Taking advantage of our precious human life

• Explanation of the 10 beneficial circumstances of a precious human life
• Why meditating on these circumstances is an antidote to depression and self-pity
• Explanation of the essence of Dharma practice

MTRS 06: Preliminaries—Precious human life (download)

Let’s begin by cultivating our motivation and really having a sense of joy at being alive. Instead of taking our life for granted, let’s really feel joyful about having it—especially about having the possibility to encounter the Dharma and the leisure to learn it and practice it. Then let’s make a very strong determination to make our practice beneficial for all living beings, especially considering that they have all been kind to us. Our whole opportunity to practice is due to their kindness. Let’s aspire for full enlightenment as a way to repay their kindness, because through becoming a Buddha we will have eliminated all the hindrances to being able to benefit others, and generated all the qualities and abilities necessary to benefit them most effectively. Let’s take a moment and generate that motivation. 

Remembering this precious human life

Did you contemplate the eight freedoms since last week? Did you get a sense of what it means to be free of being born in the unfortunate realms? I think this meditation can be very effective to remedy the self-pitying mind. You know the self-pitying mind? It’s our mind that just feels sorry for ourselves: “Everybody else has a better opportunity than me. I’m so deficient, and the world is mean to me,” and on, and on, and on. When we really think about our precious human life, then all of that gets cut because we see we already have a fantastic opportunity to do what’s important. 

Now, if we don’t aspire for the Dharma and we’re aspiring for worldly things, then you can feel sorry for yourself all you want. There’s always going to be someone who is more physically attractive than you. There’s always going to be somebody who is more intelligent. There’s always going to be somebody who plays the violin and the guitar better, somebody who’s a better soccer player. There’s always going to be somebody better than you. If you aspire for worldly gains, then forget precious human life and go ahead and feel sorry for yourself. It’s great, isn’t it? We can have ourselves a long pity party with our sad music of “poor me.” If we really aspire to advance spiritually and purify our mind and generate all of our good qualities, then meditating on the precious human life doesn’t give any space for the self-pitying mind. We see that we have such a fantastic situation already. There’s nothing to feel sorry for. 

The self-pitying mind

I know for some of us who have spent a long time feeling sorry for ourselves, it’s really a challenge to give that up. It’s so comfortable to feel sorry for ourselves and to feel like the universe has been mean to us, and that we’re entitled to have it better. Right? You all feel sorry for me? We can get really stuck in this. What good does it do? Absolutely no good comes of it. 

I have a pattern that correlates with my self-pity mind: feeling entitled. It’s a sense of entitlement, a feeling that I should have it better than I have it. Why? Well, because I’m me. The universe should be better to me. When I’m unhappy, I have all the right in the world to sit and mope. This is a good one. Without me having to say anything, other people should realize I’m unhappy. They should do their utmost to fix the situation so that I can be happy again—without me having to say anything. Any of you have that mechanism? I can mope and sulk. Are you good at sulking? We’re sulking, aren’t we, with our thumb in our mouth. Other people are supposed to notice I’m unhappy and come and say, “Chodron, dear, you’re so unhappy, what can I do to make it better?” Then I can just make a face at them and ignore them and continue sulking. They need to offer me a better deal than that. 

I spent quite a long time doing that. When other people didn’t read my mind and realize I was unhappy and offer to fix the world for me, then I’d get really angry with them. When they came to offer help, I’d go, “Uhh.” When you really meditate on precious human life there’s no space for that kind of rubbish. There’s just no space. We realize that we have this opportunity that was very difficult to come by. It’s difficult to create the causes for a precious human life. We also see that it’s extremely valuable in terms of spiritual practice, and that it’s not going to last forever. We have a real sense of urgency to make use of it. We’re going to come upon some examples. If I speak fast enough tonight we’ll get to the section with some of the Tibetan examples for how happy we should feel.

Ten beneficial circumstances

For those of you who have the book we are at the bottom of page 20, top of page 21. We’re talking about the ten beneficial circumstances or opportunities. They’re also divided into two: five personal opportunities, and five circumstantial ones. The personal opportunities are: Being born as a human being, one; two, in a central place; three, with sound sense organs; and four, not holding wrong views. That’s what this text says. However, most texts say, not having committed the five heinous actions. Five is having faith in the Buddha’s doctrine. Let’s look at those more closely. 

