Chapter 3: The Eight Freedoms

The first freedom: not being born in the hells

Of the eight freedoms, the first is having the chance to practice Dharma because you have not been born in the hells. Among all the six realms, hell beings have the heaviest sufferings. Of the suffering states of hell, there are eight cold and eight hot hells, as well as the neighboring and occasional hells.

When meditating on the hot hell sufferings, think that the hell beings constantly have the vision of the entire ground as red-hot iron, oneness with fire. It is like this in all the hot hells. In the cold hells, the bodies of the hell beings are oneness with ice, with many cracks and blisters. (You may be familiar with these explanations from lamrim teachings, but many people have difficulty believing in the existence of these sufferings.)

All these hell sufferings are due to the power of mind. When the mind is peaceful and virtuous, a person looks very peaceful and pleasant. When the mind has the nature of compassion or loving kindness, even the physical body looks different; it is very pleasing. Seeing such a person gives other people a warm feeling; it even makes them happy. On the other hand, a person with a very tight mind, who is very selfish and angry, looks very ugly. Even though a person may have looked attractive before, he looks very ugly and terrifying when his mind becomes tight and angry. Other people become upset when they look at his face; his face is so unpleasant that other people don't even want to see it. Even the color of the face changes: some faces turn black, others red, with anger.

Thoughts of loving kindness, patience and bodhicitta make a person look very peaceful. Because you experience a warm feeling when you see such a face, you want to speak to the person and help them. An angry mind, however, changes the aspect of the whole body into a very terrifying one. You are scared to meet or speak to an angry person. This is all due to the power of the mind. The mind has such power that it even physically changes a person. Also, the power of the mind immediately affects the external environment. Your own face and body can disturb everything in the environment. Even alone in your room, if you are angry, the whole environment becomes very black, and it is terrifying for another person to come into the room. This is simply talking about how things can actually change now when your mind becomes negative - I am not talking about having a beautiful or ugly body due to past karma.

All this comes from your mind. Whether your physical appearance and environment are good or bad depends on your mind. The environment of a house depends on the minds of the people living in it. When you approach places where very pure holy beings are living, you receive an incredible blessing that makes your mind very tranquil. Even though you may not see the holy being, just by coming near his house, you become very peaceful and happy. The peaceful environment comes from his living in pure moral conduct.

In a crowded place such as a market or restaurant, hundreds of different people may look at one person. Some may find him ugly and disturbing to their mind, while others see him as enchanting. There is just one object, one person, but different people see him in different ways and their minds are affected differently by him. If that ugly person existed from his own side, without depending on the minds of the people looking at him, he would appear ugly to everybody who ever saw him.

It is the same with someone who looks attractive. If that attractive person exists from his own side, without depending on the minds of the people looking at him, he should appear attractive to every living being. This person should even appear attractive all the time. If you see someone as very attractive the first time you meet them, if that attractiveness exists from its own side, no matter how many years you live together, he should appear that way all the time. In the same way, if you live for years with someone you found ugly when you first met, that should never change; he should always appear that way to you. However, things do change because how things appear to you depends on how you think.

When you don't remember the kindness of your mother, you think your mother is harming you when she scolds you. You don't think that it is kind of her to advise you to be a good person so that you can have a good life. When you don't recognize her scolding and beating as kind, you may see her as ugly. But as soon as you recognize that her scolding you and showing you your mistakes is a method to help you become a good person, you see your mother as kind. Once you see that what she is doing benefits your mind and your life, even though she still does the same actions, because your attitude has changed, you see how very kind her beating and scolding are - and they don't hurt so much. Even though it may still hurt physically, it doesn't hurt your mind as before. You get a warm feeling. The way you see your own body, the external environment and other people depends on your present way of thinking. It depends very much on the way you think now - without need to talk of past karma. Past karma determines whether you have a pleasant or unpleasant environment, but even now so much - even this place! - comes from your mind. Some people see this as a good place; others see this same place as terrible. For some the weather here is too cold; for others it is fine. Living in the same house in the same city, some people find the weather unbearably hot, while others find it comfortable. This all comes from the minds of the different people.

