. And this is the whole point of taking ordination and following precepts.

The mind is the creator of all suffering and all happiness. Enlightenment is a matter of time—wisdom requires energy, and energy comes from the mind, through meditation.

Morality and Charity

Ignorance obscures the purpose of morality and charity so that there is self-propagation of the negative mind. This mind that thinks that practicing morality is creating suffering for itself is extremely lazy. We should understand the evolution of morality and charity, and also understand the negative actions so that we can avoid them.

It is extremely rare to find anyone practicing pure morality and charity not just in action but in reality. We could count the number easily. There are too many disturbances to practice this way. There is an explosion of the negative mind and such practice is very difficult in the West and in the East, but especially in the West. This is nobody’s fault but it is created by the negative mind.

We must practice while human if we want a perfect human rebirth in the future. Shantideva said, “This opportunity, the perfect human rebirth, is exceedingly difficult to obtain. The purpose of humanity is the attainment of the bodhisattva’s performance. If it is not made useful here, how can perfection be gained hereafter?”

In Lord Buddha’s time there were many nagas living in the ocean. There was a great increase in their number at that time, and when a king who was surprised by that increase asked about it, Lord Buddha explained that this was due to the fact that these beings did not correctly follow the moral precepts they taken in previous lives, and failed to purify themselves after breaking the vows.

It is difficult to create the cause for a perfect human rebirth in the six samsaric realms (see next page). In the lower three it is impossible due to the great ignorance and suffering of these realms. In the upper three it is difficult due to distractions. Also, at the present time in human existence it is also difficult, and it is getting increasingly so. Yet the cause for this present human rebirth was created in many previous human lives, not just one, so wasting it wastes so much previous time and effort.

In Dharma practice the level of realizations depends on the degree of purification of obscurations—it takes time, and the continual energy required comes from basic understanding, the result of continual practice. It is not easy. Yet laziness is not self-existent or intuitive. As we create it we can destroy it. We must give up samsaric comforts and the happiness of this life as the holy beings did.

From the Dharma point of view, morality is abstaining from negative mind and negative actions, from actions that are not permitted by the Enlightened Being if one is to achieve enlightenment. Abstinence is essential for morality and requires a strong motivation or will. We must want to take care of ourselves and our minds. Charity also requires the will or the motivation to dedicate to other beings.

The practice of charity without morality brings rebirth as a rich animal, like a naga, for example. The breaking of moral precepts or not observing morality brings an animal rebirth, the charity of karma brings riches in that rebirth. But in that animal lifetime one is too ignorant to create more charity, so that karmic result ends and no further enjoyments arise. As Chandrakirti says, “One who breaks the leg of the precepts and is reborn as an animal never receives enjoyments once the result of charity has finished.”

According to the Mahayana view, charity doesn’t depend on materials. It is our responsibility to give pleasure to others, but it is not our responsibility if they are attached to samsaric pleasures. If you offer drugs in the food of a person who is living in mental discipline (ordination), disturbing his practice, it creates bad karma. We must be careful when we give, and develop skillful wisdom to help others.

Keeping precepts cleans the mind of created impurities and helps to not create more.

Difficulty in creating the cause for the perfect human rebirth in the six samsaric realms is further explained as follows. In the narak realms there are so many beings. This is a terrible place, a karmic creation, without escape. Naraks do not die as we do, and the environment is extremely hot and totally dark. Their lives last a long time, varying in accordance with the karma they have created. It does not matter how much they desire to escape, there is no freedom to do so. With all this suffering, ignorance, and desperate desire to escape, there is no opportunity to create good karma, especially through the practices of morality and charity. In these realms, the beings cannot create the cause for a human rebirth. The preta and animal realms are similar.

The beings in the god realms are too preoccupied with enjoyments. They have bodies of light, drink transcendental nectars, and enjoy long life. They neither see nor recognize suffering and can’t practice renunciation.

Even in the human realm it is difficult to practice morality and charity. Just unthinking abstinence is not enough. There must be will and motivation, and understanding of the suffering result of not practicing this way. The person in a cave, never coming out, isn’t necessarily practicing morality. One must make the choice. There are few humans creating morality—we should check up on our own lives.

People following morality are more rare than jewels, and decreasing in number each year. It is difficult to practice this way because our minds are more and more obscured by ignorance. Morality fights the negative mind of ignorance and greed, which finds it difficult to practice for even a day. Even when trying to observe morality we break it. If we think that keeping moral conduct is like being in prison, then it will be very difficult to achieve the perfect human rebirth in a future life.

We can now see how difficult it is to create the cause for a perfect human rebirth. Therefore we must take the most care of this life since it is so difficult to receive one again. We can only create the causes for this to happen if we know what they are.