Five personal opportunities

First of all is being born as a human. Really appreciate that we’re human. This is great. With human intelligence we can do so much. And then second is that we’re in a central place. We’re in a central land; it can be geographical, like living in Bodhgaya. It can be where the Prajñāpāramitā and the Mahāyāna is found. It could be where there are buddhas and bodhisattvas. In other words, it’s where there’s the opportunity to practice the Dharma. Now, I must say that in recent years America has become more of a central land than it used to be. When I started out it was very difficult to learn Buddhism here, in English. Now it’s much easier. Things have really progressed. 

The third is with sound sense organs, being able to see and hear and think properly. And four is not holding wrong views. Like I said, most texts have not committing the five heinous actions. So, that’s not killing one’s mother, one’s father, an arhat, causing schism in the Saṅgha, or drawing blood from the Buddha. 

Then the fifth one is having faith in the Buddha’s doctrine. I think this is an especially important one to really appreciate inside of ourselves. We have the karma to have faith and interest. There are many people on this planet that might be very close to Buddha’s teachings, or teachers, or Dharma texts, but there’s no interest whatsoever, absolutely none. I think this is a really important thing to appreciate in ourselves, that we have this interest. 

We should appreciate the fact that our senses are sound, too. We very easily could have been severely injured or have multiple physical difficulties. We could still learn the Dharma but that would make it, much more difficult for us. It’s very important to appreciate this and not take it for granted. I keep thinking of Christopher Reeve, the man who played Superman. He was tied to that board for so long after he had the accident riding the horse. Now, if you knew the Dharma you could do something, even in that state. He didn’t. I mean, he did something very good for sentient beings and drew more awareness to spinal cord injuries. When he got up that morning he never thought that, “I’m going to be severely injured today.”  Yet, there it was. We really need to appreciate our opportunity, our health.

Five circumstantial opportunities

These are: the appearance of a Buddha, one; his having given teachings, two; the prevalence of the doctrine, three; its followers, four; the presence of sincere patrons and benefactors, five. These are the five circumstantial opportunities, things in our environment.

 We live at a time when the Buddha appeared. In our case it was Śākyamuni Buddha who appeared on the earth. And not only did the Buddha appear, but he also gave teachings. Imagine what would have happened if the Buddha was born but didn’t give teachings. These are very interesting things to meditate on. Not only did he give the teachings, but the teachings still exist. That’s very important because the teachings could have degenerated to a certain point where they no longer exist, and then we’d really be in trouble.

In terms of the Dharma being stable and flourishing, there’s different ways to describe this. One way is in terms of having Scriptural Dharma and Insight Dharma. So, the scriptural Dharma refers to the Three Baskets: the Vinaya, Sutra and Abhidharma. You should remember those. You should know what the Three Baskets are—what the Scriptural Dharma is, and the Insight Dharma. The Insight Dharma is where people are practicing the Three Higher Trainings, where some people have attained the true cessations and actualized the true path. That’s one way to define a place where the Dharma’s flourishing or where it‘s stable.

A second way is according to Sutra. That is a place where the Saṅgha abides, where it’s possible to take ordination. That’s the important thing. In America, it’s much more difficult to take ordination—much more difficult. Having a Saṅgha community come together is not so easy. That’s what we’re trying to establish at the Abbey. We want to have enough fully ordained monastics to be able to give the ordination. But you need to take it, and people need to keep it for a certain number of years before it can be given. Our country still has a ways to go in that regard. Then in terms of the tantra, a Dharma flourishing is where the Guhyasamāja tantra exists and where it is taught and practiced. You can see this condition is not so easy, living in a place where Dharma is readily available. You can see why it’s so important to have the Abbey. 

Often, people refer to Saṅgha as anybody who comes to the Buddhist center, or anybody who’s a part of a Buddhist group. That’s not really the Saṅgha. The Saṅgha that we take refuge in are the Āryas: those who have realized emptiness directly. There’s a representative of the Ārya Saṅgha when there’s a group of four or more fully ordained monastics. So, having a community of ordained monastics is part of us having the precious human life. It’s not because monastics are superior; it’s not because there’s elitism going on. It’s because if there’s a monastery, there’s a place where people can come and practice. There’s a body of people who are making it their entire life to study and practice and pass down the teachings. They don’t have to go to work; they don’t have to raise children. They don’t get involved in so many other activities so they have more time for the Dharma. That benefits the entire society. 

