Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 61-minute teaching, Lama Ribur Rinpoche guides students through a systematic contemplation of precious human rebirth by examining the eight conditions of unfreedom and the ten conditions of richness. He begins by explaining how understanding these barriers—such as being born when no Buddha has appeared, in a place hostile to Dharma, with impaired faculties, or holding wrong views—helps practitioners recognize their own freedom and fortune. He then maps the ten conducive conditions divided between personal factors (being human, having intact faculties, living where Dharma exists, having faith) and external factors (a Buddha having appeared, taught, and the Dharma remaining stable). Drawing on the example of Milarepa and using the metaphor of a golden vessel used as a rubbish bin, he emphasizes that without this foundation of understanding, people waste their lives on worldly pursuits. He concludes by explaining the three causes needed to obtain precious human rebirth in future lives: pure morality, practice of the six perfections, and pure aspirational prayer. Aimed at practitioners already receiving Buddhist instruction who can engage with foundational Lamrim meditation.
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File: precious human life tape 5 1.mp3
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Teacher: Lama Ribur Rinpoche
Collection: Precious Human Life (Lama Ribur Rinpoche)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 61.3 minutes
Words: ~4,152
Possibility or the opportunity that we have in our hand. And, in this way, we are going we are, like, induced or we are, like, compelled to take an advantage of this. Otherwise, if we don’t understand the richness or the precious or the value of this of this human rebirth, then we might we might waste it. We might spend it in a completely unwholesome way. So the way how you have to contemplate is understanding which are the eight situation of unfreedom or conditioned or limited situation that you might experience, which are going to interference or hindrance your practice of Dharma.
And contemplating each and every of this situation, you understand how deep is the level of suffering and how great is the level of limitation or unfreedom of those situation and of those conditions. And then together with this, you will be aware of the capacity of action or the freedom of action that you actually have in comparison with those conditions. And so you have to meditate on those various points over and over until you generate a really strong sense of joy, until you feel completely pervaded by happiness of being so because of being so free from those boundaries, from those situations. There are we explain about which are the four limited situation or, yeah, four limited condition in com in relation with nonhuman being. So now we are going to talk about the the fourth situation of not freedom in relation with being human.
So if you are a human being, you’re already at a at a good point, but but you might have some hindrances. For example, if you if you take rebirth in a time where, Buddha didn’t appear or the teaching of Buddha not manifested in that in the in the time where you take rebirth, then what is gonna happen is that you have a complete, human body. You have a perfect human form, but, you don’t have you don’t have the possibility of, of, acquiring knowledge or you don’t have possibility of listening to teachings. So that is a really big hindrance because you have the possibility, but you’re not going to be able to take advantage of that. So so, again, this situation this condition of unfreedom is being reborn when there’s no when there’s no Buddha or when there’s no, yeah, when there’s no appearance of Buddha.
So the next unfreedom condition is to being reborn in a place, they call it a barbarian place or place where so what does it mean barbarian? It means people having complete different attitude or opposite attitude towards dharma, completely where a place where people engages only in non-virtuous action and in where and their mental attitude attitude is only towards sinful action. And so what is happening if you take reborn in a place like that is that everything will be conducive for you to generate a mental delusion, and everything will be conducive for you to, commit negative action, and nothing will be helpful in order to practice Dharma, in order to generate even a single wish of practicing Dharma. So if you are reborn in such a place, then it’s a really big hindrance because you’re not going to be able to practice Dharma and to enter into touch with the Buddha Dharma teaching. And the third condition is taking rebirth as as an handicapped, like a person well, the right translation is having the five senses not complete.
What does it mean? It means if you, for example, Rinpoche said, if you go in the hospital, and there are many examples of those people that because of being brain damaged from the time of birth, they don’t they’re not able to understand. They’re not able to think properly. So either there are some that are handicapped in the body and in the mind as well, and some other they are just handicapped or have some brain damage. So both of these, in this case, are not you have to you are going to face a lot of hindrances in order to practice Dharma.
You might not be able even to practice it to understand. So being reborn in such a situation, in such a condition, with such limitation is a really big hindrance for practicing Dharma. So then when you meditate on this point, you should rejoice that you are a person with perfect in a perfect in perfect healthy state, and and Rinpoche said, the mind is clear and bright, so you are able to understand what the other people are telling you, and you are able to put in practice whatever teaching you receive. So for that, you have to rejoice. The fourth of this condition is the worst one, and it’s called, being reborn with, wrong views.
