Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 67-minute meditation session, Venerable Thubten Dondrub guides practitioners through a detailed analytical meditation on the precious human rebirth, the fourth day of a broader retreat. After preparing the mind through posture, breathing, and refuge generation, he leads practitioners through the eight freedoms and ten endowments that characterize this rare rebirth, asking them to vividly contemplate the suffering of other realms—animals, hell beings, hungry spirits, and distracted gods—to deepen appreciation for their current human condition. He then explores the fundamental causes of this precious rebirth: pure morality, generosity, patience, and conscious dedication of merit. The session concludes by anchoring the meditation’s purpose: recognizing that this rebirth offers the optimum conditions to practice liberation and enlightenment, and that wasting it on impermanent pleasures represents a tragic squandering of countless lifetimes of virtue. Suitable for those familiar with the Lamrim framework and already practicing within a Buddhist context.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 22. Day 4 Meditation Precious Human Rebirth.mp3
UUID: 5ca65f07-a590-435e-b0d5-4ad246be142f
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: KI Retreat (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2005 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 67.7 minutes
Words: ~3,800
So this morning we’ll again go through the precious human rebirth meditation, focusing on the final part of the meditation which is thinking about the incredible rarity of the precious human rebirth because the causes of it are so difficult to create. So we begin our session by sitting comfortably in the correct posture, placing our awareness at the crown of our head and moving it down through our body just to fine tune our posture, checking for any tension, allowing that to dissolve. Then proceeding on to prepare the mind by doing the nine round breathing exercise with the visualization, with each of the in breaths of the nine rounds of the cycle, breathing in the blessings of the Buddha in the form of white light, breathing out all the disturbing thoughts and particular obstacles to meditating, especially on this particular topic, we breathe out with each of the out breaths of the cycle in the form of thick black smoke that completely dissipates, becomes non existent. Then generate a strong mind of refuge, virtuous thought of refuge, recognising that it is our own mind giving rise to every kind of suffering and happiness. Because of this have to take responsibility for our mind, work with it to at least begin to subdue the disturbing thoughts that result in suffering, eventually we can eliminate those disturbing thoughts and at the same time cultivate the positive potentials of our mind.
So we make a strong commitment to do that, that we have to do this, not only for our own sake, especially for the sake of others. But in order to do this properly, effectively, completely we have to rely on a perfect method which can only come from perfect mind, that is the enlightened mind. So we take refuge in the Buddha’s and therefore refuge in their teachings which are completely unbetrayed. And we take refuge in the great followers of the Buddha who can inspire us and guide us along the path. So we generate the mind of refuge in the Triple Gem, the three precious sublime ones of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, visualising these three gems embodied in the aspect of Guru Śākyamūni Buddha seated on a magnificent lion throne, lotus sun and moon, all in the nature of transparent radiating light.
And on the basis of our refuge, this gives us an understanding that our mind has this potential. We generate this strong determination to fully realise that Buddha potential by following the path, the complete path, the Buddha set out so that we can achieve the enlightened state that enables us to continuously, spontaneously, joyfully, perfectly, completely guide all the kind suffering Mother sentient beings away from all the causes of suffering and lead them onto the path that it becomes the continuous cause of everlasting and peerless happiness. So we visualise all the sentient beings surrounding us, starting with our parents on either side. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings.
So we can always remember when we say that prayer, by the practice of giving and other perfections. The other perfections includes, of course, the practice of patience. For Bodhisattva this is one of the most important practices. Reverently, I prostrate with my body, speech and mind. I present clouds of every type of offering, actual and imagined.
I declare all my negative actions accumulated since beginningless time and rejoice in the merit of all holy and ordinary beings. Please remain until the end of cyclic existence and turn the wheel of dharma for living beings. I dedicate my own merits and those of all others to the great enlightenment. So then we’ll go to the Lamrim section, page seventeen. The foundation of all good qualities is the kind and venerable Guru.
Correct devotion to him is the root of the path. By clearly seeing this and applying great effort, please bless me to rely upon him with great respect. Understanding that the precious freedom of this rebirth is found only once is greatly meaningful and is difficult to find again. Please bless me to generate the mind that unceasingly day and night takes its essence. This life is as impermanent as a water bubble.
Remember how quickly it decays and death comes. After death, just like a shadow follows the body, the results of black and white karma follow. Finding firm and definite conviction in this, please bless me always to be careful to abandon even the slightest negativities and accomplish all virtuous deeds. Seeking samsaric pleasures is the door to all suffering. They are uncertain and cannot be relied upon.