Then the tenth condition is having the presence of sincere patrons and benefactors. If we are a sincere practitioner, and if we want to dedicate our life to practicing the Dharma—and, in particular, if we want to become a monastic, or you want to do a long retreat after you’ve done enough study and preparation—then you need a teacher to guide you. You need benefactors to help you with your living expenses. Why? It’s very difficult to focus intensely on the Dharma if you have many other activities you have to take care of. It’s very hard. You have to have the support of kind people who really see the value in your spiritual practice, and who are willing to give you food, shelter, medicine and clothing. 

Then from your side, you have to be content with what is offered, and not be demanding and dissatisfied but really appreciating that other people support us in our Dharma practice and give us this opportunity. And it’s not only that, but we need teachers. We need people who can guide us and who can give us the teachings, who can give us the precepts, who can give us the instructions on how to practice, who can answer our questions, who can encourage us when we get discouraged or hit a glitch in our practice. Having the kindness of patrons and teachers is very, very important in our lives. 

Imagine not having these circumstances

When you meditate on these ten conditions, really go through and see how you have them in your life. As you’re meditating, imagine not having them. What would it be like if there’s no Saṅgha community where you are? Where you don’t live in a central land? What would it be like to live in a place where religion is oppressed?

 I remember Alex Berzin telling me one time, many years ago when Czechoslovakia was still under communist rule, he went there to teach the Dharma. Forget about having a center or anything like that! They met in somebody’s home and everybody had to come separately because you couldn’t have it be seen that a number of people were coming to the same place at the same time. The flat had two rooms. The Dharma teaching was in the back room. In the front room they had a round table, and they had cards dealt out and drinks. This was in case the police knocked on the door. They could go from the back room to the front room and be playing cards when the police entered. They wouldn’t get busted for listening to a Dharma talk. Do you see what it’s like to appreciate our precious human life? In Tibet, after the communist takeover, if they saw you moving your lips, saying mantra or prayer, you’d get thrown in prison and beaten. 

Spend some time thinking of living in that kind of situation. How are you going to practice? We might have all sorts of fancy ideas: “I’m a strong practitioner, and even when I’m in prison, I’ll do tonglen meditation. I’ll develop compassion and I’ll keep my precepts.” But look at how we are even now. One day, our stomach feels bad. We forget our Dharma practice; it’s bye-bye. We think we’re going to practice in some difficult situation? 

We need to really appreciate the good situation we have now because it’s very difficult to have this opportunity, and it can just go away. If you look in the West nowadays, it’s very hard to have a good situation for practice. Most people have to go out and earn a living. It takes hours every day, and you have your family, your mortgage, your social life, all these different things. If you try and practice the Dharma like many of the ordained people here, what does your family say? “Are you crazy?” What do your colleagues at work say? “Get a life.”  

Dedicating one’s life to the Dharma

It’s actually not so easy to dedicate one’s life full-time to the Dharma. We need to appreciate having that circumstance available to us. Then not using it—hanging around, chatting, drinking tea, or whatever—that’s a total waste of our precious human life. The fact is that when we die, we can’t rerun our life and go live it again, and use the time better. When we really meditate strongly on precious human life, self-pity disappears. This meditation is also a very good antidote to depression. But it only works for people for whom Dharma is a priority. If worldly things are your priority, this meditation won’t work to pull you out of your depression. You have to really have Dharma as a priority and then you think of precious human life and you are so happy. 

I think it’s important every day when we wake up to think, “Wow! I have a precious human life. This is incredible.” Because it is. Why is it useful to have a precious human life? First of all, because we can use it to create the causes for good future lives within samsara. That’s only a stopgap measure. The real reason a precious human life is so valuable is that we can use it to create the causes for liberation. Even more valuable, we can use it to create the causes for full enlightenment, to become a fully enlightened Buddha. Then we can make our life meaningful, moment-by-moment, by practicing the Thought Training teachings. 

Our life is something very precious, extremely worthwhile and meaningful. We really need to feel this. When we have this, when we meditate strongly on this—and I’m not talking about, meditating on it once every three weeks or something—when you really focus on this meditation, then all of our little hurts, all of our little childhood things, all of this kind of stuff, it fades into the background, because who cares? We have a precious human life right now, that’s the most important thing. My previous samsara was not perfect, why did I ever expect it to be anyway? Let go of that stuff. 