In Precious Garland, the great pandit Nagarjuna says:

From non-virtue all suffering arises, as well as the unfortunate realms of the evil transmigratory beings. From virtue all happiness arises, as well as the happy transmigratory beings.

Because hell, preta and animal beings don't have the opportunity to accumulate virtue, they accumulate non-virtue, and so are called evil transmigratory beings. Virtue and non-virtue simply refer to the inner factor of the different types of mind. Gods and humans have lighter sufferings than other beings, with more opportunity to experience happiness, so are called happy transmigratory beings.

Nagarjuna also says: All our happiness and suffering come from our own mind. When we meet a desirable object, a happy feeling arises. When we meet an undesirable object, a suffering feeling arises. When we meet an indifferent object, a feeling of indifference arises. From morning until night our feelings vary like this, according to the different objects we meet. A happy feeling may come, then a suffering feeling, then an indifferent feeling. Even in one day a variety of happy and unhappy feelings arise in dependence upon the different conditions - place, food, clothing, beings - we meet. There are those you like, those you don't, and those about which you feel indifferent. Suffering feelings arise when you meet a person you dislike, you are in a filthy place or you receive undesirable food. It is the opposite when you meet a friend or are in a good place - a happy feeling arises. These conditions and feelings of happiness and suffering all come from your mind. Feelings of suffering or happiness depend very much on your present way of thinking, whether your present thought is suffering or happy. A practitioner of Mahayana thought-training can change his attitude so that miserable conditions give rise to happy feelings.

Happiness and suffering all come from your mind, from your karma. All these conditions for happiness and suffering are the result of karma you have accumulated in the past. In daily life, all happy and unhappy feelings, and the different conditions come from the mind and karma of each individual sentient being. In the same way, the hells - the heaviest sufferings and undesirable conditions explained in the sutras of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and in the lamrim - come from the evil mind. This is why in A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life Shantideva says:

Who has created the burning iron ground? From where have the multitudes of flames come? It is said by Shakyamuni Buddha: All this comes from the evil mind.

The conclusion is that everything depends on your mind. You can see that the whole key is your attitude. All the secret methods to obtain happiness and eliminate suffering are there in your attitude. Making a decision to change your attitude and develop your mind is extremely important. If you change your mind from evil attitudes such as selfishness and so forth, there is enlightenment; on this mind you will be able to establish peerless happiness, with total cessation of suffering. If you do not change your attitude from self-cherishing and other disturbing thoughts, instead of the peerless happiness of enlightenment, you then experience the heaviest suffering of the hells.

Having fewer problems and more peace of mind depends on your attitude in daily life, on how much you are able to practice the good heart each day, on how much you are able to transform your mind into virtue. As long as you do not protect your mind from disturbing thoughts but allow your mind to be controlled by them, your samsara has no end, the problems and confusion of life have no end. By protecting your mind from disturbing thoughts, you purify previous negative karmas and obscurations, and stop creating new causes of suffering. In this way your samsara has an end.

All our dreams at night also come from our own mind. Frightening dreams of being caught in a fire, drowned, beaten or killed by others are appearances of the hallucinated mind. If, before going to sleep, you talk about an enemy and get angry, or read stories and see pictures that cause attachment to arise, dreams of anger or attachment will come during the night. If you practice much virtue in the daytime, good dreams will come at night. Dreams come from the impressions planted on your mind by the way you spend the day. Depending on these impressions, you dream of fighting, actions of attachment, being in beautiful or terrifying places.

We are living here now at Tushita because of good karma from the past. The impression planted on our minds has now actualized as this good karma. If this house suddenly burst into flames and we were caught with fire all around us, as with a frightening dream, this would be the result of impressions left on our consciousness by previous negative karma, such as harming others out of anger, selfishness and so forth. The impression of this negative karma would be actualized in the fire. There are different karmas: sometimes we live in a very miserable place, at other times in an incredibly beautiful place. The difference with the hells is simply that the conditions there are much more miserable.