Recognising these shortcomings, please bless me to generate the strong wish for the bliss of liberation. Led by this pure thought, alertness and great caution arise, the root of the teachings, keeping the Prātimokṣa vows. Please bless me to accomplish this essential practice. Just as I have fallen into the sea of saṃsāra, so have all my migratory beings. Please bless me to see this.
Train in the supreme Bodhicitta, like Lord Asaṇga and bear the responsibility of freeing migratory beings. Even if I develop only bodhicitta, if I don’t practice the three types of morality. I will not achieve the result. With my clear recognition of this, Please bless me to practice the Bodhisattva vows with great energy. Once I have pacified distractions to wrong objects and correctly analyse the meaning of reality, please bless me to generate quickly within my mind stream the unified path of calm abiding and special insight.
Having become a pure vessel by training in the general path, please bless me to enter the holy gateway of the fortunate ones, the supreme vajra vehicle. Basis of accomplishing the two attainments is keeping your vows and samaya. As I have become firmly convinced of this, please bless me to protect these vows and pledges like my life. Then having realised the importance of the two stages, the essence of the vajrayana, by practising with great energy, never giving up the four sessions, please bless me to realise the teachings of the Holy Guru. Like that, may the Gurus who have shown a noble path and the spiritual friends who practice it have long lives.
Please bless me to pacify completely all outer and inner obstacles. Never separated from perfect Gurus, may I enjoy the magnificent Dharma. By completing the qualities of the stages and paths, may I quickly attain the state of Vajradhāra. So I think that the Guru Buddha is extremely pleased with this and so the lion throne now dissolves into light, absorbing up into the lotus sun and moon. And then the Buddha seated on these now comes to the crown of our head and turns facing in the same direction as ourselves.
Make a strong heartfelt request to the Guru Buddha for one’s mind to be completely free of all disturbing thoughts, negative imprints and all the obstacles to correctly meditating on and realising all the aspects of recognising the rarity and preciousness and meaning of a perfect human rebirth. Think the Buddha happily responds by continuously sending this stream of white light and nectar into us through the crown of our head, and this washes away all those obstacles that take the form of thick black liquid that leaves from the lower part of our body and completely dissipates, becomes nonexistent. So then a continuous stream of golden light and nectar comes into us from the Buddha, blessing our mind to be able to correctly meditate on and gain the correct stable realisation of all aspects of our precious human rebirth. So now we direct our mind to this analytical meditation. Firstly just reminding ourselves that the reason for doing this meditation is to realise that we have absolutely everything that we need to achieve enlightenment right now, to achieve a good rebirth, to achieve liberation, to achieve enlightenment.
There’s nothing missing, there’s no better time, place, situation than what we have right now. And we may never get such a chance again for many, many rebirths. We shouldn’t think that all those holy beings and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the great Lamas that we may have seen or read about have some qualities uniquely different from our own. It’s just simply that on the basis of recognizing their precious human rebirth, they took advantage of it and practiced and realized their true nature. So reflect how we have the eight freedoms, the freedoms from the worst impediments to practising the Dharma, to recognising our Buddha potential and realising it, creating the engaging in the practices that bring about liberation and enlightenment.
So we have to recognise that we have those freedoms, that what it means to have that freedom. How precious it is and how impermanent. It’s not going to last. It can come to an end at any moment. So just think, though, of the suffering that exists when the mind falls into the state of being an animal or a preta beings or trapped in any of the hot or cold hells.
Just allow one’s mind to really vividly experience that kind of suffering right now. Recognise the impossibility of practicing in that situation. And then realizing my mind is free of that state right now, so I have to use that freedom in the most meaningful way. Reflect how one has the good fortune to even be free of being trapped in the god realms where the mind is completely distracted by pleasure. But one does not actually use that pleasure for any lasting benefit for oneself or others.
When it’s finished, those beings fall into the lower realms again. And then reflect that even in the human realm where there is the least suffering or some of the least suffering in cyclic existence, Still, so many human beings live lives where their humanity is rarely expressed because of being born in places where there is so much violence, brutality, bigotry, where religious values hardly exist at all, aren’t appreciated, acknowledged, valued, understood, when materialistic view is completely dominant. Born into such a situation, this is extremely difficult to meet the dharma and develop faith in it and so on. So people in that situation have great suffering but have no way to make sense of it. I’m free of that situation right now.