He says:

It is important to think over these ten unique opportunities.

I guess not just once in a while, but really consistently. Try doing a meditation like the eight freedoms and ten fortunes. Try doing that daily for a period of time and see what happens to your mind. It continues:

The general basis for attaining ultimate definite goodness is birth as a human being, but of such births among the three continents, birth as a human being in the southern continent is praised in all the sutras and tantras as the best working basis for attaining liberation.

“Ultimate definite goodness” means liberation or enlightenment. According to the Abhidharmakośa vision of the universe, there’s the center mountain, Mount Meru. Then you have four continents. The human beings in our continent, which is the southern one, have the best basis for practicing the Dharma because we also have the opportunity to practice the tantra, and the opportunity to take precepts. 

The master Ashvaghosha says,
When you have obtained [a human life] with the potential
To go beyond cyclic existence,
The most excellent potential of the awakening mind,
More precious than a wish-granting jewel,
Would not make it fruitful?

When it says, “The most excellent potential of the awakening mind,” it’s talking about bodhicitta. We really need to think about how much we had to do in a previous life to get this opportunity, and how much benefit we can create with it. If we don’t do that, then how can we consider ourselves a wise person? We can’t, we’re a fool. Shantideva says, in Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life:

So if, when I have found such leisure as this
I do not attune myself to what is wholesome,
There could be no greater deception
And no greater folly.

When we have a precious human rebirth like this, it’s difficult to get and it doesn’t last long. If we don’t attune ourselves to what is wholesome—in other words, if we don’t transform our mind, if we don’t keep our precepts well, if we don’t engage in our practices, if we don’t try and live the Dharma on a daily basis in our relationships with others—then, “There could be no greater deception and no greater folly.” We’re just deceiving ourselves, aren’t we? Shantideva continues:

And if, having understood this,
I still continue to be slothful,
When the hour of death arrives
Tremendous grief will rear its head.

Importance of a daily practice

So, here he’s saying I understand that my life is meaningful and valuable and that it’s important to engage in virtue, and instead I still keep lying around, sleeping too long, chit chatting with everybody, watching television, watching movies, surfing the internet, driving here and driving there. Slothful doesn’t just mean lying around; it also means being busy doing useless things. Then, when the hour of death arrives and we realize, “Whoa, I had this whole opportunity to practice the Dharma and I wasted it,” then what mental state are we going to die in? 

We’ll have much incredible regret and remorse. It’s like I had this whole opportunity to practice the Dharma that would have enabled me to die peacefully and feel positive about my next rebirth, and instead I spent it watching movies, eating chips, surfing the internet, and playing around. Now I have nothing to show for it as I’m dying and going into my next rebirth, except the negative karma I created by trying to be famous and rich, and popular, and all this kind of stuff. It’s a huge source of regret at the time of death. Whereas, if you really practice well, then when you die there’s no regret. No fear. Wouldn’t that be nice? Death comes and there’s no regret, there’s no fear, and for really excellent practitioners, the time of death is a lot of fun. It’s the time when they can really meditate on emptiness very well. 

Shantideva says:

Then if my body blazes for a long time
In the unbearable flames of hell,
Inevitably my mind will be tormented
By fires of unendurable remorse.

You’re born in the hell realms and you have this awareness that you wasted your precious life before, and there is so much remorse.

Having found by chance
This beneficial state so hard to find,
If now while able to discriminate
I am once again led into the hells,
Then it is though I were mindless,
Like one hypnotized by a spell,
Not even knowing what causes my confusion,
Or what is dwelling inside me.

If I know all of this about my precious life, if I know what’s valuable in life, and then I still blow it, it’s as if I didn’t have a mind. I’m hypnotized by a spell and have no awareness of what I’m doing, or what’s causing my confusion. I’m just living on automatic following my attachments. When an impulse arises in the mind, we follow it. We’re just seeking the pleasure of this life and at the end of this life where’s the pleasure of this life? All the pleasure that we got, where is it? It’s gone. 

Building on virtue

Again, the great Ashvaghosha says,
Whoever is rich in virtue,
Has accumulated it over countless eons,
But he who because of delusion
Does not gather such treasure in this life
Will in his lives to come
Be imprisoned in a house of woe,
Like a merchant returning empty-handed
From the island of jewels.

