Rarity of a precious human life

• Rarity of a establishing the causes and conditions for obtaining a precious human life
• Beginning commentary on the value of meditating on death and impermanence and the disadvantages of not doing so

MTRS 08: Preliminaries—Precious human life (download)

Let’s start by cultivating our motivation. Since we were contemplating precious human life last week, let’s come back to that. Let’s come back to the awareness that we have a precious human life, which isn’t just any human life, but one with all the conditions so that we can practice and realize the Dharma. Let’s feel great happiness at this opportunity, and know that it won’t last long. And let’s have a strong determination to use it in the wisest way, to really take the essence of our life. The most worthwhile thing to do is to generate bodhicitta, the loving compassionate thought, aspiring for full enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. Let’s generate that intention, that motivation. Even if it takes a long time to actualize it, that’s okay. We’re going in a good direction. Every step we take going in that direction will increase our ability to be of benefit to other sentient beings. 

Review: precious human life

Were you thinking about precious human life this week? Did you get some experience from it?  Did you get some feeling that what we have is really quite precious?  It’s not so easy to come by and does not last long. This meditation is so important because by having that awareness, it revs us up so that we want to practice. It pulls us out of any kind of self-deprecating mind or any kind of depression. Instead, it makes us really see our fortune and be enthusiastic about practicing the Dharma and not take our life for granted. That’s important. For those of you who didn’t meditate on it last week, there’s this coming week. 

The causes of a precious human life

We’ll continue on the topic of precious human life. We’re moving into the, “Contemplation on the rarity of such a human life according to the difficulty of obtaining the cause.” When we think of the rarity of the precious human life, we can do it from the point of view that it’s hard to create the cause for a precious human life. Or we can do it from the point of view of there are not very many people who have the result of a precious human life, so therefore, it’s rare. First, we’re going to talk about the causes of a precious human life. In the lamrim, when they talk about the causes of the precious human life, they usually list three of them. 

The first is ethical conduct because it’s through ethical conduct that we create the cause for an upper rebirth. The second is by practicing the six far-reaching practices, because those create the cause—the cooperative conditions—that we need in a precious human life. The ethical conduct gives us a human body, and the other ones—for example, generosity—give us enough wealth so that we aren’t starving, and we’re able to practice. Fortitude or patience gives us a pleasant appearance so that people won’t run away from us when we’re trying to study and practice. Practicing joyous effort gives us the tenacity to really stick to the practice in a future life. Concentration gives us the ability to stabilize the mind. Wisdom gives us the wisdom to discern the teachings and appreciate the teachings in a future life. 

We need the six far-reaching practices because they bring the other cooperative conditions that give us a precious human life. The third cause is to have very sincere dedicating prayers directed towards either having a precious human life, or for attaining liberation and enlightenment. If we dedicate for the definite goodness of liberation and enlightenment then, as a by-product, we have a precious human life. In the lamrim, you meditate on this.

Ethical discipline

If we think about ethical conduct and we look around us, how many people create good ethical conduct? Just think about it. We’re familiar with the ten non virtues. Do you know anybody who hasn’t done any of the ten?  Maybe His Holiness and a few of our teachers. Killing, stealing, unwise sexual behavior, lying, divisive words, harsh words, idle talk, coveting, ill will, and wrong views: these things are all over the place, aren’t they? I look at my life, every single one of them I’ve done, not just once, but repeatedly—even after I met the Dharma. Look around to the people we know, think about your family members, people that you love and care about very much: do they keep perfect ethical discipline whereby they’ve never done any of the ten? No. 

What about your friends, your non-Dharma friends? What did you use to do with all your non-Dharma friends? Create most of the ten, huh? First you get drunk, or you smoke some weed, and then you do the other ones. If we look around, what’s the newspaper full of?  It’s people doing the ten non virtues. Is it easy to keep good ethical conduct? No, it’s not very easy. Even if we look at ourselves as Dharma practitioners, is it easy? Can we keep our precepts perfectly? No. Reflect on your pratimoksa precepts. What about bodhisattva and tantric precepts? Do you keep them well? Sometimes we don’t even know what they are, so how can we keep them? If you look at it that way, it’s hard to create the cause just for ethical conduct, which is one of the three causes of a precious human life.  