And, does it what does it mean? It means, being reborn and holding, holding completely reversed or opposite view from the Buddhadharma. And this is the and this is the worst one, and used to give an example. And he was saying, for example, look at the Muslim, Tibetan Muslim who are living in Lhasa. So what they are doing is that they are living in just in the center just in the center of Lhasa, in the middle of the Buddhist country.
But due to having a view completely opposite to Buddhadharma, they are impeded, they are stopped from receiving the merit of visiting the Jowo statue. There are two there are two main statue of Buddha in in in Lhasa, very important because they are made at the exactly how Buddha how Buddha appeared to ordinary people, and they are especially blessed. So those statue are and just visiting those statue, just seeing those statue is a source of merit. So Pabongka was saying, those people are stopped from collecting merit just visiting the statue because of their wrong view, because of their view being completely totally opposite to Buddhadharma. So that is the that is the reason why it’s the worst one because you can you can spend the entire life being stopped from accumulating the merit of a single recitation of refuge because due to having this wrong view.
So we have completed the eight unfortunate or the eight conditions of unfreedom, let’s say like that, which, allowed us because we are not involved in those, in those situation, we are not limited by those eight conditions. This means we did we are free to means that we are free from hindrances. Now we are going to check if we have, let’s say, the ten situations that are conducive for a Dharma practice, which are called the ten richness. And so they are divided in two. Five are relating to our self, to oneself, and five are relating to others.
Like, there are ten, so five relating to oneself and five relating to others. And the five relating to our self, I think, let me just say, I think we all have just looking at you, I think you all have all these ten conditions, but we are going to check each and every of this. So the first one of the condition in regarding oneself is being human. So there’s no doubt about that. The second is having the, like, faultless sense.
The sense are the senses are without fault. They are faultless. And so the third is So I tell you the fourth and the fifth. The fourth is the having faith in the Buddhadharma or, like, not having wrong views. And the fifth one is that there are So it was so it’s a mess.
The first one is being human. Sorry. The first is being human. The second is being born in a central place. And and just if you consider the central place being a place where dharma is established, so west for this place, for is a central place.
And so the second is there. The third is having the senses completed or not having any fault, not having fault in the sense. And the fourth one is, having faith in the Buddhadharma. And the fifth one is that, there are there is the presence of, the Buddhadharma in in doctrine itself in the in the place where you are and in the time where you are born. Sorry.
Then the five in relation with others is the first is being were born when a Buddha appear. And the second is not only that in the Buddha appear, but the Buddha has to explain the Dharma because in the in the path era happened that Buddha has appeared in the in the world, but they didn’t give teachings. So, in that case, there’s a big hindrance for practice Dharma because there’s no Dharma. So then, the first is the presence of Buddha. The second is the, that the presence that the Buddha has to give teaching.
The third is that those teachings not only are present, but they have to be, practiced or, stable in the in the world. And, and the fourth one is that, oneself has to enter or the, has the possibility of entering in the path or in the Dharma. And the fourth one is that there is freedom of, of practice in the place where we took reborn. For example, in Tibet recently, well, from fifty nine, this, the last one, was lacking. I mean, the freedom of practicing Dharma in Tibet itself, was a condition a non existing condition because due to due to the communist and, invading Tibet and overruling Tibet, and there was no freedom of practicing Dharma.
So the last of this this ten freedom or ten leisure or ten richness was lacking in Tibet recently. So if you check, you’re you’re going to see that you are not only free from the eight condition or, like, from the eight unfreedom conditions, but you also have you are endowed by the endowed by the ten richness or ten leisure. And so when you understand that your precious human rebirth your human rebirth has so much, freedom and so much, conducive, conducive situation in order for you to practice Dharma, then you should rejoice and you should go it’s very important that you do this, you meditate on this over and over and over again up to until you generate a strong joy, until you’re really overwhelmed by happiness. So it’s very important to contemplate all these various points in, in attentive way because, very carefully, because, the the aim the aim or the goal of these techniques or this meditation is to produce joy and is to produce happiness in relation to the through the understanding of the opportunity that you have in your in your in the palm of your hand. And if you don’t is if you don’t do that, then there is the dangers of of, like, being depressed or not appreciating in in a complete way, in a in a total way, the fortune that you have that you have taken as a as a rebirth, as a rebirth, and with this rebirth.