Think of the suffering one would experience if one was reborn very seriously, physically or mentally handicapped or even deaf or blind. And then among those human beings who are fortunate to have comfortable lives, good health, living in pleasant places and so on, still one experiences a great deal of suffering. One cannot avoid the suffering of old age, sickness and death, meeting with what we don’t want to meet with, not experiencing what we want to experience and so on. And yet one can be born in such a situation, have a lot of suffering, a sense of emptiness and meaninglessness, but have very strong wrong views, have no belief in spiritual values, in future lives, karma, and so on. So our suffering is compounded by those wrong views.
So how fortunate to be free of being trapped in that state right now? And we also are free being born at a time without the enlightening influence of the Buddhas. And then allow the mind to become very happy by recognizing that not only do we have all these freedoms, but we’ve been born in a situation with all these endowments that encourages us, make it easy to work with our mind, become free of suffering, benefit others. Just the fact of having a human body itself is something wonderful. But more than that, we’ve been born where the Dharma exists with a healthy body and mind free of all the extreme negative karmic actions and most important we have some faith, a growing faith in the Buddhadharma.
So we’ve sometimes been born human again, sometimes where the Dharma exists, sometimes with a healthy body and mind and so on. But it’s incredibly rare to be born with all of those five personal endowments. So this one time, I have all of them. So more than just having these personal endowments, we can recognise that we’ve been born into this very fortunate environment, encouraging environment. The fact that we’ve been born at this very fortunate time when so many Buddhas have appeared, especially we’ve been born at the time of Śākyamūni Buddha who has taught the fast path to enlightenment, the vajrayana path.
And all of these teachings still exist, are still available for us to practice. Most important, realised masters of these teachings exist, who can guide us, inspire us. The monastic community still exists, upholds, maintains the Dharma. And we have the good fortune to have Dharma friends who can support us emotionally, spiritually, in every way we need. They’re all the facilities that we need.
It’s all here. So recognising all these freedoms and endowments, we have to really strongly ask ourselves, what is the meaning of having this rebirth? And it becomes obvious that how can we waste such a something so rare and precious just chasing after pleasure. One doesn’t need a precious human rebirth for that. One doesn’t even need a human rebirth.
The meaning of the precious human rebirth is that at the very least we have the optimum conditions to cultivate any positive quality we want. And in cultivating that, we can experience whatever temporal happiness we need. We can apply our mind to becoming more loving, compassionate, wise, concentrated, generous, patient, persevering and so We can apply our mind to gaining whatever realisations there along the path. We can apply our mind to ensuring that we do have, we do obtain a good rebirth at the end of this life. All of these things we can accomplish.
But more than that, the real meaning of this precious human rebirth is that we have the optimum chance to create the causes to achieve liberation from cyclic existence. So we have the optimum chance to purify our mind, to stop creating negative karma, to accumulate a vast amount of merit, to begin the process of understanding the wisdom teachings of the Buddha, beginning to realise them. Even if we don’t achieve this completely in this life we can ensure that we establish very strong causes to quickly achieve liberation in a future lifetime. But even more in this life we can establish the causes for complete enlightenment. Because we’ve met the Mahāyāna teachings, we are developing faith in them, we can meet the Mahāyāna masters.
And we have the freedom to practice. If we don’t do it now, we may never get a chance again for a very long time. So then reflect how another great meaning of our precious human rebirth is that we can use every moment of our life in a meaningful way, creating merit, purifying the mind. Every moment there’s an opportunity to do something meaningful with our body, speech or mind. Nothing is preventing us, only our own lack of awareness, our own lack of imagination.
But if we realize our opportunities, we can do so many things. And even if we don’t have the ability to do them now, we can pray to be able to do them in the future, we can rejoice in those who can do these virtuous things. This itself creates great merit. So we can begin to appreciate how precious, how fortunate we are that the precious human rebirth is, how fortunate we are by reflecting on what are the actual causes of having all these eight freedoms and ten endowments. Because this rebirth doesn’t come about by some accident, it has very precise causes.
So the main causes of the precious human rebirth are firstly practicing pure morality. To be born in any of the upper realms as a human or in the god realms, the principal cause is practicing pure morality, avoiding the ten non virtues. Because none of those, if we engage in those negative actions of body, speech and mind, the results from those actions can never become a cause to experience the happiness of the upper realms. So to have even a suffering human rebirth, one has to practice morality because even the suffering of a human being is far far less than the suffering of those in the lower realms. So just to be born human, one has to practice pure morality.