Some years ago somewhere in America, perhaps New York, there was a huge plane carrying more than three hundred people. Normally before a plane leaves, the engines and other parts are checked to make sure that the flight will be safe. Nothing faulty was found when this plane was checked. The stewards and stewardesses are trained well in their jobs, which include opening the doors. However, after the plane landed at the airport, somehow they could not open the doors at all. The doors are very hard to open from the outside and the stewardesses could not open them at all from the inside. They were completely stuck.

Suddenly the cockpit burst into flames and the pilot shouted for help. Everything inside the plane was completely burned. The airport emergency crews tried to open the doors but they had become too hot; the doors could not be opened for a long time. When they finally opened them, they saw that the people had all died while trying to escape. All the bodies were piled up on top of each other. For forty minutes the whole thing became the hells - even though no one expected such a thing to happen.

Meditate in this way: In extremely hot weather you cannot meditate - to do even ten minutes of meditation is very difficult. You feel so hot and lazy that you cannot even sit up. Or when the small fire of an incense stick touches your body it is so painful that you cannot concentrate. Think of yourself as born now into the sufferings of one of the hot hells, being cooked in a large pot of boiling water, standing on the red-hot burning iron ground, or trapped in the red-hot burning iron house with no way to escape. "If I were born now in the hot hells, it would be unbearable. There would be no opportunity at all to practice Dharma." Check whether you could practice Dharma with that kind of suffering. If you were there now, could you practice Dharma? You couldn't! No way!

Think in a similar way about the cold hells. In the winter time you could not sit outside naked and meditate. Even putting your hand in the freezer of a refrigerator for five minutes is so unbearable that you cannot think of anything except the pain. Think: "If I were in the cold hells now, it would be impossible to practice Dharma. There would be no opportunity at all." Then return to your present state as a human being: "How fortunate I am to have the freedom to practice Dharma through not being born in the hells!" (The teachings say through not being born, but it does not necessarily relate only to the birth-time; relate it to this present time.)

Also think: "Today, through not being born in the hells and having the freedom to practice Dharma, I can accomplish the three great purposes. Within these twenty-four hours, within this hour, even within this minute, I have the freedom to obtain whichever I wish of the three great purposes. I have the freedom to accomplish as many of the three great purposes as I want, for as long as I want, whenever I want."

You can now see that this freedom to practice Dharma through not being born in the hells is unbelievably precious. Adding to practice Dharma makes you feel that having this freedom is more precious. "This freedom is much more precious than having diamonds piled up to the size of my body." Comparing the value of this freedom to material wealth gives you more feeling for how precious it is because you can see the value of material objects much more easily than the value of this freedom. With this freedom you are able to obtain the first great purpose: a good rebirth in your next life. This present freedom to obtain a good rebirth because you have not been born in the hells and can practice Dharma is much more precious than diamonds piled up to the size of your body.

The second great purpose is to achieve the sorrowless state, nirvana. "This freedom with which I can achieve the sorrowless state is much more precious than diamonds piled up to the size of this Dharamsala mountain. And having the freedom to achieve enlightenment through not being born in the hells is much more precious than diamonds equaling the number of atoms of this earth." Even if you possess diamonds or dollars equaling the number of atoms of this earth, if you don't have the freedom to practice Dharma through not being born in the hells, as a preta, or as an animal, what is the use? Even if you have that many diamonds, with that alone you cannot achieve enlightenment; you cannot achieve any of the great purposes. There are many rich pretas and rich nagas with storerooms of jewels under lakes, but they have no opportunity to achieve enlightenment, or even the sorrowless state. Think of these details. "With this freedom I can accomplish any of the three great purposes at any time." This is an incredible freedom.

We regard even one tiny diamond on a ring as very precious and are very careful not to lose it. But we don't have as much feeling for the value of this precious human body - not even five rupees worth of feeling. We feel five rupees has some value - we can buy some chocolates or ice cream with it - but we don't feel that this perfect human rebirth has even that much value. Even though we have wasted so much of our perfect human rebirth through not making it meaningful, we don't feel any loss - not even as much loss as we would feel if we lost five rupees. This is because we have not realized the preciousness of this perfect human rebirth qualified with eight freedoms and ten richnesses.