The cycle of suffering is such that as long as we don’t seek the truth through continuous Dharma practice, the problems will continue. If we don’t do this when we have attained a perfect human rebirth, then when? How long will we have to wait for another opportunity?

HOW SHOULD I MAKE THIS PERFECT HUMAN REBIRTH HIGHLY MEANINGFUL? (Page 51)

The highly realized Tibetan Guru Tsongkhapa said, “If one recognizes that receiving the perfect human rebirth is difficult and highly meaningful, then one can definitely avoid any meaningless actions which make the life meaningless. One must recognize what is meaningful in life through meditation.”

To make the life meaningful, meaningful actions are required. To create such actions we need to recognize the perfect human rebirth, therefore we start our meditation with this. This is the principal cause to build up energy for going long-term, and receiving all the realizations that lead to enlightenment. This takes a long time, in dependence on how quickly we purify negativity and many other things. The long trip requires many porters.

We must have the interest to create energy. Why does it depend on energy? Because that trip is the hardest, and that is why we never made it before, from beginningless lifetimes until now. Why is it so hard? Because it is solely a mental trip. There are many obscurations and interruptions concealing the passage. Therefore we have to prevent and purify the hindrances that stop us from seeing the path to enlightenment. We must destroy the self-created mental hindrances. It is easier to destroy the earth.

In our previous lives we have killed every sentient being without exception, countless times. Such actions are old habits, nothing new. Furthermore, each of us has been killed by every other sentient being countless times. There is no reason to go on like this—it has not helped. The evolution of samsara is a very interesting subject, but shocking if fully understood. Understanding brings wisdom, which brings method, which leads to perfect peace. Also, the meditation on death is the greatest solution to the negative mind that asks, “What does it matter if he or I die today or tomorrow?”

Shantideva said, “In the human boat one can cross the great ocean of suffering. Such a boat is difficult to receive again, so while in ignorance one should not sleep.”

Building ignorance is like sleeping—when asleep we are unconscious of even large and heavy objects. If we don’t make the effort to wake the mind from ignorance, to gain enlightened knowledge, and instead use our efforts for the comfort of the temporal life, all of our actions only create ignorance. As long as we work for greed, hatred, pride, jealousy, and the many other negative minds, we are working for ignorance. On the contrary, if we help sentient beings, if we have the great power to do this, we are working to help the buddhas, the enlightened beings. Helping the branches of the negative mind is acting as if we are asleep, with unconscious minds, not seeing objects in the dark. The mind is beginningless and that is why it has not recognized its true nature, itself. Recognizing the mind is the mystical point—mystical until now, but until we clarify this subject we shall make many more mistakes in our actions. Due to failure to recognize the true nature of the mind, the results of our actions are always opposite to those expected, and we are ignorant of the knowledge of positive and negative evolution. As long as there are mistakes in our mental actions there will be mistakes in our actions of body and speech. Until we recognize the mystical aspect of the mind, no matter how long and how strongly we desire to cure suffering and receive happiness, our methods will fail, no matter how hard we try.

Also, as long as we don’t discover this inner mystical subject, in general we are ignorant of the outer mystical objects, and the many things that have many different levels. Such ignorance—we don’t recognize the mind or ourselves, we have been using the mind from beginningless time until now, yet still don’t know what it is. If we don’t recognize it when we are human, how can we do so when we take rebirth as animals? It will be impossible.

Discovery of the mystical point of the mind is the key to opening the door to the understanding of every other existence. This discovery is also like a medicine, for its gives the solution to and cures all problems.

We should use this perfect human rebirth like a boat, to cross the ocean of suffering and reach enlightenment. This is the reason that we received this rebirth.

The mind that wishes to be reborn in an upper realm does not have the greatest will, but if we can’t receive enlightenment in this lifetime then it is best to be reborn in the upper realms, so that we can create the karma to receive a perfect human rebirth. Then, using that life as a bridge, as a temporal place, if it is not possible to receive all realizations then we should create the causes for another perfect human rebirth. In this way, gradually, we will reach enlightenment.

Remember the two types of fear: positive fear that results in preparation for the future life and negative fear that doesn’t, and arises from ignorance.

Shantideva said, “After receiving such a precious human rebirth, there is no ignorance greater than not realizing its purpose—creating merits, developing wisdom, and receiving realizations, which most other sentient beings can’t do.”

We who have received the perfect human rebirth have many freedoms, and if we do not use this life to receive higher realizations we are more ignorant that any animal, and we are betraying ourselves.