And, the the thing that we are doing now here is to examine whether we have taken a it’s so clear that we have taken a human body. But what we are trying to do here is to examine whether we have taken a good, human body, a good human form, or just normal one, or just a bad or a bad human form. So, all these various points, the eight, freedom and the and the ten and the ten richness are made are in order are made in order for you to, have the total understanding, the complete comprehension of all the opportunity that you have in the I mean, with your with your rebirth. And and to rejoice of this, to the the aim is to to develop a strong happiness, a strong joys, understanding of the of the understanding the great opportunity that you acquired with this rebirth. And the for example, if you if like suicide and things like that, this is only due to to not having complete understanding of the, of the precious opportunity we have.
And, if you don’t and so this be and so because of this, it it comes very important to, to, like, to abide in this or in all these contemplations because this is like an antidote for depression. This is like an antidote for, not understanding properly, the value of his own of of, of our own life. So it so now I, again, Rinpoche expressed how how much is important, how important is to value to value all these, various point in order to understand how precious is our life. Sorry. And and if you if you check well, you will see that, there’s not just a single hair of difference between your body and the body of Milarepa.
Like, the, what Milarepa did, with his own precious human rebirth, he did on the basis of that. He did on the base of of us of the same condition that we are having now. So there’s no difference regarding the base of the practice. The difference is in the effort that Milarepa put into his practice. So regarding the base, the base is the same.
What you actually so you have to think about. And then what actually do with your human form, this is another matter. But regarding the base, the base is the same. The lucky, the fortunate is the same. So think about how much is the, how many people are in this world?
How much is the population in this world? Five billion? So among these five billion people, how many of them how many of them are practicing some religious, tradition, some religious path? The majority of them, they don’t care about, about inner path, inner development, and they are just keen to, three things, which are, food, possession and fame. These are the three things that in which the people are in which the people are mainly keen to.
And, so among the the majority, among all these five billion people, there is only a few very a really small number of people who think that, the inner side of the human being should be developed and, that does this through a, through a religious practice. So it’s already a really small group in comparison with the majority of the worldly population. And now, because there are many religious tradition, so the one that they are practicing Buddhist are really they are few among the few. And, and then again, among the one that they are practicing Buddhism, the one that they are really practicing purely, the one that they are really taking the essence of this precious human rebirth, those are really few. So if you really check whether there are, so whether there are or not many, fortunate, like, precious human rebirth among the world population, then you will understand that, there are many human beings, but there are not many precious human rebirth.
So having the precious human rebirth is really rare, sort of happening, is really is really rare. And because of this rarity and because of the opportunity which, carries with is really precious and, is a really good thing if you analyze in this way. Try to think about what I said. Try to think if how many people in this world are taking the opportunity of their life or on the other hand, how many people are wasting their life, whether they are not practicing Dharma at all or whether they are practicing Dharma. How many of them, they’re really taking the opportunity of their precious human rebirth?
Now that’s enough in order to understand how precious is the human rebirth. Now we’re talking about how value how much value has this precious human rebirth? What’s what what goals you can you can obtain? What result you can you can have, you can achieve through a proper utilization of this human rebirth? So this human rebirth has a great value in short terms and in long terms, as well as in ultimate terms.
And what does it mean? It means that, with this based on this precious human rebirth, if you practice the, ten the morality of avoiding the ten non-virtuous actions and practicing the ten virtuous actions, then, with no doubt, you’re going to avoid the, rebirth in a lower realm, and you’re going to, be reborn. You’re going to achieve the, one of the higher, or upper realm rebirth. And this, you’re going to do it on the base of the precious human rebirth, utilizing the precious human rebirth. On the other hand, if more than this, if you practice the three principle of the path, renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness, then, with no doubt, utilizing this precious human rebirth, based on that, you can, free yourself from the chain of saṃsāra.
You can, you can reach the, the liberation from the saṃsāra state. And, and, again, if you complete, if you like, if you take the, full advantages of this precious human rebirth, then you can achieve the, omniscient state of buddhahood. So all these three great, like, goals or aims, they are going to be, achieved based or through the utilization of this precious human rebirth. And, and again, if you, based on this precious human rebirth, you can, you can achieve the, next rebirth in one you can take the next rebirth in one of the pure land, like, Tuśita or Sukhāvati and so forth. So in and then not only those pure lands, but if you based on the practice of Chakrasamvara, you can take rebirth in take rebirth.
You can actually go to the pure land Dakpa Khacho of Chakrasamvara without leaving this this form, without leaving this human body. And the practice, the tantra, the tantra of Chakrasamvara as a special special feature. And, in which because of which you can, like, take rebirth in one of these cakrasamvara pure land, leaving the body or without the need of leaving your human form. You can actually sort of migrate. You just leave this world and with the same body going to the pure land of.