Then, if we look at doing the six far-reaching practices, are those easy? Is generosity easy? When other people give me things, it’s very easy. For me to give other people things, my mind always goes through the process of “Well, what can I afford?” And “How much do I need to keep for myself before I give something away?” That’s the first one, generosity. What about joyous effort and wisdom and concentration? How easy is it to concentrate? My goodness, the mind’s like a monkey. That cause is difficult to create. 

What about dedications? When we do manage to create some virtue, what do we usually dedicate it for? “May I be happy. May I have everything I want. May I have a long life. In my next life may I be beautiful, and rich, and famous.” Do we even believe in next lives? Sometimes we just dedicate to this life: “May we be rich and famous in this life.”  Look at what we pray for and what we dedicate for. When we say, “Due to this merit, may I attain the state of a Guru-Buddha,” it’s kind of, rote memory. It’s like: “Due to this merit may I soon—yawn—attain the enlightened state of Guru-Buddha—thank goodness this meditation session is over—that I may be able to liberate all sentient beings.” That’s kind of how we dedicate for enlightenment. When we’re sick and we want to get well, it’s: “Please may I recover; I want to live a long life. Please, Buddha.” We’re very sincere. 

It’s hard, isn’t it? If we’re honest and we look at the quality of our own practice, it’s hard to create the causes for a precious human life, and we’re Dharma practitioners, let alone people who don’t know anything about the Dharma. I think it’s very helpful to think about our family members, our old friends, people that we see around. There are a lot of people who do kind things. Sentient beings are very kind, and many sentient beings create virtue. If we look at the amount of virtue compared to the amount of non virtue, then which one’s heavier? People are generous, they’re kind, and they do many things to help each other. Then these very same people lie or cheat on their taxes. They create factions in the office and gang up against somebody. They sleep around with this person or that person or plan out their malicious attacks when somebody hurts their feelings.

It’s not easy to really create all the causes that we need to have a precious human life. When they say that it’s difficult to have this opportunity and therefore important that we use it now, the great masters aren’t just saying it for the heck of it. If we really do some introspection we’ll see that it’s actually quite true. Think about virtuous thoughts versus non virtuous thoughts every day. What if we were to do the little thing that Geshe Ben Gungyal did? He created two piles of rocks of different colors, one representing good thoughts and the other bad thoughts. Which would we have? 

Do you want people to know what you think about all day? That’s scary, isn’t it? The Buddha knows what we think about all day. That’s a scary thought. We see it’s not so easy to create this precious human life. Now that we have the opportunity, it’s important to use it. We’re not sure we’re going to get it again. We’re really not sure. This life is a good life. It was hard to create the causes for this precious human life. In this life will we be able to create enough causes to have a precious human life again? We don’t really know, do we? We don’t really know. That’s why it’s very important to use the opportunity now.

Creating causes for lower rebirths

Our author, Nam-kha-Pel, begins the section by quoting Āryadeva’s four hundred stanzas-which says:

When the majority of human beings 
Are involved in unholy activities,
The majority of ordinary people
Will certainly go to bad rebirths.

It’s not a thought we like thinking about, is it, especially when there are people that we really care about, to think of them having bad rebirths? When we look around us and we just look at the causes that people create then we see it’s difficult, really difficult. 

Even beings with high status, (that means born as human beings or in the celestial realms) are continually engaged in unwholesome activities and rarely do they resolve to avoid them in the future. Thus, many of them go to bad rebirths and find it very hard to obtain a birth with high status. 

We look at the newspaper all day. What’s going on? We just had this lovely banking crisis all due to greed. We have wars in Iraq and Afghanistan due to hatred. There is so much killing. There are so many scandals from people lying and doing other stuff. We see it’s hard. The majority of people go to a bad rebirth. As Shantideva says in the “Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life”:

If my behavior is like this
I shall not win a human body again,
And if this human form is not attained
There will be solely evil and no virtue.

What that is talking about is the behavior that we have now: not caring very much for karma, not considering the effects of our actions and the karma that we create. It will be difficult to have a precious human life again in the future. If we don’t have a precious human life and we’re reborn in the lower realms, what kind of karma do beings born in the lower realms create? We look at our kitties, for example. Where are they? They ditched class; they’re off sleeping in their baskets somewhere. If we look, what karma do they create? Well, they love chasing flies and wasps and squirrels and chipmunks and mice. They hiss when they do things. I don’t know if all that meowing is idle talk or not. I don’t think so. They live in a Dharma environment, and it’s difficult for them to consciously, out of their own intention, generate positive thoughts. And that’s beyond just the difficulty of being born as an animal. 