Without the path of ten virtues
There is no way to obtain a human birth,
Without which there is no happiness
And only suffering remains.
Not to follow such a path
Is an act of supreme stupidity.

It’s true, isn’t it? We have this life now because over a long time we accumulated virtue. Now we have the chance to do that again and to further our virtue and our hope and practices. But if we don’t do that, then it’s like a merchant who went to a place where they could get anything they wanted, an island of free jewels, but they came home with sand instead of jewels. That’s like us: we have the opportunity to do so much Dharma practice, to really transform our mind, and instead of doing that we spend our time following our attachments, getting angry, getting jealous, oversleeping, overeating, drinking and drugging, watching movies, playing golf. Our whole life can go by. Doing that is really an act of stupidity. 

Thinking about this will give rise to a wish to take the essence of this teaching to heart. As the ‘Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life’ says, Now, having paid my body its wages, I shall turn my life to something meaningful.

Making life meaningful

Paying your body its wages means you eat, you sleep, you take medicine, and you take care of your body to keep it healthy. You’ve done that—you’ve paid the body its wages. Now, you’re going to turn your life into something meaningful. Use this body, use your mind, and use your time to create merit. Purify your mind. Plant the seeds of the Dharma in your mind by hearing teachings, reciting scriptures, contemplating, meditating. making prostrations, making offerings, all these things. Shantideva also says: 

Relying on the boat of a human body,
Free yourself from the great river of pain.
As it is hard to find this boat again,
This is no time to sleep, you fool.

Our precious human life is like a boat. We often have this image of going to the other shore. Paramita means to cross over, to reach far. Our precious human life is like a boat that enables us to go from the shore of samsara to the shore of nirvana, to cross over. We’re crossing over this great river of pain. As it’s hard to find such a precious human life again, it’s no time to sleep, meaning to waste time. It’s very difficult to create the causes to have a precious human life. We’ll get into that. I’ts very difficult. 

Potowa tells us the following stories in his ‘Teachings by Example’.

This is what I was referring to earlier—some of the Tibetan examples of the preciousness of our life. I find these stories quite funny because I don’t find them funny. I remember some of these stories, the first time my teachers told them. The group of Westerners were all sitting there with blank faces. It’s in that way that these stories are funny. 

Geshe Potowa’s Dharma with Examples

The first one says:

Once a man was ploughing his field when he turned up an earthworm. To his amazement, the red worm stood on end and prostrated to a nearby image of the Buddha. It is equally rare for someone like us, just coming up from a bad state of rebirth, to turn up as a human being and do something positive and spiritually beneficial. 

While we were excavating for Gotami House, did anybody see an earthworm who stood up and prostrated to an image of the Buddha? This is very rare. It’s like us, having been born in the lower realms of rebirth for quite a long time. We’ve come up out of that. We have a precious human life. To do something positive is rare, like the earthworm bowing to the Buddha. That’s why we really have to respect that part of us that wants to practice. 

That’s why it’s so important for us to respect all the other people who are creating virtue—all of our Dharma friends, in Dharma centers, in monasteries, and in temples. It’s so important that we respect each other because these are all people who really value the Dharma and want to transform their minds. Within a Dharma center, to have competition and factions and jealousy, all of that is so stupid. It’s totally stupid, because we come up out of the ground like this earthworm. Why fight with all the other earthworms? How silly. Just bow to the Buddha. It’s that rare. We should do something positive with our life. 

This is the second story; I remember this one so well:

On another occasion a man with no legs was resting on the edge of a short drop. He lost his balance and, falling off, landed on the back of a wild ass beneath. The startled beast ran off at a gallop and the man hung on for dear life, shouting with glee, ‘If I don’t enjoy it now, when else will a cripple like me get the chance to ride on an ass?’ Likewise, we should see how rare our lives are and take joyful advantage of them.

What chance does a person with no legs have of falling off a cliff and just happening to land on a wild ass, who happened to be right below him? Before falling off he grabbed onto the mane, and as the ass took off the guy was screaming with glee how happy he was to ride on the back of this donkey. How rare that is for that to happen. Just as this guy felt so thrilled by this opportunity to ride at top speed on the back of a donkey, we should feel even more happy to have a precious human life and take joyful advantage of it. 