So, what I want to say is that we have, obtained you have obtained a very precious human rebirth, something really, valuable, something that you should understand the value, something which you should understand the value, and you should utilize it. Otherwise, just, if you don’t do that, if you if you don’t become aware of the of the richness in this in this rebirth, it it can be I mean, there is the danger that you just waste it. It is just the danger that you just spend it without great much sense. And I had to translate one thing I forgot before. And Rinpoche was saying, so you should what you should do is that understanding the precious the value of this precious human rebirth, you should, determine yourself to take advantage, to take the essence of this precious human rebirth from tomorrow, just, starting from tomorrow onward.
And what you should do is that you should you should, should determine yourself not to waste, this life, not to waste this year, not to waste the month, not to waste the week, and especially not to waste from tomorrow, not not to waste even just a single day. So in the in the in the of the day and early in the morning, you should wake up with this, awareness of the preciousness of this, of this human form, of this human body, and you should determine that for the entire day, you’re not going to waste your time, but you’re going to, accumulate more positive karma as you can, and you, you’re going to purify as much negative karma as you can. So, through the accumulation purification, at the end of the day, you are going you’re going to succeed in taking the essence of this precious human form. So every day, you are going to make life meaningful. You’re going to make a month, a month, a year, ten years, and so forth.
So in this way, you’re going to, utilize in the proper way your time. So on the so if we don’t if we’re not taking the essence, we don’t take the essence of this precious human rebirth, and instead of this, we just we are just enduring and performing or committing negative action, and so spending our time, spending our life in in negative action. So, that is, is a total nonsense, is a total nonsense, thing to do. And, it’s just like, is described in Nāgārjuna, in Nāgārjuna text, saying, if if a person has a very precious vessel, like a golden precious vessel, completely covered with precious stones, really like an astonishing piece of beauty, and then he’s utilizing this vessel for as a as as a rubbish bin, a place to put rubbish.
And then it’s a really stupid thing to do. It’s like and the the people when if the people see this, they would think that the person is rather mad or at least stupid. So because it’s not a suitable object, and like golden vessel for a dustbin. So, if you don’t utilize your life, or on the other hand, you utilize your life committing sinful action or non-virtuous action is worse than than utilizing a golden vessel for a dustbin. So if that person is stupid, then you are much more stupid.
Like, you are like an inconceivable stupid because spending your life in that way is really like wasting a very precious thing. So, now in order to understand how difficult it is to, get a precious human rebirth, we should, we should clarify that, first of all, that, there’s nothing in this saṃsāra that appears without cause. So, if the precious human rebirth is a a type of existent in existence, he must have his own his own cause. And, otherwise, the precious human rebirth or whatever type of rebirth, And if if it doesn’t it it it must have causes. Otherwise, it’s not a phenomenon of this, of this existence.
So what is the, which are which are the causes for this precious human rebirth are three mainly. The first is pure morality. The second is the practice of the six perfection. And the third is what is called stainless or, like, completely pure prayer or aspirational prayer. And, if you don’t have all these three causes, then, you can forget about getting a precious human rebirth in the future.
So having the pure morality means, if we take in consideration the ten, the ten virtues or the ten virtues action or the ten non-virtuous actions, then, morality means that you are, the pure morality means that you are, avoiding the ten unwholesome actions, from the first to the, to the last one. And, if you accumulate, a vast amount of morality observing those, those actions, then, this is one of the cause in order to get in order to, in order to get a precious a precious human rebirth in the future. And, what, the six perfection, practice, are going to, generate is in the future is that, not only you need a precious human rebirth, but you need to have wealth. And this is what is the result, and this is the result of generosity, the first of the perfection. So if you practice generosity, then you’re going to experience, wealth in the future.
And, if you don’t practice generosity, then you’re going to, live, yes, as a human, but as a poor, like a. Beggar. And, if you want to, if you want that your, body, it’s, is without fault, like as all the limbs and, you don’t have brain damages and so forth, you’re not handicapped. So if you don’t want that, then you need to practice patience. And because this is the, like, avoiding to generate anger or hatred in your mind is the cause that will have will have a will have as a result in the future, the fact that you are like perfect, and you don’t have any you don’t have fault in your body and, and so forth.
And, for example, and so forth. And, for example, like the, like the Geshe Kadampa wrote in his text — specify which Geshe Kadampa it is —. He said, if you want to know what, out what did you do, What sort of practice you or what sort of behave? What sort of, action you performed in the past life? You just need to look at you now.
In the way how you, you are, you can under