What about being born as a hungry ghost or being born in the hell realms? It’s very difficult to create virtuous thoughts. It’s difficult when our mind, even in this life, is overwhelmed by either clinging, frustration or dissatisfaction—like the hungry ghosts—or when our mind is overwhelmed by anger and suspicion and pain—like the hell beings. It’s very difficult in those situations. If we have a lower rebirth next time then any thought we might have now for benefiting sentient beings is going to be even more difficult after having a lower rebirth. How are we even going to meet the Dharma teachings then? We may meet the Dharma teachings but in the form of a cat, or a mosquito, or something like that. It’s quite difficult and then what do we do? 

I know it’s not pleasant, but it’s extremely helpful to do this meditation. Really think and go through the kinds of actions we do and then think about what happens in the next life. “I have a lower rebirth, what do I do then?” Imagine having that kind of life. How are you going to think? How are you going to create virtue? Will we even know what virtue and non virtue are if we’re born in one of those realms? Thank goodness for our parents of this life who taught us something about ethical conduct. If it hadn’t been for our parents of this life teaching us, how would we behave? Much worse than we do now, don’t you think? Really imagine having that kind of rebirth and then say, “What’s going to happen then?” Look at the long term. What’s the long term effect? How are we ever going to get out of the lower realms? It’s shocking, it’s unpleasant, but it’s a productive kind of unpleasant feeling because it wakes us up out of taking things for granted. It makes us really think about karma in a very deep way, and take it seriously. It’s not just, “Well, it’s just a little negativity.” Or, “I’ll do something virtuous mañana—la mañana, you know, tomorrow morning.” Through this meditation, we become much more dedicated and serious about our practice. 

Difficulty of obtaining a precious rebirth

 The Friendly letter by Nāgārjuna says: 

For an animal to obtain rebirth as a human being
Is more difficult than for a blind turtle
To put its neck through a hole in a yoke adrift in the great ocean
So make your life meaningful, O king, by practicing the holy teachings.

Even more stupid than one who vomits
Into a bejeweled golden vessel
Is one who, born as a human being,
Indulges in unwholesome deeds.

How difficult it is for an animal to be reborn to a precious human life? This example of the turtle with the yoke is right out of the Pali Canon. I’m sure it was in the Sanskrit canon as well. I find it very effective to create an image of this huge vast ocean. As far as you can see in, any direction, there’s just water. Beyond that, there’s just more water. Then there’s a golden ring, a golden yoke. It’s floating around the surface of the ocean. And there’s a big old, blind tortoise that, once every hundred years, comes up from the bottom of the sea.

The blind tortoise is like us: blind with ignorance. Sentient beings are blinded by ignorance. The tortoise at the bottom of the ocean is like so many beings having unfortunate rebirths. The golden yoke is a precious human life, but the whole rest of the ocean is other kinds of upper rebirths. The tortoise only comes up once every hundred years, which is not very often. He can’t see the yoke because he’s blind. The yoke’s floating here and there; it doesn’t stays in one place. It goes all over the place. The tortoise comes up for a minute and then goes down again. What are the chances of this tortoise putting his head through the yoke? Not much. 

That’s like us in the lower realms, coming up once every hundred years and, just for an instant, having an upper rebirth. That yoke floating around is a precious human life. Sometimes he comes up, and he’s gazillions of miles away from the yoke. Sometimes he comes up, and he’s two inches away from the yoke. If you miss it, two inches is as far off as a gazillion miles—because you missed it. Sometimes he comes up, and he just hits the edge of the yoke, but his head doesn’t go in, and he‘s down to the ocean floor again. Really think about this kind of analogy and how difficult it is for that tortoise to get its head through the golden yoke. If we do, it really hits us that, “Wow, am I fortunate. I’m so fortunate to have this precious human life.” 

Advantages of having a precious human life

Why is it so fortunate to have a precious human life? First, because I can use it to prepare for other good human lives in the future. Most importantly, it’s useful because I can use it to create the causes for liberation and for full enlightenment. Third, it’s useful because I can make it meaningful, moment-by-moment, by practicing the thought training teachings. Moment-by-moment we can make our lives meaningful. That’s why having a precious human life is important because it gives us that opportunity for great purpose and great meaning. But it’s rare to attain a precious human life. So, spend some time thinking about this and envisioning this. 