The next story says:

Once a man from Tsang came to Lhasa. He had never eaten fish before, so when he then got the chance he gorged himself on this rare treat. Naturally, it made him sick, but as he was about to vomit he tied a rope round his neck so as not to waste any of what he had eaten. We should be as unwilling to waste even a moment of our precious human lives. 

And the next story says:

On an occasion when his family was able to enjoy a rare delicacy, sweet buttered barley flour, a small boy, hoping to get an extra helping, held his hands out in front of him after hiding his share behind his back, where a dog ate it, leaving him none. We should take whatever opportunities we have to put the teachings into practice, rather than simply trying to collect more.

That’s a good point isn’t it? We should put into practice what we’ve learned instead of just collecting more. This little boy, he wound up with nothing. 

From the above we can understand the importance of seeking a birth with high status. The cause of birth with the high status of a human being or god is familiarity with the three types of ethics, and life as a human being of this world is an excellent basis for this.

When it says “high status,” it doesn’t mean status with the usual take on it. It means a good rebirth as a human being, and as a god. Then the causes are familiarity with the three types of ethics: the ethics of abandoning what is non-virtue, the ethics of creating virtue, the ethics of benefiting sentient beings. Our present life as a human being in the southern continent is an excellent basis with which we can create this kind of virtue. Therefore, we shouldn’t take it for granted.

As it is said,
When you have obtained birth as a human of this world,
Which is so difficult to obtain,
You should practice virtue with the utmost effort.

It’s not just a thing of: “I have a precious human life, how fortunate I am. This is great.” It’s using the precious human life to create more virtue. It’s not just recognizing that we have it, but it’s using it to create virtue. That means to really practice the Dharma. 

Contemplation of the rarity of such a human life is done.

 That starts the next section. 

Lama Atiśa’s advice

What is this thing that we call “practicing Dharma?” What does that mean? I remember one story that made a very strong impression on me very early on when I met the Dharma. I think it was about Lama Atiśa. He was near a stupa, and he saw a man circumambulating the stupa. This man was going round and round and round the stupa. Lama Atiśa said, “It’s very nice you’re circumambulating the stupa, but why don’t you practice the Dharma?” 

The man said, “Well, I thought I was. I’m walking around this holy object. Isn’t that creating virtue? Aren’t I practicing the Dharma? What does this guy mean?” Then he thought, “I’ll do some prostrations. Maybe that’s better.” Then he started doing lots and lots of prostrations. A few days went by and Lama Atiśa said, “It’s very nice that you’re doing prostrations but it would be even better if you would practice the Dharma.” The man’s really going, “Huh? What’s happening here? I thought I was.” Then he thought, “I’ll sit and read some Dharma texts.” You find this in Asia sometimes, people sitting at the roadside and they’re just reading the Dharma texts out loud. He sat down, he had his texts, and he’s reading out loud very quickly Atiśa came by and said, “It’s very nice you’re reciting the sutras but it’d be even better if you practiced the Dharma.” 

Now the man’s totally confused at this point “I’ve circumambulated, I’ve done prostrations, I’ve  even recited the sutras, what the Buddha said. Why are you telling me that I’m not practicing the Dharma?” He asked Lama Atiśa, “What do you mean? What’s Dharma practice?” Lama Atiśa said, “Transform your mind and abandon the eight worldly concerns.” 

That’s the essence of Dharma practice: transform our mind. Transform it from what into what? Transform it from non-virtue into virtue. Transform it from ignorance, anger and attachment—from resistance and jealousy and sloth and excuses—into a mind that is soft, that cares about others. Transform it into a mind that wants to contribute to the welfare of the world, that wants to continue the Dharma in the world for the benefit of others. Transform our mind. Nobody else can see us transform our mind. Nobody can see our mind. 

This man, he was doing all the external things that other people could see: circumambulating, prostrating, and reading the scriptures. He thought doing things that other people could see, all these activities, was Dharma practice. But it’s not. If we don’t use those activities to transform our mind, we could generate even more ego. “Look how good I am—I’m circumambulating the stupa. Look how good I am—I’m bowing and I’m reading the scriptures.” We have to really transform the mind. Like I said, nobody can see us do that. You don’t have to be in a temple on Sunday morning or on Thursday night. You can do it wherever you are. You just change the way your mind is thinking. When the mind is going into a negative state, you apply the antidotes and you change it and transform it. In particular, the way we want to change and transform it at the beginning of our Dharma practice is by abandoning the eight worldly concerns. 