Avoiding killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, harsh speech. Just think how easy it is to create harsh speech, criticising people, just even using one’s voice in an ugly way to upset people. Laughing at them. Just even shouting at them to upset them. Using, you know, ugly words.
And meaningless idle gossip is the easiest negative karma to create. So pure morality involves avoiding those actions, avoiding covetousness, ill will, wrong views. Pure morality means practicing their opposites as well: nurturing life, saving life, protecting life, practicing generosity. Speaking in a very meaningful way, and so on. Right now in this life, we have all the conditions to lead a very moral life.
But how how much of this practice do we really engage in and how purely do we engage in it? Practicing pure morality is like rolling a stone up a steep hill. Engaging in negative actions is like letting a rock roll down a hill. It’s so easy. So even now in this life it’s incredibly difficult to engage in in pure morality.
But somehow in previous lives, from time to time we did this and accumulated some of the causes to have a precious human rebirth. But to have the endowments that distinguish the precious human rebirth from just an ordinary human rebirth, the causes for those endowments is practicing pure generosity. So how easy is it to do that for us now? How often do we engage in the practice of pure generosity, happily giving to others? But somehow in the past, we managed to do this.
As well, the precious human rebirth depends on having practiced the other perfections purely. Practicing patience, perseverance, concentration and wisdom. But even more than that, another cause to achieve the precious human rebirth beyond all the other things is actually dedicating the merit from all those practices to actually achieving a precious human rebirth. Consciously dedicating, making many prayers again and again, that through all my virtuous practices, may I achieve a precious human rebirth in order to practice the Dharma. How often do we do this in our life?
And how powerful is our dedication? But somehow, in past lives, we manage to achieve such powerful prayers of dedication. So we can begin to understand how incredibly difficult it is to create the cause to have a precious human rebirth by comparing the results of actions. If we compare the number of human beings on this planet with the number of animals, if we think that for every human being on this planet, there are thousands and thousands, in fact millions, of beings in the animal realm. For every human being there are vast numbers of animals on the land, birds, fish, animals living in the earth itself, vast numbers of tiny insects.
Actually, each of us has many sentient beings living inside our body. We have many sentient beings living on our body right now. So for every human being there are millions of animals. This is because it is so easy to create the negative causes to be an animal and very difficult to create the virtuous causes that result in any kind of human life. So then among the six billion human beings, hardly any have all the eight freedoms and ten endowments.
Of course, all human beings have the first four freedoms of not being in the lower realms or upper realms, the god realms. But hardly any human beings have the other four freedoms or any of the ten endowments. Miraculously, momentarily, we have this very rare human rebirth. To waste this chasing after the meaningless things of this life is the greatest tragedy possible. Once gave the analogy that imagine someone who is very fond of their family, their partner, children or child and because of that they go off into some incredibly harsh, lowly place to look for gold, to support their family, to give comfort to their family.
They spend many years all alone in the desert looking for gold, all alone suffering so many hardships. And then after many, many years, they accumulate enough gold, go back to their family and give this gold to their precious only child. And this child has absolutely no understanding of what the gold is and immediately throws it away. So this means all the hardship, the suffering, the loneliness that the person underwent to get the gold has been completely destroyed. Their life has become meaningless.
And the child who was given the gold, their life has become meaningless. No benefit. They didn’t recognise what they had and threw it away. This is a tragedy, but nothing compared to wasting when we waste our precious human rebirth. Because we like the child who got this good gold for free with no effort, not recognising its value, we just throw it away.
So this makes meaningless all our previous lives where we worked so hard to create the causes for what we are experiencing right now. And if we waste this life, it means that we’ve wasted the chance of any happiness in future lives. So we bring our meditation to an end by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in our daily life that I have this very rare, precious human rebirth, the optimum chance to practice the liberating Dharma for myself and others. So I must be mindful moment by moment not to waste it on meaningless things that are impermanent, have no substance, no lasting benefit. So I must be more and more mindful to make every moment of this precious human rebirth meaningful for myself and others.
Then think that the Buddha on the crown of one’s head is very pleased with this, what we’ve been doing, our decisions, our understanding. Because of that the Buddha happily dissolves into light and this blissful golden light comes down through the crown of our head, pervading our whole being, blessing our mind to gain a stable, complete realization of the preciousness and rarity and great meaning of our perfect human