Then, it says:

More stupid than one who vomits into a bejeweled golden vessel.

This refers to a golden vessel from the Hapsburg dynasty. It was a golden vessel, and you vomit into it. Most people would think that’s kind of dumb. Dumber than that is somebody who uses a precious human life to act in unwholesome ways and create negative karma. If we don’t relate to that, then to use a modern example, we might say it’s like somebody who buys stock the first time it goes on the market at a very low price. Then it shoots up, but that person doesn’t sell it at that time but waits until it’s a big financial mess. More stupid than that is somebody who uses their life to create unwholesome actions.  

The good result of having a precious human life

We’re moving into the section called, “Contemplation of the rarity of finding such a human life according to the difficulty of obtaining the result.” We’re looking at it from the side of the result. Before it was the side of the cause. Now, we see the good result. 

In general, the beings in the three bad rebirths are many, but those with high status are few. Among those with high status in particular it is rare to find those who are free from the eight states without leisure. Moreover, even amongst those who have found freedom and opportunity, those who are inclined towards the holy doctrine are as numerous as stars in the daytime.

They say the number of beings in bad migrations are like the number of dust motes. We have a lot of dust at the Abbey right now because have been digging in the field. There are lots of dust motes. That’s just one small area that we can see. Think of all the dust particles in the world. Precious human life is like the dirt under your fingernails, in comparison. It’s hard to have the eight freedoms; it’s difficult to have the ten fortunes, and even if you have some of them but not all of them, there are many obstacles to practicing the Dharma. 

It’s really difficult to find people who really appreciate the Dharma and want to dedicate their lives to the Dharma. We can even see it in our own lives. It’s difficult, isn’t it, to keep our mind in the Dharma all day long? Even when we do retreat, is our mind in the Dharma all day long? No. Half the meditation session is contemplating lunch. The other half we’re daydreaming about what will happen after the retreat. We’re often thinking about the past or something else. It’s hard to have this result. It’s like seeing stars in the daytime. That’s a very interesting analogy. Tomorrow, during the day, go out and look for the stars. Really contemplating these analogies can be very helpful. How often do we see a star in the daytime? That’s how often it is, really, that someone appreciates and is inclined towards the Dharma. 

Importance of practicing the Dharma

Appreciating that the precious state of leisure and opportunity, that we have found on this occasion, is very meaningful and difficult to find, we must find the ways and means to generate the wish to extract its essence.

In a broad sense, “extracting the essence” means to practice the holy Dharma. In a general way, taking the essence of our life means to practice. Remember last week when I was talking about what practice is? What is practice? It’s transforming the mind. It begins with abandoning the eight worldly concerns. This is because we want happiness and dislike suffering. I think this is important. Why are we practicing the Dharma? It’s not because we’re afraid. It’s not because we’re trying to be good kids, and otherwise somebody is going to send us to hell. It’s not because somebody else is forcing us, or pressuring us, or coercing us. It’s because we want to avoid suffering and have happiness. 

It’s our own voluntary effort to cultivate this very innate wish for happiness and to not experience suffering. That’s important because our mind sometimes gets a little bit resistant towards the Dharma. Sometimes we hear teachings, and sometimes our teacher gives us some advice and we go, “What are you telling me that for? They’re just teaching all this stuff about the hell realms because they’re trying to frighten us.” That’s why I left the church: I got tired of being frightened. It’s very easy, isn’t it? “My teacher, he’s always pressuring me to do virtue; why don’t they give me some space? I want to decide for myself instead of being forced into it.” Our mind gets like that, doesn’t it? When the mind gets like that we have to remember we’re not doing it to please somebody else or out of social pressure or obligation. We’re doing it because we want to be happy and to avoid suffering. By extension, we want other people to be happy and avoid suffering. 

If any doubt arises about our ability to practice the Dharma reflect on such external conditions as the presence of spiritual friends of the great vehicle and the opportunities for meeting them, and the internal conditions of possessing this free and fortunate body as a basis.