Compared to diamonds, the perfect human rebirth is unbelievably precious. Having the freedom to practice Dharma through not being born in the hells is itself unbelievably precious. "If I waste this freedom for even one day, there is no question that it is an unbelievably great loss. If I don't practice Dharma for one day, this is an inexpressibly great loss. Even one hour passed without practicing Dharma, especially bodhicitta, is an unbelievable loss - a much greater loss than having lost diamonds equaling the number of atoms of this earth." If you lost one diamond, you would feel a great loss, so to lose that many diamonds would be unbelievable. One hour of your life passed without making it meaningful by practicing Dharma, especially bodhicitta, is a much greater loss. Make the determination to practice bodhicitta continuously, without wasting your life for even a minute. In this way your life becomes the most meaningful.

Recognize that this human body with the freedom to practice Dharma through not being born in the hells is extremely precious. With this precious human body with eight freedoms and ten richnesses, by studying and understanding Dharma, one has great opportunity to purify all the negative karmas generated in the past, practice virtue and renounce the cause of suffering. Instead of feeling depressed, one should feel happiness at having the opportunity to do all this with this precious human body.

The second freedom: not being born as a preta

The second of the eight freedoms is the freedom to practice the holy Dharma through not being born as a preta. Think of when your stomach is empty and you are very hungry because you didn't get your lunch at the right time. Even though there is food and you are going to get it, because you are very hungry, you cannot meditate, cannot think of Dharma. Even before the food is ready you have to eat something - you cannot reflect on the holy Dharma. If you did not get food for one month, with that much suffering of hunger it would be impossible for you to practice holy Dharma. In the same way that when you have great pain, you cannot think of anything except the pain, you could not think of anything except your hunger. Even when you are not in danger of starvation, if your food is delayed a little and you are hungry, you cannot think of anything else. You cannot meditate on lamrim.

If with small sufferings of hunger and thirst you cannot meditate or practice Dharma, think of being born as a preta, a suffering being whose life is constantly filled with hunger and thirst. Hunger and thirst are the major sufferings of pretas. For five hundred years they are unable to find one bowl of food - even food as small as a mustard seed. Besides not seeing water for many years, they cannot even find the mark of water for hundreds of years.

Think: "If I were born now as a suffering preta being, it would be impossible to practice holy Dharma. How fortunate I am to have the freedom to practice Dharma through not being born in the preta realm. With this freedom, within these twenty-four hours, within this hour, even within this minute, I have the incredible freedom to obtain whichever of the three great purposes I want. If I wish, I can continuously create the cause to receive a perfect body in my next life. During this whole hour, I have the opportunity to create the cause to obtain the sorrowless state. And, if I wish, I can achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. In this one hour, by practicing bodhicitta, I have the freedom to create the cause of enlightenment."

As a result of thinking like this, you get a very strong feeling of how precious and important this body with this freedom is. "If I waste for one hour, even for one minute, this freedom of having the opportunity to practice the holy Dharma through not being born in the preta realm, it is an unbelievable waste." Meditate on this freedom, thinking that with it you can achieve any of the three great purposes, and that this freedom is much more precious than diamonds equaling the number of atoms of this earth. "Wasting one hour, even one minute, by not practicing holy Dharma is a much greater loss than losing diamonds equaling the number of atoms of this earth. Therefore, without wasting even a minute, by practicing bodhicitta, I am going to make my life highly meaningful."

As you go over each of the freedoms, recognizing the freedoms you have and what you can do with them, you realize that the body with these freedoms is extremely precious. You then determine to make your life highly meaningful by practicing bodhicitta.

The third freedom: not being born as an animal

"If I were now one of the slugs that come out on the road when it rains, or one of the goats that are chased down the road to the butcher by the Indians, what would it be like?" Visualize yourself as one of these animals and then ask yourself whether you would have the opportunity to practice the holy Dharma or not. It would be impossible!