Therefore, it is important that even our practice of listening to Dharma be done in the best way, making the most of the perfect human rebirth. Bodhicitta, this high motivation, should be especially strong so that the listening becomes more successful. If we don’t have this, then at least we should be free of the eight temporal desires and of samsaric motivation, such as wanting to learn the Dharma to teach others for the sake of our temporal reputation.

In ancient India and in Tibet the highly realized pandits had the full experience of the practice and fully saw their own nature and that of other beings. Yet they never showed pride. They looked simple, as if they knew nothing, like beggars, and just slept and ate—but this was just their outside appearance, and their minds could not be seen. One could ask them for teachings, but realized teachers do not teach those who are not ready, for it might disturb them. Even though such pandits had lifetimes of knowledge, they had not an atom of pride, and their minds were at rest and peaceful. They would never say, “I know Dharma, I have these achievements.” They did not show their realizations as if in a market and they were always very humble, losing themselves so that others could win. This is bodhicitta. They only tried for enlightenment to benefit sentient beings—and we too are free to cultivate this motivation.

We should think, “I am going to listen to this teaching in order to achieve enlightenment only to benefit other sentient beings.”

This is the motivation that makes an action most beneficial. How should we make the perfect human rebirth meaningful? The best, highest way is to work for the achievement of enlightenment in this lifetime. If not that, then we should work for the state of a bodhisattva, or the destruction of ignorance as an arhat, or the realization of bodhicitta, fully renounced mind, and the understanding of the absolute true nature to equip the mind before death. At least we should be sure to avoid a lower rebirth.

If a person develops bodhicitta it is definite that he will not be reborn in a lower realm. This mind has the power to protect us from bad karma. It has more power than all the material possessions on this earth, because those things cannot protect us from the cycle of suffering and rebirth, old age and death. But bodhicitta can stop all these problems, it has incredible power and can be developed in our own mind through meditation without having to fight, steal, kill, or destroy.

If, however, we receive the method and don’t use it, then no matter where we go, run, or travel—even to the moon—we will never realize bodhicitta. And life will end before our travels are over, before we have seen everything. However we travel, it can never been finished, and without opening the door of wisdom with Buddhadharma we can never fully understand even one existence. We could continue to travel and study, yet even on our own bodies is there too much to learn, and we could study it for our whole life without realizing our absolute nature. In this case, it would not be possible to see that of other beings.

We should study Buddhadharma and the absolute nature of reality and then put it into practice by meditating and purifying. With the support of purifying our bad karma and not creating any more, our practice brings realizations, which are impossible to achieve without doing this. Even now we don’t know what such basic, relative things such as “I” and “mind” are. Becoming aware of ourselves in our own nature makes it simple to realize the nature of other beings’ minds. The more we understand the inner evolution, the more deeply we understand the outer evolution. To obtain full knowledge of the outer evolution we have to make full study of the knowledge of the inner evolution, and this can only be done by making ourselves the object of study.

This is the key to the museum of the mind. Receiving all levels of realization depends on avoiding, fighting, and purifying the many different types of unsubdued mind. This is not easy like cleaning the body or sweeping rubbish from a room. It depends on the continual practice of Dharma, not being lazy, surmounting many hardships. But any hardship is well worth surmounting and experiencing for the practice of Dharma, because the Dharma, which sees the innumerable sufferings and their cause, can finish the whole thing. By one action—the completion of Dharma practice—all those sufferings and their causes can be completely ended. This can never be accomplished by any samsaric action, by any action of the negative mind. This is one of the reasons for the existence of Buddhadharma, why the Enlightened One showed the teachings—a reason for practice, a reason for meditation.

It is generally worthwhile to experience any hardship for the practice of Dharma. So many people undergo incredible difficulties just for this temporal life, so why not for the greater cause, for so many future lives? Ordinary people experience hardships for the one life that may go on for only five, ten, fifty, or seventy years—why then is it not possible to experience hardships for the practice of Dharma? It is so much wiser to take care of all future lives and cease the cycle of suffering. From the Dharma point of view this is the wise action. The other action is ignorant.

Furthermore, the many people who work for this temporal life only have to experience the result of that, which is suffering due to rebirth in the three lower realms. The temporal comfort it brings doesn’t last—in this life we have to work until death, and even then it doesn’t end; in the next life’s body we have to do the same thing again. Therefore it is not worthwhile to experience hardships taking care of this life—experiencing hard work for the sake of temporal comfort cannot end until we are out of ignorance. Therefore this kind of activity is very boring, but due to the evolution of our past lives karma we don’t get bored, which is the result of ignorance.