Sometimes, our mind gets overwhelmed by doubt and we wonder,, “Can I practice the Dharma? Am I really going to get anywhere? Maybe this is all a bunch of hooey.” Sometimes this thought comes in the mind, too. “This life is so real, why should I practice Dharma? This is up in space, hairy fairy kind of stuff. Anyway, I can’t do it.” If we have that kind of doubt, or doubt our capability or anything, then we should really think of our fortune of meeting Mahayana teachers and Mahayana spiritual friends. Think about how rare that is. It’s especially rare to meet teachers like His Holiness. Really appreciate that condition, and also appreciate the internal conditions we have as part of this precious human life. We should appreciate these conditions instead of letting our mind fill with doubt and resistance and thoughts like: “They’re just nagging me to practice Dharma.” Having doubt may also sound like: “Oh, it’s just too hard wanting to liberate all sentient beings; it’s too difficult. I want them all to liberate me. That’s better.” If we have that kind of doubt then really think of the fortune that we have of meeting Mahayana spiritual teachers and having a precious human life.

Disadvantages of postponing practice:

If you think of postponing your practice till future lives, remember that it is hard to find such leisure and opportunity again.

If you‘re thinking, “Well, Buddhism teaches multiple lifetimes, so I’ll just enjoy this lifetime, and next lifetime I can practice.” That sounds good, doesn’t it—having lots of sense pleasure and delight in this lifetime? In the next lifetime, I’ll practice. But we have to remember how hard it is to have a precious human life our next lifetime. If we’re assured of a precious human life in our next lifetime, well maybe. If you really think samsara is fun, you can delay practicing the Dharma. But if we really contemplate whether or not we’re going to have a precious human life next time, it’s better to not postpone it. 

If you think of putting off your practice for some months or years, this is also mistaken, because although death is assured its time is uncertain.

Again, we have the opportunity to practice Dharma but we say, “You know, there are all these things I have to do.” Notice the language: “All these things I have to do. I have to do. I have to go to work, and I have to go to these weddings and social engagements. I have to eat bags of chips and popcorn and chocolate cake.  I have to go out with my friends, and I have to work overtime—I have to, and I have to.” We talk in that language of have to all the time, don’t we? As soon as we say we have to, then nobody can question us. Nobody can come up and say, “Why do you have to?” Because we’ve already said we have to. Those are the sacred words, aren’t they? 

When we don’t want to do something, we say, “I’m very sorry, I’d really like to help you but I have to do this other thing. I have to.” As if somebody’s sitting there with a gun at our temple saying, “I’m going to kill you if you don’t do it.” Do we have to do all those other things? The only thing we have to do is die. It’s the only thing in this life we have to do. Everything else is optional. Now you might say, “That’s ridiculous saying that everything else is optional. I have to go to work. I have to do this. I have to do that.” If you look at it and open your mind, we don’t have to do all those things. We are choosing to do them. I think if we use that language of I’m choosing to instead of I have to, it’s very revealing.  

You hear me talk about writing a book: the three million nine hundred and ninety two thousand four hundred and fifteen excuses why we can’t practice Dharma: Because I have to do x, y and z. But phrase it as, I’m choosing to do it. I’m choosing to go to work. I’m choosing not to go to Dharma class and to stay home. I’m choosing to go to this party. I’m choosing to lie in my business dealings with other people. I’m choosing to hang out and watch the television. Think about it. It shakes us up inside, doesn’t it? Then we have to say, “I am choosing,” because we are choosing. I’m choosing to take my kids to school, if you’re a parent. 

If we really use that phrase then we’re putting it back on ourselves to ask ourselves, “Why am I choosing to do the things I’m choosing to do? Why do I use the language of “I have to, I have to?” If we’re doing things that we resent doing and don’t like doing, then we should say, “I’m choosing to do it.” If it’s something that we’re doing for the benefit of somebody else, but we don’t like doing it, then we say, “I’m choosing to do this. It may not be pleasant; it may not be my liking, but I’m choosing to do it and so I’ll stop complaining, I’ll just do it.” Whereas, if we live our lives thinking all the time, “I have to, I have to,” then we’re always complaining and whining, but we’re never really taking responsibility for our engaging in these things. Try that.

Right before the weeklong retreat every year, I get so many emails from people who write to tell me that they can’t come: “The retreat sounds so good this year, but I can’t come because I have to…” I wonder what would happen if I wrote back and said, “Why do you have to do that? Why don’t you just say, ‘I’m choosing to do that?’ I have to go on vacation with my family. Why don’t you say, ‘I’m choosing to go on vacation with my family?’ That’s what you want to do, so say it.” 