A parrot can repeat mantras. However, as a human being, you can understand if somebody explains the meaning of om mani padme hum, whereas a parrot cannot. There is no way a parrot can understand that mani means method and padme, wisdom. There is no way to make a parrot understand the wisdom of absolute truth. There is no way these pitiful goats, pigs and sheep can understand emptiness, even if you scream in their ears for years.

In some ways, meditating on the eight freedoms and ten richnesses also becomes a meditation on compassion because you have to think about the problems of the other sentient beings who do not have the opportunity to practice holy Dharma. When you think about the animals and humans who don't have the opportunity to practice Dharma, you feel much compassion for them. Your having the opportunity and incredible freedom they do not have becomes a great cause of generating compassion. There is no choice: compassion has to arise. "If I were like these animals now, I would have no opportunity at all to practice the holy Dharma. Not being born as an animal but as a human with the freedom to practice Dharma, I am very fortunate!" Again, think that with this freedom you can achieve the three great purposes; and come to the conclusion to make your life highly meaningful through practicing bodhicitta.

The fourth freedom: not being born as a barbarian

The fourth freedom is having the freedom to practice Dharma through not being born as a barbarian. Being a barbarian is much worse than being blind because, even if you are blind, you can still understand and have faith in karma and in the refuge of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Tibetan lay people who are blind still do many practices, such as reciting prayers and Chenrezig mantras, and are able to accumulate much merit because they have faith in refuge and karma; they do these practices with faith that mantras can purify negative karmas and that making offerings to the Triple Gem results in happiness. So, even though they may not know the entire lamrim, to a certain extent they can make their life meaningful. This makes a big difference. The physical eye cannot see things, but the mind is rich, not poor. Even though they may have perfect senses, barbarians are actually poorer because they have no opportunity to practice Dharma.

" If I were a barbarian now, just as a blind person cannot tell the right road from the wrong one, I would not be able to see." With no understanding at all of the causes of happiness and suffering, your mind would be completely dark. There would be no understanding of karma and refuge, and no faith in them. Your mind would be like a completely dark room. Everything barbarians do to try to obtain happiness is wrong and results only in problems and suffering. Think back to the West, to the people in the cities there - to your own parents and relatives. Even the Indians here in Dharamsala have no understanding of Dharma at all, no faith in refuge and karma. "If I were like them now, what would it be like? There would be no opportunity to practice holy Dharma."

The great pandit Chandragomin uses a very effective example to explain the nature of worldly beings, who work only for this life. A small bunch of grass is growing near a well. Seeing the bunch of grass, a cow thinks: "If I can eat that bunch of grass, I'll be happy." Because of attachment to that small bunch of grass, she runs over to eat it, and falls down the well. Attachment to the bunch of grass, rather than leading to enjoyment, results in the cow falling down the well. Chandragomin says that worldly beings with desire for this life are just like this cow.

Worldly beings cling to the happiness of this life and work for it with their body, speech and mind. Worldly dharma and holy Dharma are quite different. Any action of the body, speech and mind done with worldly concern, clinging to the happiness of this life, is worldly dharma, or non-virtue. Mantras and prayers may be holy Dharma, but if a person recites these out of worldly concern, his action becomes worldly dharma, not holy Dharma. Actions done with renunciation of this life, without worldly concern, are pure, holy Dharma.

Dromtonpa once asked Lama Atisha: "What is the result of actions done with ignorance, anger and attachment? And of actions not done with ignorance, anger and attachment?" Lama Atisha answered: "Actions done with ignorance, anger and attachment bring rebirth in the lower realms as an evil transmigratory being. Actions done with an attitude not possessed by the three poisonous minds bring the result of rebirth as a happy transmigratory being."
To understand Lama Atisha's answer, look at the human beings who have no understanding of Dharma at all, no faith in refuge or karma. Simply think back to the people in your own city in the West. Day and night they think of nothing more than this life. They are concerned about nothing more than the happiness of a few years of life, or a few months. All day and night they keep themselves busy with this motive of worldly concern. You can see that is all non-virtue, and Lama Atisha answered the question as to its result. All activities of body, speech and mind done with an attitude of worldly concern result in rebirth in the lower realms as a suffering transmigratory being.

