Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 48-minute commentary, Khensur Rinpoche poses a provocative question: would you sell this human body, with all its conditions for Dharma practice, for ten thousand dollars? The question anchors an extended reflection on the precious human life, set within Tsongkhapa’s three principal aspects of the path. Rinpoche walks through the eighteen factors — the eight freedoms from states that block Dharma practice (unfortunate rebirths, absence of teachings, distorted views, physical impairment) and the ten conducive conditions, personal and circumstantial — then argues why even a million dollars cannot match what such a life affords: preventing unfortunate rebirths, practising ethics and generosity, achieving liberation, and ultimately, through tantric practice, attaining Buddhahood in one lifetime, as Milarepa did. Suited to students following the Lamrim.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 3PA 1993 06 29.mp3
UUID: 830a3f05-2cbe-4cce-a196-d215aaf0e4ea
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principal Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-06-29
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 48.1 minutes
Words: ~2,446
So Tsongkhapa covers three fundamentals of the path where he says without a complete thought definitely to leave cyclic existence, there is no way to stop seeking pleasurable effects in the ocean of cyclic existence. And in the course of developing the thought definitely to leave cyclic existence, that is to say, the determination to awaken — renunciation. Last week we talked about the way in which to forego the eight worldly principles, the eight worldly dharmas, and we spoke about the ten innermost jewels of the Kadampa. Tsongkhapa goes on to say in the next verse that leisure and fortune are difficult to find and life has no duration.
So here he is introducing the way in which we’re able to reverse the emphasis on the appearances of this life through the contemplations of the ten Leisures and Eight Fortunes. The Eight Fortunes and Ten Leisures — ten Leisures which our human life affords us — that such a life is difficult to find and it’s extremely meaningful. But additionally, that it is impermanent. So, by combining these elements, we are able to reverse the emphasis on the appearances of this life. So this is taught in the context of the being of narrow perspective, where it is pointed out that a human life, which possesses the freedom from eight inhibitory conditions in order to practice Dharma and possesses the ten conducive conditions to carry on a practice of Dharma, is extremely rare.
Such a life having these eight leisures and ten fortunes is extremely rare. So this life constituted of these eighteen characteristics is a life by means of which we can carry on a successful practice of Dharma. That in order to carry on a practice of Dharma, it’s necessary that we be free of eight specific conflicting conditions or inhibiting conditions. But that in itself is not enough to simply be free of inhibitory conditions. We must also have conducive conditions to carry on our practice.
And these are constituted of ten conducive conditions or fortunes. So in terms of the absence of conflictive conditions or inhibitory conditions in order to carry on a practice of Dharma, the first four of these leisures are listed in terms of that we are free from having taken rebirth as a nonhuman due to various types of negative actions, unskillful actions, that we are free from having taken rebirth as, for example, a hell being, as an insatiable ghost or a hungry ghost, as an animal, and also as a long-lived god. So, in all four of these types of rebirths, there is no listening to the Dharma. It makes no sense when one hears it and one is not able to cultivate it or to meditate on it. So these are four states in which there would be an inhibition, an obstruction from the practice of Dharma.
So we are free from those inhibitory conditions. So these freedoms from these first four inhibitory states — it is necessary that we appreciate what a wonderful opportunity our human life possesses, that we have created the causes to have taken rebirth in a human life which is free of these inhibitory or conflicting conditions. But additionally, our human life affords us — even in having taken a human rebirth — there are still further freedoms from inhibitory conditions in terms of that we are born in such a time that the Buddha Dharma is extant, that there are periods of time when the Buddhas do not appear, they do not teach, and therefore there is no Dharma. That we are free from that absence of Dharma.
But additionally, even though there are teachings extant in the world, that we are born in such a place where the teachings do not exist — in a border region or some uncivilized part of the world. Thirdly, that we are free from holding strongly to distorted views, due to which, out of closed-mindedness, we reject the teachings. And then finally, fourthly, that we are free from physical and intellectual handicaps or impairments such that we would not be able to avail ourselves even if the teachings were in our immediate vicinity. So that we are free from all of these inhibitory conditions represents a wonderful opportunity for practice. So being reborn in any of these eight states would represent a situation where there would be no opportunity to practice the Dharma; we in fact have the karma, the actions necessary to be reborn in all of these states.
But we temporarily are free of existing in those states. And therefore this represents a wonderful temporary opportunity afforded us, and we should appreciate it. So we have a freedom from these inhibitory conditions to carry on a practice of Dharma. But additionally to that, we have the fortune of possessing conducive conditions to carry on our practice of Dharma. And these conditions are such that we exist at a time when the Buddha has come into the world.
That moreover the Buddha taught the Dharma. That the Dharma is extant. The Dharma is a means by which we are able to eliminate from the root our suffering and to find an ultimate happiness. So that Dharma is still extant. And moreover, a fortune of having the opportunity to listen to it, that there are teachers, the Lamas, who teach this Dharma.
And additionally, the fortune of that there are practitioners, companions who assist us in carrying out our practice of the Dharma. So in terms of these ten fortunes, there are five personal fortunes and five circumstantial fortunes or impersonal fortunes. The Dharma is extant in the world. There was a teacher who taught the Dharma and it still remains — the Buddha Dharma is said to last five thousand years and then it will disappear. And of those five thousand years, five hundred of them there will be no teachings; at the most there will simply be the robes of monks.
So perhaps almost three thousand of those years have gone by. But we are born at a time when it is still extant. And moreover we have the conditions whereby to carry out our practice in terms of the material people who supply us with material necessities — that we are supplied with food, clothing such that our material basis is taken care of and we can carry on our practice. So we have been born as humans in this world, endowed with a powerful intellect, able to strive in our practice and have an inclination toward the Dharma.