The four preliminaries

Although death is assured, its time is uncertain.

That’s true, isn’t it? 

Among the ways of taking the essence [of this life], familiarizing yourself with the awakening mind [the bodhicitta], is the principal and most excellent practice.

Of all the ways to take the essence of this life, familiarizing our mind with the altruistic intention, with the bodhicitta—that aspiration to attain full enlightenment for the benefit of sentient beings—is the principal thing. That’s the most excellent thing. That’s why meeting Mahayana spiritual masters is so precious. They are the ones who show us how to do this, how to generate bodhicitta. 

You should engage in the preliminaries for training in the awakening mind.

He’s bringing us back to the four preliminaries for training the awakening mind, which are? First one?

Audience: Precious human life.

Venerable Thubten Chodron (VTC): Precious human life. Second?

Audience: Impermanence and death. 

VTC: Impermanence and death. Third?

Audience: Karma and its effects.

VTC: Karma and its effects. Fourth?

Audience: Disadvantages of cyclic existence.

VTC: Yes, disadvantages and the misery of cyclic existence. Those are the four preliminaries. 

Disadvantages of not remembering death

That was the section on precious human life. Now we’re going to move into the section on death and impermanence. I find this section very moving. We have to be complete knuckleheads not to be moved. If this topic can move me, it can move anybody. It’s, “How to think about the brevity of this life, death and impermanence.”  

We should think about how being unmindful of death is the main cause of the whole heap of mistakes performed in this and future lives and how familiarity with death and impermanence is advantageous, the sole means for achieving everything excellent in this and future lives.

That’s a pretty strong statement, isn’t it? 

Being unmindful of death is the main cause of the whole heap of mistakes performed in this and future lives.

Now why is being unmindful of death the main cause for all the negative karma we create in this and future lives? When we’re not aware of impermanence and death, we feel like we are going to live forever. When we are not aware of impermanence and death, we feel like we are this solid person who exists right now and who is always going to exist. This life is just going to continue, ad infinitum. If we have that feeling of being so permanent then thinking about the long term effects of our actions doesn’t enter in our mind, because our mind is just involved with thinking about this life. The appearance of this life is so strong, so in our face all the time, that we think it’s permanent and real, and it’s not going to disappear. If this is the case, then we’ll enjoy this life as much as we can through sense pleasure, and when we can’t, we’ll get angry. And then we’ll take it out on other people. When we’re not doing that we’ll just zone out, and sleep, or drink, or use drugs—or we’ll bury our head in the sand. Then you’ll have the three poisonous attitudes: clinging attachment, anger and ignorance. They all arise, moment after moment after moment, if we don’t remember impermanence and death. Everything seems so real around us, and this life feels like it’s not going to end. 

When we think about impermanence and death we realize, “Hey, wait a minute: this life doesn’t last very long, and who I think I am right now is not who I really am, and it’s not who I’m always going to be. I could die and be born in another life.”  It really kind of shocks us in some way, especially if we’ve contemplated precious human life beforehand because we really have the feeling of the preciousness of this life. We don’t want to waste this life because we know at any moment we could die. 

When we die, what we take with us is the karma that we’ve created, not all of our memories. We can chalk up a whole pile of memories, can’t we? We write diaries full of stuff, and we fill all of our scrapbooks and photo albums and medals and trophies and certificates and diplomas—all these things that illustrate “I” was alive. Why do we do it? It’s so when we’re old, we can sit there and our mind that’s senile or has Alzheimer’s can look at the picture books. There’s your kids, and you go, “Who’s that?” That’s scary, huh? Even if we don’t have Alzheimer’s or senility and we recognize, “I know who those people are,” still, all we have is a nice scrapbook to prove that we were alive, plus our certificates and everything else. 

When we die, what’s everybody else going to do with it?  They’re going to chuck it, aren’t they? It’s going in the garbage. Maybe you have the idea that “My kids will hold onto it.” Your kids are going to take your scrapbook from when you were sixteen, with all the napkins from the boys you dated. I had that scrapbook once upon a time. I don’t have any kids to take it. Anyway, I threw it out a long time ago after I met the Dharma. What’s everybody else going to do with all our stuff? 