Because there is no understanding of karma and also no faith in refuge, no thought to purify arises. Such people have no opportunity to purify the obscurations and negative karmas accumulated in the past, no opportunity to practice holy Dharma. You can see this very clearly in the example of the cow wishing to get the grass at the edge of the well. The result is that she falls down the well. Like this, the result of all work done for the happiness of this life, since the method is non-virtue, is to fall down into the lower realms. Even if you show worldly people the teachings of karma and refuge, or give them purification methods such as Vajrasattva, they cannot understand or accept them. Therefore, they have no opportunity to practice Dharma. Put yourself in their place: "If I were like this, what would it be like? There would be no opportunity at all to practice Dharma. How fortunate I am to have the freedom to practice the holy Dharma through not being born as a barbarian."

Even though you do create negative karma, you have the opportunity to purify it. Because you understand and have faith in karma and refuge, you have the opportunity to practice Dharma; you know there is a solution. Understanding and faith, which means Dharma wisdom, give you the opportunity to practice so that you can accomplish your wish for happiness.

Do the rest of the meditation as before.

The fifth freedom: not being born as a long-life god

The fifth freedom is the freedom to practice Dharma through not being born as a long-life, or worldly, god. "If I were born as a form realm god, such as a long-life god, it would be like a deep sleep. I would have recognition of birth and death but nothing else. There would be no opportunity to practice Dharma if I were now a worldly god." If you don't understand the example of a long-life god, think of someone who sleeps all day and night, with no opportunity to practice Dharma. "How fortunate I am to have the opportunity to practice Dharma through not being born as a long-life god."

Then do the rest of the meditation as before.

The sixth freedom: not being born as a heretic

The sixth freedom is having the freedom to practice Dharma through not being born as a heretic. A heretic is someone who says there are no Four Noble Truths, reincarnation, past and future lives or liberation from the bondage of karma and disturbing thoughts. Heretics may also believe that you can achieve liberation through self-inflicted punishment or that by sacrificing animals or killing people, you can go to heaven. Heretics recognize the path shown by Buddha as a completely wrong path and the teachings of Buddha as evil. Their practices create only heavy negative karma, which causes them to be reborn in the lower realms. Their completely hallucinated beliefs as to what is the path to liberation, or heaven, cannot even protect them from the lower realms.

Heretics take poison to be medicine, and recognize medicine as poison. Being a heretic is like licking honey on the edge of a sword. The heretic is completely hallucinated, just like a person who is hallucinated due to drugs or spirit harms. Where there is a precipice, they see a beautiful garden. Believing completely in the beautiful garden, they run there and actually fall down from the precipice.

" If I were now a heretic, there would be no opportunity at all to practice Dharma." If you explain karma, refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, or emptiness to heretics, they cannot accept them and become angry, so they have no opportunity to practice virtue and abandon non-virtue. "How fortunate I am to have the freedom to practice the holy Dharma through not being born as a heretic. I am extremely fortunate not to be a heretic."

Then do the rest of the meditation.

The seventh freedom: not being born where no Buddha has descended

The seventh freedom is having the freedom to practice Dharma through not being born in a place where no Buddha has descended. Try to imagine this. In such a place there would be no teachings at all, so no opportunity to practice Dharma. Even if you were born as a human being, it would be useless. What could you do? It would be the same as being born as a dog. There would be no opportunity at all to practice holy Dharma. In such a place there would be no particular advantage in being born as a human. "How fortunate I am to have the opportunity to practice Dharma through not being born in a place where no Buddha has descended."

The eighth freedom: not being born as a fool

The eighth freedom is the freedom to practice Dharma through not being born as a fool. Think of mentally handicapped people; they cannot do anything - not even recite a mantra. They have no opportunity at all to practice Dharma. They know just enough to move their body, but that is about all. Fools have just enough mental capacity to be living beings, but little else. They cannot even offer service to others. "If I were born like this, even if I lived one hundred years, it would be completely useless. There would be no opportunity at all to practice Dharma. How fortunate I am to have the freedom to practice the holy Dharma through not being born as a fool.

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