Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 21-minute talk, Lama Ribur Rinpoche guides practitioners through a contemplative reflection on the preciousness of human rebirth by examining the obstacles to spiritual practice in other realms. He systematically explores the hell realm, where intense heat and cold make any thought of Dharma practice impossible; the hungry ghost realm, where obsessive hunger and thirst consume the mind entirely; the animal realm, pervaded by stupidity that prevents even reciting a single mantra; and the semigod realm, where jealousy and war waste all time and energy. He then contrasts these with the god realm, where excessive happiness and attachment to pleasurable objects like incomparably beautiful gardens prevent practice entirely, using the television analogy to show how easily distraction captures our attention. By contemplating freedom from all these hindrances, the practitioner generates genuine rejoicing in the human condition and its unique opportunity for authentic Dharma practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: precious human life tape 4 2.mp3
UUID: 35ba6120-ba5f-41fe-96b9-c5240615bead
Teacher: Lama Ribur Rinpoche
Collection: Precious Human Life (Lama Ribur Rinpoche)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 21.0 minutes
Words: ~1,602
So what’s the problem if you being reborn in the hell realm? The problem is that due to very intense heat or cold, your mind is completely pervaded by suffering. And so, doesn’t even, think about, I mean, the the thoughts are not able to arise in your mind apart from being completely pervaded by suffering. So, what happen if you are being reborn there is that, because of and the way how you should meditate is that if you’re reborn in the hell realm, then the because of the strong heat or the strong cold, then the two intense, cold and heat, then, it’s impossible to have a single wish to practice Dharma. It’s not possible the thought of practicing Dharma is not possible even to generate in your mind.
And, because you are suffering in a in a too intense way. So, this, what does it mean? It means that the conditions of the hell realm are a big hindrances, for practicing Dharma. Then after this, you should think, but I’m not in the hell realm. I am I’m a human.
I am adorned with this, human body. So I don’t I I don’t have to face those, those condition now. And so this gives me the opportunity of practicing Dharma. So it’s excellent that I didn’t that I didn’t take rebirth in the hell realm. And, again, if I would have taken rebirth in the hungry ghost realm, I would have to suffer, in complete, like, hundred percent.
I would have to be my mind would be my mind and my body will be totally involved in the suffering of hunger and thirst. So because of this, I will be completely hindered from the practice of Dharma. It would be completely it would be completely impossible for me even to, even to think about practicing Dharma. So I’m not reborn in the hungry ghost realm. I’m not a hungry ghost.
So I’m, I have this human I have this human body, human form. So I have now the possibility. So it’s excellent that I didn’t take rebirth in that realm. And now I have the full possibility of practicing Dharma. I must take advantage of that.
If it’s difficult to understand which can be the suffering of and hunger of the Preta realm, so then think about how can it be, being without food and drink for fifteen days. And then after fifteen days, you go to your teacher and then your teacher says, okay, I’m going to explain you the Dharma. So the first thing she will say is that, first of all, I’m going to eat something, otherwise I’m going to die. I don’t have, you will not have any strength to to listen dharma, even any wish to, to listen dharma if you, first of all, you don’t, eat something or you drink something. So, that is only fifteen days and you can still think about how much suffering it it can bring.
So the in the Preta realm, you can, like, stay for twelve years without being able to eat even a single seed, like a single, grain of wheat. And if you take rebirth in the animal realm, you’re going to suffer you’re going to suffer by a very strong stupidity. I mean, the mind is pervaded by intense stupidity and obscuration, which doesn’t allow you to basically understand anything and not understanding obviously, not understanding dharma. So in the text says, in being reborn in the animal realm where you’re not even able to rest to recite a single Omani or a single money mantra on just one Omani perme home. So this means that if you just might try, you take your an animal close to you, and then you might say to him, okay, let’s recite together, then obviously not going to recite, it doesn’t even understand you.
So this doesn’t take much to understand. If you are born there, you are completely stupid. And so if this happened, it’s the biggest hindrance to dharma. And you should think, I’m not reborn there, I’m a human form, and so because of this, I’m free from that state, and it’s excellent that I didn’t take rebirth as an animal. And then, again, if you contemplate, what is the condition of the, semigod in the semi god realm.
So these are, their mind is pervaded by envy and jealousy towards the possession of the god realm. And so their time is basically wasted wasted in arranging the way how to steal possession from the god and the and their time is wasted trying to steal the goddesses from the god realm. And so in this that’s the only that’s, Let’s say that’s the only hindrances. That’s the only suffering they have to face, but it’s actually, it’s like the time wasted for that is really great. So basically, all their time is is spent for that in generating mental delusion like jealousy in envy and in action that this mental delusion are generating.
So in making war against the god the god and so forth. So that is a a big hindrance for Dharma practice. So you should contemplate is excellent that I didn’t take rebirth in a semi god realm where my time would be wasted in those useless actions. So I have this I am adorned with this human form, and I can can take the opportunity of this life practicing Dharma. So these four realms, the hell, pretas, animal, and the semigod realms, they are in like, they are hindered by great suffering or their suffering is too great that they are not able to practice Dharma.
In the case of god, long life god, they are too happy, that they are not I mean, the happiness is too big, it’s too great, and this is the main hindrance for the Dharma practice. What happens in the god realm is that because their mind being so fixed on the attachment for a pleasant object, they are completely unable to have any other thought. So, Rinpoche gave an example. So if you have if you are in front of the television and there is a very there is a really nice movie or a very nice program, so then what is happening is that your attention will be completely captured by the the images of the television on the screen. And if you are, for example, reciting mantra, the first thing you do is that, first you stop reciting mantra, and then you put your rosary down, and then you stay there with open mouth looking at looking at the screen for all the time of the movie.
So this means that in that case, your your Dharma practice is being stopped by the by your mind fixing on the pleasant object in front of you. So, this is what it happened in the god realm. They are completely, single-pointedly concentrated on the pleasant appearances of garden, flower gardens, and Rinpoche said they’re not like flower garden like you have here. They’re not that much attractive. That in the god realm, the flower garden are really something that you just you can stare for a very long time and you take a lot of bliss just from seeing that.
And just looking at that. And then so what they do is that they are spend they’re wasting their time. They’re spending their time working in this flower garden and and by hand with their goddesses and joyousness and so forth. So in this way, their attention and their time is completely wasted and is completely is spent in enjoying the pleasures of all these objects in the god realm. So that is a big hindrance for Dharma.
So if you are if you feel that if you feel that you are stopped by a simple television program, from practicing Dharma. And if you think that, you’re going to, it’s going to be difficult to practice Dharma in a discotheque or, at a beach or and at the top of a mountain together with a group of tourists. So then if it’s really difficult to do that, then you you might you might think how it is difficult in the god realm where your attention is is where your attention is one hundred percent captured by all these pleasant images. So this means you are not there, you’re not in the god realm, you are free from that from that disturbing objects, and so you are free from those hindrances, and you should feel rejoicing. You are human for you are you are a human body, and you can take the opportunity of your time to practice Dharma.
And so you think I’m not reborn in such a lower realm where the the intensity of the suffering doesn’t doesn’t allow me even to think about Dharma. And I’m not reborn in such a realm like god realm where the intensity of the pleasant object are too disturbing, are too intense, and they are a hindrance to me, they are an obstacle for me from practicing Dharma. So I’m free from this this obstacle and free from that hindrances. And then you should contemplate more and more up to your up to you you can generate really strong joy, like up to your body and mind is completely pervaded by joy. You should contemplate on your freedom situation up up to up to the moment, to the stage where yourself is like overwhelmed by joy.