We always have this feeling of “I’m so important, so after I die, somebody’s going to write my biography. I’m going to appear in the annals of, ‘Buddhism in the West.’” Or, somebody’s going to write a book and we’ll get three sentences. If we were to even read it we’d go, “Hey, you guys got it all wrong. Why are you saying I did that? I did not do that. Can’t you even do your research properly?” That’s if we could read it. Where are we going to be when they’re slaving away doing all this research? Maybe we think, “Well, I’ll just save it all on my computer and back it up. Then, after I’m dead, I’ll will my computer files to somebody to make sure that my biography gets written. In the computer files they’ll find all my tragedies and my deep emotions,” right? They’ll find my deep emotions and how awful people treated me while I was trying to develop bodhicitta for them. They’ll see all of my glimpses into emptiness because I’ve recorded each of them with lots of words and conceptuality. They’ll go through the Abbey harddrive for all the pictures. They’ll make a whole book about me. Of course, I won’t be around to enjoy it, but never mind, it gives me pleasure thinking that somebody is going to write it in the future. That’s crazy, isn’t it? That’s totally nutty. 

Death and the eight worldly concerns

If we aren’t mindful of death then this is what we get caught up in, isn‘t it? Remembering impermanence and death is such a good thing for our practice. It wakes us up: “I’d better practice Dharma because I’m going to die, and I’d better practice Dharma soon because I don’t know how long I’m going to live. I’d better practice Dharma purely because when I die, I can’t take any of these worldly things with me. All I can take with me is the karma I create. If my Dharma practice is all mixed up with the eight worldly concerns, what kind of karma am I going to create and take with me?” 

This is the part where you’re thinking about the advantages of meditating on death and impermanence, and the disadvantages of not doing it. It’s where the meditation on the eight worldly concerns appears in the lamrim. A disadvantage of not remembering death is that we just live our life completely caught up with the eight worldly concerns. It’s so easy to see this, isn’t it? The first pair of eight worldly concerns: delight at material possessions and money and being displeased when we don’t have it, or don’t have enough of it. We’re all like that, aren’t we? Second is feeling delight when we have praise and approval. We love to hear more about ourselves: “Sorry, I didn’t hear you sing my praises. Say it again.” We feel so despondent and dejected when people criticize us and don’t approve of us. 

Third is feeling delighted when we have a good reputation, like when a whole bunch of people are talking positively about us. Then, we feel dejected when they criticize us behind our back and we have a bad reputation. We all experience that, too. Forth is feeling delighted when we have nice sense experiences including pleasant things to see, nice music, nice sounds, good food, and nice physical sensations. Then, we feel displeased and unhappy when we have unpleasant sensory experiences. We complain, “The food here isn’t any good. The carpet’s dirty. You left your dirty socks in the sink.” 

We are so involved with the eight worldly concerns. They just completely take over our life. When we remember death then the eight worldly concerns don’t take over. When we remember death, we set our priorities in a much different way. Our priorities aren’t the eight worldly concerns—getting four and abandoning four. Our priorities are transforming our mind and transforming our heart. 

Fear and death

The fear of being separated from your body, possessions and relatives of this life to which you are attached, caused by thinking about death.

We’re afraid to separate from our body, our possessions and our relatives. When we think about dying, sometimes that fear comes, doesn’t it? “I won’t have this body. I’ll be separated from all these people I love—my mother, father, brother, sister, kid, aunt, uncle, cats and dogs. I’ll be separated from my wealth. I’m not going to have this house, my reputation, this stuff. I’m going to be separated from everything I have.” A feeling of fear and panic comes when ordinary people think about death. This is not the fear intended here. When we’re meditating on death, we’re not trying to generate that ordinary, panicky, freaked out feeling of “I’m going to die.” That’s not what we’re trying to cultivate because the Buddha didn’t need to teach us how to do that. We can get panicked and frightened of death all by ourselves. It’s not the purpose of this meditation.

[That] is not the fear intended here for that is the fear of one who has no understanding of the path.

Being freaked out about separating from our possessions, friends and relatives, reputation and our whole ego identity—that’s the fear of somebody who has no familiarity with the path. That actually is the fear that most living beings experience when they die because most of them are not familiar with the path. They haven’t thought about their death; they haven’t thought about separating from these things. They’ve thought of all of these things as the meaning and purpose of their life. Separating from them is just so scary. As practitioners, generating that kind of fear isn’t the purpose of this meditation.

