Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 61-minute guided meditation, Ven Thubten Dondrub leads practitioners through a comprehensive reflection on the preciousness and rarity of human rebirth. Following preliminary visualization and refuge-taking with Śākyamūni Buddha, he walks through the eight freedoms—liberation from the overwhelming suffering of hell, hungry ghost, animal, and god realms, as well as from barriers like extreme hardship, wrong livelihood, and total absence of dharma teaching. He then elaborates on the ten endowments: having a human body and mind capable of dharma practice, being born where teachings exist, having a healthy body and mind, possessing faith in the dharma, and living in an age when Buddha’s teachings still flourish with realized masters and monastic communities present. The core teaching emphasizes that this combination of freedoms and endowments is extraordinarily rare—statistically far rarer than catching a sesame seed on a needle tip—and yet most practitioners waste it chasing worldly concerns. Ven Thubten Dondrub concludes by encouraging strong determination to use each moment meaningfully for both personal liberation and the benefit of all beings. Suited to those already engaged in formal retreat or regular meditation practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 28. Day 5 Meditation Precious Human Rebirth.mp3
UUID: 6c34432c-f759-4ae6-ab52-d2be06ecbd67
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: KI Retreat (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2005 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 61.0 minutes
Words: ~3,730
So we begin sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible, particularly paying attention to the positioning of our spine and upper body, the positioning of our head. Placing your awareness at the crown of your head and moving it down through your body just briefly. And then beginning to prepare the mind by doing the nine round breathing exercise with the visualisation of the blessings coming in with each in breath from the Buddha in the form of very calming, joyful white light, breathing out on each out breath all the disturbing thoughts, the obstacles to meditation in the form of black smoke. Then with a strong awareness of how it is our mind, our uncontrolled mind that constantly gives rise to all our suffering in way. And when our suffering arises, our mind reacts with aversion to it, creates the cause of more suffering.
And so cyclic existence is perpetuated through complete lack of control and understanding. Recognising this situation that we are trapped in, we take a strong refuge in the triple gem with a strong determination to be able to continuously work with our mind, to let go of looking for happiness in the external world, to stop blaming the external world for our suffering and recognising that we have to skillfully work with our own mind. We can only do that with a perfect method, and that comes from the Buddha. So we take refuge in the Buddha, the Buddha’s teachings and the great practitioners of those teachings. So we visualize Śākyamūni Buddha in front of us with a full field of refuge if we know how, at least thinking of Śākyamūni Buddha seated on the lion throne, lotus, sun and moon as the embodiment of all objects of refuge and all their qualities.
And then on the basis of that refuge, generate the mind seeking not just a good rebirth, not just freedom from cyclic existence, but wishing to achieve, to realize the full potential of one’s mind, the state of complete and perfect enlightenment so that we have all the qualities that enable us to continuously and perfectly work for all sentient beings, guiding them away from the causes of suffering, leading them to the causes of happiness. In this way, repaying the kindness that we’ve received from sentient beings life after life. Especially when they were her mother. So try to recall this kindness, but at the same time recognize that these kind beings are now at the mercy of all kinds of suffering, the three kinds of suffering, again and again, trapped in cyclic existence without any understanding, without any refuge. So no matter what obstacles I face, what problems, what suffering, I must achieve enlightenment for their sake.
So visualize all these kind beings surrounding you, starting with your parents on either side. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. 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. In the Lum Ring prayer. The foundation of all good qualities is the kind and venerable Guru.
Correct devotion to him is the root of the heart. 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 heed of impermanence. 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 come and 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 saṃsāra 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, mindfulness, alertness and great caution arise. The root of the teachings is 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 mother migratory beings.
Please bless me to see this train in supreme bodhicitta and bear the responsibility of freeing migratory beings. Even if I develop only bodhicitta but I don’t practice the three types of morality, I will not achieve enlightenment. With my clear recognition of this, please bless me to practice the bodhisattva vows with great energy. Once I pacify distractions to wrong objects and correctly analyze 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.