Eight worldly concerns

Venerable Thubten Chodron (VTC): Do you remember the eight worldly concerns? There are four pairs. First one?

Audience: Attachment to material things and aversion to not having them.

VTC: Attachment to and/or delight in money and material possessions. Then experiencing dejection when you don’t get them, or they’re taken away from you. How many of you have those two? We are all that way, aren’t we? Next two? 

Audience: Praise and criticism.

VTC: Feeling delight when we’re praised and getting bummed out when we’re criticized. Somebody says some sweet words to us and we are like, “That made my day.” The next person comes along and says something critical and we’re slumping. Anybody here have those two? Next two?

Audience: Reputation.

VTC: Reputation—we feel delight at having a good reputation. Somebody says, “You’re the best softball player in eastern Washington.” Whatever our thing is, we want to be known as best at it. We’re the best tap dancer. We’re the best football coach. We’re the best, who knows what? We want to be the best and have a large group of people know about it. We even want people to know that we can sit the longest in retreat, or that we’ve taken the most initiations. We want a good reputation. Then the flipside is feeling totally dejected when we have a bad reputation, whether it’s deserved or not. When people talk about us behind our back and then everybody shuns us. We’re a wreck, aren’t we? Totally a wreck. Who has that problem? The last set? 

Audience: Sense pleasure.

VTC: Feeling delight when we have contact with nice sense objects. We want to see nice things, hear nice things, smell nice things, taste nice things. We wan to taste good food, feel nice tactile sensations. Then we feel very dejected when we have to look at ugly things, or hear unpleasant music, or smell awful smells, or taste terrible food. We go ballistic when the food’s bad, don’t we? Bad sensations: it’s too hot or too cold. We get hurt. Who has that problem? 

Look at all of us: we have all eight worldly concerns perfected, to a “T”—arising spontaneously and effortlessly. You hear those words in Dharma practice a lot: spontaneous and effortless. We like those words: “I don’t have to make an effort.” Except in our mind, look what arises spontaneously and effortlessly. Oh my goodness. That’s why we need to keep transforming our mind. That’s what transforming our mind means. It’s counteracting those eight worldly concerns. How are we going to get anywhere in our practice if we can’t abandon the obsession with the pleasures of this life? 

The sense organs

Often in the sutras, the Buddha talks about the sense organs, the sense objects, the sense organs or sense powers. He talks about the consciousnesses—how they arise and how we’re so tied to our senses. That includes the mental sense, but especially the five sensual senses. All day long our mind is outwardly directed at sense objects. Here are these sense objects; they’re impermanent and they’re in the nature of dukkha. They have no inherent essence, and yet our mind is so completely drawn into them—obsessing with them all the time. It’s sad, isn’t it? 

Sometimes when we look at our own situation and our practice, it’s sad. It’s important to really be aware of that: “Gee, how stuck I am on sense objects.” Our relationships with other people fall in that category, too. We tend to think, “Money, and food and that stuff, I kind of have that under control. I don‘t have much problem with sense objects.” But relationships with other people, aren’t they sense objects, too? 

We like to hear nice words from them; we like to see their beautiful smiling face. We want to have them hug us, and kiss us. We want to eat good food with them and have them wear nice scents. We especially like hearing nice ego-pleasing words from other people. That one we are so hooked on. Their smiling face looking at us with total adoration and love—we’re totally hooked. Those are sense objects, aren’t they? It’s so easy for our mind to get stuck on those things and then have a really hard time doing Dharma practice. We’re just revolving around those things all the time—worrying about them, fretting about them. 

Conclusion

I think we should heed Shantideva, Aśvaghoṣa and Nam-kha-Pel’s advice here and really appreciate the rarity of our precious human life. Make it meaningful in whatever small or large way we can, moment-to-moment. “What does Dharma practice involve at this particular moment? How can I let go of attachment? How can I practice fortitude and release anger? How can I extend even a little bit of love and compassion to others?” All of this is Dharma practice. Doing some study, contemplating emptiness—whatever we can do is very beneficial. Whether it’s a lot or a little doesn’t matter, we should do it. Please meditate on this in the next week.