So, what is this about? Everything that is born from a union [of parents] due to the force of karma and afflictions is bound to die, and although you may fear it, it cannot be avoided.

We’re born under the influence of afflictions and karma. We don’t like it, but that’s the situation. Because we were born that way then death is very natural. Anything that is born dies. Death is not a sign of evil or non virtue. It’s not a punishment. It’s just a very natural result of being born. Being born under the power of afflictions and karma, death happens naturally. Although we may fear it, it can’t be avoided. Death can’t be avoided. If we fear it and it can’t be avoided, then what can we do? We can try and live forever, but we can’t. Or we can deal with the fear that we have of death. That’s what Milarepa was saying when he said, “Being afraid of death I went to the mountains and overcame my fear of death.” 

Moreover, until we have accomplished the purpose of our future lives we will continue to fear death. 

“Until we have accomplished the purpose of our future lives”: have you ever thought of what the purpose of your future life is? What’s the purpose of your future life? It’s to transform our mind and generate bodhicitta. We might as well generate that intention to be the purpose of our future life, right now. Until we have accomplished that purpose, until we’ve generated bodhicitta and realized emptiness directly, we will continue to fear death. If you think about that and realize it, then at the time of death you will have no fear. If we think about it, because we’re born under the influence of afflictions and karma, death is a fearful thing. If we use that to practice the Dharma and generate bodhicitta then we stop that fear of death. When death arrives, there is no fear. 

They say that people who practice well have, first of all, no regrets. If you remember death then when you die, you have no regrets because you’ve used your life in a wise way, and you’ve created a big store of merit—a big store of virtuous and wholesome activity. We have no regrets if we remember death on a momentary basis throughout our life, asking ourselves, “Is doing this something that I’ll be happy I’ll have done at the time of death?” If the answer is “Yes,” then do it. If the answer is “No,” then don’t do it. Then, at the time of death, we’ll have no regrets because we’ll make really wise decisions throughout our life. We might be really mad at somebody and really want to tell them off. We’ll think, “At the time I die, is this something I’m going to feel good about having done? No. If I’m not going to feel good about having told this person off when I die, why waste my time now telling them off?” 

Say we’re sitting here craving something, we’re just craving, craving, craving, craving—we’re craving sex, or chips, or chocolate ice cream, or music, or lying on the beach, or being with your friend or relative, craving, craving, craving—then we can think, “Is this a mental state that I want to have at the time I die? Is even getting this thing going to be important to me at the time I die? No, so why waste my time now craving it?” Then the craving in the mind disappears, and the mind becomes quite calm again. I find that thinking about death and impermanence is very good when the mind is stirred up—when it’s upset, or when it’s worried. I just have to say, “Is this a mental state I want to have when I die? Is getting this thing that I’m obsessing about, or getting away from this thing that I’m obsessing about, is it going to be important to me when I die? No, so I’d better to let it go now.” 

On the other hand, if it’s some Dharma activity or doing something that’s beneficial to others, or studying or practicing, I ask myself. “Is this something at the time I die that I’m going to be glad that I’ll have done?” And if I think, “Oh yes,” then you do it, and the mind isn’t so resistant to doing those things because it’s like, “If at the point I die I look back and I see that I spent this time doing prostrations now, I’ll be really happy about it; it will have served me well. Even though I’m tired now and I’d rather go to sleep, it doesn’t take very long to do the prostrations. At the time of death I’ll feel good about it.” That helps our mind stay with the Dharma. 

Actually, as practitioners, when they talk about the fear of death for a practitioner, the fear of death is we fear dying without having taken the essence of this life. We fear dying without having transformed our mind, without having planted seeds of virtue in our mindstream, without having heard teachings, without having contemplated the lamrim, without having transformed the mind, made offerings, whatever it is. Without having meditated on emptiness or generated bodhicitta. We fear dying without having done that. That kind of death isn’t the panicky fear of death that ordinary people have. 

Think about the rarity of getting a precious human life this week. Think about it from the viewpoint of the cause and how difficult it is to create the cause, and think about it from the viewpoint of the result and how few people have that result. Begin to contemplate impermanence and death, and especially consider the advantages of contemplating impermanence and death, and how it helps clear your mind of so much obsession and rubbish and worry. It helps us really make wise decisions, don’t you think? Think about that because if we really see the advantages of contemplating impermanence and death, then we’ll want to do the meditation. And then we’ll get the benefits of it.