And that we are born in a place where the teachings are practiced, and that we have no impairment of our faculties, and we have a liking for the Dharma. So these are our personal fortunes or endowments that we all possess. So when we consider the constitution of our human life in terms of these eighteen factors by means of which we can carry on our practice of Dharma — which are tremendously meaningful, which have given us a life of tremendous potentiality and which was difficult to attain — understanding this, we can generate a great appreciation for what it is that we do have.
So this human life possessed of these eighteen factors is extremely precious. And its preciousness is compared by Tsongkhapa to a wish-fulfilling jewel. That our human life is worth more than hundreds of thousands of wish-fulfilling jewels. These precious, wish-fulfilling gems are no longer extant. They existed in ancient times.
At those times when there were no factories, no fields — how did people in those ancient times make their livelihood? How did they get all the material necessities of life? They would at that time — the people possessed a great amount of creative potential or merit — and they would go into the ocean to retrieve these jewels, and they would polish them. There were three special polishings and three washings.
And then they would make offerings and make prayers using these wish-fulfilling gems. And whatever they wished for, whether food or clothing, it would be supplied to them. So from something that you can get all your food and clothing and material necessities, would come from these jewels, and obviously it’s extremely precious. So the wish-fulfilling gem as a simile — our human life is like that. But it’s even, but its benefit is thousands and tens of thousands more in benefit than even a wish-fulfilling gem.
These days, these jewels have been replaced by money. You know, with enough money, we can get all the food, the clothing, the shelter, the transport, all our temporal desires if we have enough money, we can be supplied in that way. Money has become very precious. But no, we should think that no matter how much money that we may accumulate, this human life is much more precious. If somebody said to you, would you sell your body — this body which has these eighteen factors by means of which one can carry on a practice of Dharma, this human life — would you sell your human body to me for, what is it, for ten thousand dollars? The danger is that if we didn’t consider how valuable our human life was, then we might sell it for ten thousand or one hundred thousand dollars. So if one didn’t consider how precious one’s human life is, we could think — don’t you think it possible that one could think money was more precious than one’s own human life? But this would be a great mistake to think that whether it’s ten thousand, one hundred thousand, whatever the money, it was more precious than one’s human life. So we have to look at the degree of benefit between even say a million dollars and our human life — determining, examining, investigating which of the two would be more beneficial.
What is the difference in the degree of benefit? With a million dollars, we could get all the various good things of life. We could get food and shelter. We could give it away. But there’s no more result than that.
But in terms of our human life — the worth of our human life — by means of our human life, we can stop the possibility of being reborn in an unfortunate rebirth in the future. But a million dollars can’t stop that. It is in terms of our human life that we are able to observe, for example, ethics, that we are able to practice ethics. Just the abandonment of one of the ten unskillful actions, for example of killing — if we were to abandon killing, or if we were to abandon stealing — then that very act, by means of which we are able to practice by means of this human life, can prevent us from being reborn in an unfortunate rebirth. What to say of practicing all ten abandonments of the unskillful actions?
Blocking rebirth in unfortunate migrations or rebirths, we can take rebirth in a fortunate migration, a happy migration; we can take rebirth as a human being. Additionally, having taken a human rebirth, if we can understand — we have the ability to understand — the means by which to carry on a practice of generosity. If we practice giving, then in the future, in that future birth, we will have all the various objects of enjoyment that we wish. In addition to that, practicing tolerance, by means of which we will have a beautiful body, that others will have a great liking for us merely by seeing us, that we will have harmony with others in our relationships. So out of these practices, we can be reborn as a human with wealth, appearance, and harmony with others.
A million dollars couldn’t buy all that. But not only that — in terms of our human life — if we were to observe ethics and to meditate on emptiness, we don’t even have to consider future life. But even in this life, we could abandon the sufferings of cyclic existence and achieve the happiness of liberation.
And if we were to cultivate compassion, love, and the awakening heart, in this very embodiment we could achieve the state of a bodhisattva. But not only that — just as we go for holidays, perhaps we go to America or England, we go to Switzerland or India — likewise, through practicing well, we could go for holidays to the Pure Land of Tārā or the Palace of Chenrezig or the Pure Land of Mañjuśrī or Vajrayoginī. We go there for holidays. We don’t need a visa.
There’s no difficulty. We don’t have to go through the hassle of passing through customs. And in terms of this present human life that we possess, through our practice of secret mantra, in this very life we can bring about the ultimate welfare of both ourselves and others through the attainment of Buddhahood. So there have been those, both in India and also in Tibet, who achieved Buddhahood in a like embodiment, in such as we have it. For example, practitioners like Milarepa or Lobzang Trapa or Ghantapada — they were able to carry out their practice and in that very life achieve Buddhahood.
And their embodiment of a life of leisures and fortunes was not any better than the one that we possess. It is the same life. If we don’t remember how very meaningful our human life is and what precious and tremendous benefit it can afford us, then we are liable to waste it. So looking at it in this way we can see that the human life of leisures and fortunes that we possess is much more valuable than millions of dollars or even a wish-fulfilling gem. Tsongkhapa says that to use this human life — which has such great purpose — for only the happinesses of this life in terms of gathering together food and clothing, etcetera, is really to act very stupidly.
And Śāntideva says likewise that having achieved such a precious human life and not to practice the Dharma, by means of which we could eliminate all our suffering and achieve ultimate happiness — and to spend our life seeking only insignificant goals — is really very sad and displays our ignorance. You know, and the analogy would be if someone were to say to a second person that, you know, I’m going to give you a hundred thousand dollars today, and this person was informed of this offer. But instead of going and getting the money, they spent their day in pursuits of petty pleasures.