Chapter 5: The Perfect Human Body

If you check in detail like this, you will feel more and more fortunate. You will see that this body with these freedoms and richnesses is unbelievably precious. Each of these freedoms and richnesses is very difficult to receive. At this time you have a human body qualified with eight very rare freedoms and ten very rare richnesses. Think: "This is like a dream." Until now, these eight freedoms and ten richnesses have always been missing. You have been born as a human being many times, but as a fool, a heretic, deaf and so forth, without all eight freedoms and ten richnesses. Even if you received some of the freedoms and richnesses, something has always been missing. "How fortunate I am to have received this precious human body qualified with all eight very rare freedoms and ten very rare richnesses. With these I can accomplish whichever I wish of the three great purposes." Meditate on this.

"This perfect human rebirth is millions of times more precious than diamonds equaling the number of atoms of this earth." When you compare, this perfect human rebirth is much more precious. Also think how wasting this perfect human rebirth is a much greater loss than losing that many diamonds. Make the decision: "I will practice bodhicitta continuously, without wasting this perfect human rebirth for an hour, or even a minute."

Then meditate on its usefulness: With this perfect human rebirth you can achieve the three great purposes. If you wish to receive the body of a deva or human, you can accomplish this because you can create the cause by practicing moral conduct with this perfect human body. If you wish to have perfect enjoyments and comfort, you can obtain these because with this perfect human body you can practice charity. If you wish to have perfect helpers in your next life, you can achieve this because with this perfect human body you can create the cause by practicing patience.

Each time, think how incredibly meaningful this perfect human body is. If you wish to achieve the ultimate happiness of the sorrowless state, you can achieve it. Why? Because with this perfect human body you can practice the path of the three higher trainings (moral conduct, concentration and wisdom) and achieve the sorrowless state in your future lives - or even in this life. You can even achieve enlightenment if you wish, because with this body you can follow the Mahayana path by practicing bodhicitta and the six paramitas. "If I wish, I can achieve enlightenment quickly, within sixteen lifetimes, or even within this life."

You have met the qualified vajra guru who can reveal the whole path, and the complete teaching that never betrays. Many of the secret teachings of the profound quickest path practiced by such great yogis as Milarepa and Lama Tsongkapa in order to achieve enlightenment have already been revealed to you. You have already received Vajrayana teachings many times, especially those of Highest Yoga Tantra, which show the quickest, most secret path by which many yogis were enlightened in one brief lifetime.

If, from your side, you don't practice correctly, that is one thing. Otherwise, you can definitely achieve enlightenment within sixteen lifetimes, in your next life, or even in this life. The only question is whether from your side you practice correctly. You have the opportunity to achieve this because, through generating the preliminary of the three principles of the path with this perfect human rebirth, you can train your mind in the generation and completion stages of the tantric path.

In The Great Lamrim Commentary Lama Tsongkapa mentions that it is much easier to generate bodhicitta in this particular world, with a human body from the southern continent, and that the bodhicitta generated is much more powerful. Human beings from the southern continent have various karmas, while humans from the other continents have similar karmas. All the human beings from the eastern continent, for example, have great and varied enjoyments. They are similar to the many people who say: "Oh, I have everything: many cars, an apartment, many friends, a swimming-pool, many televisions, a good job, a big family. I have everything, so why do I need Dharma? Why do I need to meditate? I'm not suffering." This way of thinking stops them from practicing Dharma, from developing their minds and freeing themselves from samsara. I think it is like this in the eastern, western and northern continents. Because it is much more difficult to generate renunciation of samsara, it is very difficult for the humans from these continents to generate compassion for others and bodhicitta. And even if bodhicitta is generated, it is not as powerful as that generated by human beings in this southern continent.

As the mandala prayer says, the main enjoyment of the human beings from the western continent is the wish-granting cow and from the northern continent, uncultivated harvests. In these continents everyone is of the same class, with no rich and poor. (It is like certain parts of America, such as Florida, where all the families are rich.) Everything is fixed, with everybody having exactly the same length of life and so forth. Here in the southern continent, human beings have various karmas and various natures. Some have a very good heart and are incredibly generous; others are so miserly that they think about nothing except possessions and money. Some are so unbelievably impatient that almost everything they see makes them angry. While some are ignorant and unbelievably foolish, at the same time there are many who are very intelligent. In the southern continent there are many kinds of human beings.

Also, the length of life is not fixed, and there are different styles of living, rich and poor. Humans from the southern continent are able to experience in later life the result of good karma created earlier in that life. After some years or months, if it is powerful, one is able to experience the positive or negative karma one has accumulated. The humans from the other continents do not have a variety of characteristics as humans here do. Therefore, since in this continent it is much easier to see suffering, renunciation is generated more strongly and compassion arises very easily, and also bodhicitta. It is easiest to generate bodhicitta with this present human rebirth.

During the recent teachings His Holiness the Dalai Lama also mentioned that the requisite body to practice tantra is that of a human being from the southern continent as such a body is constituted of the six elements. Sperm, bone and marrow are the three substances received from the father; flesh, skin and blood are the three received from the mother. Such a body is needed for the practice of Highest Yoga Tantra. While it is generally possible to generate bodhicitta in all six realms, the achievement of enlightenment in one lifetime through Vajrayana practice happens only with human beings from this southern continent, who have a body constituted of these six elements. Therefore, we should make highly meaningful our having such a perfect human body.

