The Best Life
A student wrote to Rinpoche requesting ordination.
My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind emails, I am so sorry for the long delay.
To generate the preparation, meditate on the lamrim, such as on Liberation in the Palm of your Hand or Essence of Refined Gold. Especially try to develop realizations of renunciation of this life, the graduated path of the lower and middle capable being, the suffering of samsara and the nature of suffering. Please meditate until you get strong understanding.
It is best to have realizations of the lamrim, guru devotion, renunciation of this life and future lives, as strongly as possible, then to become a monk and live well in the vows. That is a very, very good life; it is most meaningful, the best life, the best way to use this perfect human life. In this way you purify past negative karma and obscurations, then you don’t have to be reborn in the lower realms.
The main thing is to practice morality and then in the next life you will be reborn as a deva or human. Even by practicing bodhisattva vows and tantric vows, then the next life creates the cause to have a perfect human rebirth. So by practicing all three vows—pratimoksha, bodhisattva and secret mantra—this creates the cause for a human rebirth, to meet the Dharma again—the Mahayana and tantra teachings. Not only that, you can also achieve ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, and by practicing the three higher trainings you can achieve full enlightenment and have perfect compassion and bodhicitta.
You can see that having this perfect human rebirth and using it this way is more precious than the whole sky filled with wish-granting jewels, but it doesn’t last forever, it doesn’t last long. Death can happen any year, any month, any week, any day or any night, any hour, any minute. Especially nowadays, there are so many circumstances that cause death, especially cancer; so many people die of cancer and many other conditions. So we must practice Dharma right away.
So, you becoming a monk, that is the right answer. Thank you very much a billion times.
With much love and prayers...