The lowest purpose of human life is the avoidance of a lower rebirth, so we have to make definite preparations before the time of death. Consideration of the next life is more important than thinking about how to live tomorrow or next year. Of course we all have a gross awareness in the mind that we will die after a time, but most of us will have no idea when. How many days? Another year? We have complete darkness in our minds, no wisdom perceiving this. Yet it is common for everyone to die. Death is definite, the next life is definite. If we check up we will find that there is no certainty that we will exist in the future; this is indefinite. So why should we work for the future of this life, the existence of which is indefinite? All these actions are unwise and trivial because we are unsure of receiving material comfort in the future. But the future life, future suffering, is definite, and as we create less positive karma and more negative karma there will be great suffering in the future. Therefore it is important that before this temporal life ends we make a definite preparation to never experience the sufferings of the lower realms.

We may think that in fact there is no existence of future life, that this is a Tibetan idea. “We Westerners don’t have a future life, we Westerners, no.” But this fact does not depend on belief—not having belief cannot change the true nature of evolution. We think that there is no future life; yet we prepare for next year, future projects, and so forth. But can we really see that each of us will exist next year? Can we see it now? Check up. It is not an object of our mind—we can’t guess, we can’t tell if we will exist in three or four years or not. This is the nature of ignorance. Without knowing clearly we make arrangements.

You ask, “What are you doing this for? We don’t want to know about death.” The answer is that you don’t want to experience suffering; you want to experience happiness without depending on the cause. You want happiness without creating it. But you have to understand the evolution of happiness—you must create the cause, it is your responsibility; that’s what evolution is. We make arrangements to make the life permanent.

Without knowing clearly whether I shall exist after a month, I’m making arrangements to experience comforts, like going here or there, doing this or that. We ask, “Why does he make arrangements, really believing he’ll enjoy them?” The standard answer is, “I’m happy now, so I make plans to enjoy myself in Greece. I don’t think for today, I think for the future and so I’m happy today.” But that mind is skeptical, thinking, “If I can be happy then…” But you can’t prove you will exist in some future time. In the same way you can’t prove that there is no future life—it depends on your level of realization. You can’t prove that there is no past or future life by saying that your limited mind doesn’t perceive it.

You see, I think it’s really foolish not really knowing even the evolution of death, denying that it exists and reasoning that, “I don’t see it; it is not taught in school; I don’t read it in science books,” and then not making any preparations, not being concerned with the future life. This is the greatest mistake. By reasoning that because your mind doesn’t perceive the future life the future life doesn’t exist, you make no arrangements. By the same reasoning someone who is preparing to go to Greece shouldn’t make any arrangements either.

Prepare for the future life? Yes? No? Check up!

We cannot clearly see the future of this life, yet we still plan and prepare for it trying to avoid suffering during those years ahead, so it is illogical not to plan for future lives, also unseen. Why not prepare for death and the future life in order to avoid suffering at those times which are much more definite than the assumed future of this life? Because death is definite it is much more worthwhile to prepare for it than to work for the time until death, making plans about how to enjoy it. With human wisdom this is easy to understand.

We think we are wise—we think, “I know this and this, I want to do these things, I’m always correct.” Yet we always make such mistakes, like not preparing for certain death, not being aware of it, and so on. And if we don’t prepare for the life after death then we shall again go through suffering, generally more than that of this life because it is far more likely that we shall be reborn in the lower realms than the upper. This is not difficult to understand if we check up on our daily lives. Those humans who do not see, believe in, have concern for, care about, or prepare for the future life, and make plans only for this temporal life have the same level of wisdom as an animal; there is little difference. Animals are only worried about the present temporal life and their every movement is for the purpose of taking care of it, this short time. They never prepare for the coming life. The human who acts in the same way has exactly the same level of mind, they are equal—building homes, hunting food, and so on. Between a hunter and a spider there is little difference—both are clever, taking care of this life. In fact, sometimes we humans can’t do as well as animals. The spider can make beautiful webs that we cannot, and there are so many other animals that can do things that we cannot do. Even a bedbug is so clever—it waits until the light is out and then emerges to eat people, taking care of the temporal life. It is very upsetting to see humans leading such a life.

The conclusion is this—instead of always spending time making arrangements for the indefinite, we should prepare for the definite. If we know there is suffering to come we should prepare for it. Once it arrives there is no choice to avoid what has happened; having fallen over a precipice and broken a leg we can no longer avoid the suffering. Dharma is like a dam built before the flood—it helps the present as well as the future. Even the skeptic should prepare for future lives as he prepares for the future of this one; he can’t afford not to.