Meditating on lamrim combines very well with reciting the Chenrezig mantra. His Holiness the Dalai Lama said that when your mind is very bored or distracted and you cannot focus your mind one-pointedly on yourself as the deity, you should do lamrim meditation. This stops superstition arising. If you simply continue reciting the mantra with a distracted mind, various delusions such as ignorance, anger, jealousy, pride and so forth will arise. Within that one-and-a-half-hour session on the meditation cushion, you may have recited mantra with your mouth while holding a mala in your hand, but in that one-and-a-half hours you will have created many negative karmas. Instead of purifying delusions or retreating from them, if you do not watch your mind, you retreat from virtue.

Anger may arise when you remember someone of whom you feel jealous, or the way some person you dislike spoke or acted badly towards you. When you remember his hurtful words and behavior, anger may arise for several minutes, or even half an hour. Heresy towards holy objects might also arise, and you then create much heavy negative karma while sitting on your meditation cushion doing the session.

The commentary on the Chenrezig sadhana also explains that you should meditate on lamrim while reciting the Chenrezig mantra. For example, you can meditate on bodhicitta. Generate compassion by thinking of the sufferings of other sentient beings, practice tong-len and so forth. His Holiness the Dalai Lama said that meditating on lamrim protects the mind from delusions and negative karmas. It helps to control the mind and stop disturbing thoughts arising continuously. Having fewer disturbing thoughts arise allows you to focus longer with stable one-pointed concentration on the deity or seed syllable.

Recite the Chenrezig mantra while going over the eight freedoms and ten richnesses one by one. Be aware of each freedom and richness that allows you to practice the holy Dharma and remember the other people who do not have the freedom to practice Dharma. Recognize your own freedom and be aware of the three great purposes you can accomplish with it. Be aware of the great advantages of each of these freedoms and richnesses. After remembering each of them, conclude: "This human body is extremely precious. Without wasting time I must practice bodhicitta."

After analytical meditation, do fixed meditation on the eight freedoms and ten richnesses. Going over them one by one, generate the feeling of how precious each is. Then do analytical and fixed meditation on the whole eighteen. "This body is qualified with eighteen very rare characteristics, the eight freedoms and ten richnesses. It has been extremely difficult to gather all eighteen. Previously some have always been missing. Now, just this once, all these eighteen extremely rare characteristics are gathered in this present body. It is unbelievably precious and like a dream.

"With this body, within twenty-four hours, I can accomplish whichever I wish of the three great purposes: the body of a happy transmigratory being in my next life, the sorrowless state or the peerless happiness of enlightenment. This perfect human body has the opportunity to accomplish whichever of these great purposes I want, whenever I want, as often as I want. With this perfect human body I can accomplish the three great purposes for the sake of all sentient beings. How precious it is!"

Think of all the material wealth that exists on this earth - all the dollars, jewels, silver, gold - and then compare it to your present perfect human body. "All other possessions on this earth, even wish-granting gems, are nothing." Remember all the possessions in rich department stores and banks. Compared to the preciousness of this perfect human body, all other possessions are completely valueless, like garbage. There is nothing more precious than this perfect human rebirth. Worldly people may use their human rebirth as a slave to material possessions, but a perfect human rebirth is much more precious than diamonds equaling the number of atoms of this earth. Wasting it by not practicing Dharma for one hour, or even one minute, is an unbelievable loss - a greater loss than losing that many diamonds. "Therefore I am going to practice bodhicitta continuously and make my life highly meaningful." One-pointedly concentrate on how precious this perfect human rebirth is, with the awareness that with it you can accomplish the three great purposes. There is nothing more important than this perfect human body. While doing this one-pointed concentration, recite the Chenrezig mantra.

Think how extremely foolish it is, and what a great waste, that other people are using the perfect human rebirth they have received to create the cause of problems, in this life and in future lives. There is nothing crazier than wasting even a human rebirth, but especially a perfect human rebirth. "Others are foolish to do this. However, it is the same if I don't practice Dharma, but use my perfect human rebirth to create negative karma, the cause of problems in this life and in future lives."

After doing the fixed meditation, make the determination not to waste this opportunity, but to practice bodhicitta. A perfect human rebirth is highly meaningful because with it you can obtain whichever of the three great purposes you wish. If you wish to achieve the good body of a happy transmigratory being, with this perfect human rebirth you can create the cause by practicing moral conduct and charity, and praying. To receive a perfect human rebirth next life, you need especially to create all the eighteen causes through these practices. You can make the dedication to join the perfect human rebirth of your next life at the end of this life.

If you wish to achieve the sorrowless state, you can accomplish this because, with this perfect human rebirth, you can generate the fundamental path of the three higher trainings. If you wish to achieve enlightenment, you can accomplish this because, with this perfect human rebirth, you can create the cause by generating bodhicitta and training your mind in the Paramitayana. If you wish, you can even achieve enlightenment within sixteen lifetimes, three lifetimes, or even within this life, because with this perfect human body of the southern continent, composed of the six elements, you have the opportunity to follow the Highest Yoga Tantra path.

You can follow the three general paths of renunciation, bodhicitta and right view, then the tantric path, particularly the Highest Yoga Tantra path. Unless you do not practice correctly from your own side, there is no reason why you cannot achieve bodhicitta, and even enlightenment, in this very brief lifetime. There is a qualified vajra guru who can show you the complete general path and the particular path of Highest Yoga Tantra, which can bring enlightenment in one very brief lifetime in such a degenerate time as this. Also, as well as the infallible intellectual understanding, the complete experiential understanding of the teaching exists.

Continue to Next Section