The essence of the meditation course is to understand that if it doesn’t help for the future lives then doing it makes no sense. Consider the man working in a dangerous, potentially fatal job for money in order to buy comforts of short duration for this life that is also of short duration. For example, think about Sherpas on an expedition: they have to keep on doing dangerous things, expending all their energy. Soldiers also have many difficulties, in training, in combat, in trying to get higher rank for more money. The object of any army system is completely self-destructive with respect to karma—everything is for temporal comforts that last even less than this life. The soldier’s greed, great effort, and entire life is spent for the purpose of temporal comforts, money, self-destruction, and destruction of other beings, which is the complete opposite of bodhicitta.

Nagarjuna said, “Any action arising from greed, ignorance, or hatred is non-virtuous.”

It is very worthwhile to give up the temporal comforts of this life for Dharma practice, and we are very capable of bearing the difficulties we may experience in doing so.

We usually think like this, “As the body disappears, the mind also disappears. How can it be possible for mind to exist without the body? It’s impossible—without the body there is no brain, so how can there be mind? Such things as continuity of mind are not described in any English science books, are not the experience of any Westerner, and I don’t fully see it, I don’t understand. So how can the continuity of mind after the body has finished and the existence of future lives be possible?”

If we think like this, it is the same things as saying, “I won’t exist tomorrow.” No matter what the facts are we can contradict such things as future lives, therefore we can say that in any future there won’t be me or there will be me. Yet we say, “You can’t say that the mind will exist in a future life,” with a skeptical mind.

If we are skeptical about future lives we should be skeptical about scientific explanations of the evolution of earth and man, but we believe in this past evolution because we were taught it in school, or have seen it written in books. This also applies to the future evolution of the earth. The mind is not skeptical because it believes in the scientist, even though our own experience of it is not clearly seen, and the source of our information is another person’s experience. In the same way, the evolution of past and future lives has been the experience of numberless beings, it is the experience of the enlightened beings. They became enlightened only to work for numberless beings through the completion of the practices of bodhicitta and great compassion, with all kinds of different methods as fit beings’ minds. Through practice and realization they fully saw numberless past and future lives even before enlightenment. After the holy beings achieved enlightenment, they clearly explained to their followers what they clearly experienced—their practice of Dharma, the evolution of all beings through karma—and their followers wrote it down in books for us, the ignorant beings. Then others practiced the teachings and also received the same realizations and enlightenment. As they received experiences they also explained them to their followers; then it was passed on again through the practice of the teachings of the other enlightened beings. Such a teaching has no beginning, it is continual—it is not just one person’s experience. The pandits proved it through practice, through mind development, and they wrote many commentaries on that experience, as did Tibetan yogis and lamas. In the same way, we don’t fully see the scientists’ experience, and yet we don’t contradict it. So how can we contradict the experience of those who experienced mental development? If we don’t believe the latter then we cannot believe the former.

What applies here for rebirth also applies to the experience of the great pandits by which they discovered the different realms, such as those of the pretas, gods, and so forth. These exist even though we don’t see them. To negate any other person’s experience because we don’t see it ourselves is very foolish, keeping us a prisoner of ignorance and never opening the door of wisdom. We don’t believe, so we don’t try, so we are always in suffering, creating the cause of suffering, and not understanding the cause of happiness. This is what is happening. We run here, go there, travel to the East, return to the West.

To achieve power we have to practice in our minds, with understanding. If we have no belief we have no practice, and if we have no practice, there will be no realization. This is the whole thing, like it is.

Guru Shakyamuni, with his omniscient mind, once prophesied that a man would be reborn in the upper God Realm. The man said there was no such thing. To make him understand, Guru Shakyamuni asked if there was a certain type of tree in existence, and the man replied, “Yes.” When Guru Shakyamuni said, “No, there’s not,” the man argued that there was, he’d seen it, “It’s my experience.” “Ah,” said Guru Shakyamuni, “Just like this, seeing future lives, seeing the god realm, is my experience.”

If we waste this perfect human rebirth, which is the result of good karma created it in previous lives, it makes both this and our previous lives meaningless. Therefore, as we have the freedom to make our every action meaningful and beneficial to ourselves and all other living beings, one with the Dharma, purifying negativity, any action, big or small, can be made a method of purification in the highest way. We should even keep material possessions in a Dharma way. As we listen to Dharma, having this freedom, we should listen wisely so that the action is of stronger, greater benefit to sentient beings, done with bodhicitta motivation.

Therefore, think like this, “Since I have attained this perfect human rebirth, I must receive enlightenment as quickly as possible for the sake of releasing all sentient beings from suffering. To fulfill this aim I must prevent all obscurations that hinder my achievement of full enlightenment. Therefore, I will listen to the teachings of the graded path.”