At that time, the basis of accomplishing the two attainments is keeping pure 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 show the noble path and spiritual friends who practise it have long lives. Please bless me to satisfy completely all outer and inner hindrances.
In all my lives, never separated from perfect gurus, may I enjoy the magnificent Dharma. By completing the qualities of the stages and parts, may I quickly attain the state of vajradhara. So then think that Guru Śākyamūni Buddha is extremely pleased with us. So because of that we visualise the lion throne dissolving into light which absorbs up into the lotus sun and moon cushions and the Buddha seated on these now comes to the crown of our head, turns around facing in the same direction as ourselves. Then we make a strong heartfelt request to the Guru Buddha for one’s mind to become completely free of all obstacles that prevent us meditating on the precious human rebirth correctly and gaining the correct realization, which is the very basis of achieving all the other realizations on the path to enlightenment.
To think that the Guru Buddha happily responds by sending this continuous stream of blissful white light and nectar from his heart into us through the crown of our head. And this washes away all those obstacles that take the form of black liquid that leaves from the lower part of the body. Then a continuous stream of golden light and nectar comes from the Buddha’s heart into us, blessing our mind to correctly meditate on and realize that we have this precious human rebirth which is so meaningful, so rare, so precious. So having prepared our mind in this way, we can then direct our mind to doing the analytical meditation on the precious human rebirth. So firstly we can briefly reflect on recognising that we have the eight freedoms.
Freedom from the greatest obstacles to being able to work with our mind and establish more and more genuine peace and happiness. The basis for being able to achieve precious human rebirth, liberation and enlightenment. So in the hell realms, in the preta realms, in the animal realms, in the god realms, firstly in those three lower realms, the suffering is so overwhelming even though there is the greatest need there to practice Dharma, to become free of suffering. The suffering there is just so overwhelming, it is impossible. So right now just think what it would be like to be born in those states and to experience that suffering of body and mind in those terrible suffering environments.
Or to think that are human equivalents of those realms on this earth, Many human beings with a human body, human mind live existences not much different from an animal or starving like a preta or tormented like a hell being, those who are in jails, concentration camps, mental institutions suffering from extreme drug addiction in places of war and so on. And like being in hell. Imagine being born, not going to those places but being born there. And then recognize recognize what an incredible freedom we have right now not to be trapped in those states. And then reflect how even in the god realms that very pleasure the gods experience or the mind experiences in that state, it itself is a huge obstacle to practising dharma.
The mind is completely distracted by that pleasure with no awareness that that pleasure is just temporary, is really only the suffering of change. So as Śāntideva says, a life like that, whether it lasts one year, it’s like a dream that lasts a few moments or a million years. When it’s finished, it’s finished. There’s nothing left of it, no benefit. So right now we’re free of that kind of existence.
Although we have some suffering, we are able to make every moment of our life meaningful. In the god realms, that’s impossible. And then reflect that even when one is reborn, has human rebirth, most human beings experience so many obstacles in their life, in their environment, such that it’s extremely difficult to practice the Dharma or even see the need of it or even to meet it, such as being born in those very barbaric places where there is so much lawlessness, where society is broken down in some ways, where religious beliefs don’t exist or have been suppressed or have died out because of very strong materialistic views taking over for all sorts of reasons. Vast numbers of human beings in the earth, on the earth right now live in such environments, in such situations. We could have been born in such a place.
Think what that would be like, and then recognize what an amazing freedom I have right now. And think that I could have been born as a human being even, for example, into an immensely wealthy family with great power and influence and so on, with the financial possibilities to do anything but one could have been born in such a family with blind or deaf, very with seriously physically handicapped body or mind. In theory, one would have all the resources to meet the Dharma and practice it but one’s body and mind doesn’t enable that to happen. One can’t use those resources. One has so much suffering because of the handicaps of body and mind but no way to be free of that suffering.
I could have been born like that. Think what that would be like and recognize the freedom that we have right now. I could have been born as a human being with extreme wrong views, thinking there’s no mind, there’s no soul, there’s just the brain, Just these very heavy materialistic views, very cynical and so on. Born at a time when the Buddha has never existed on the earth. His teachings having no influence in the world whatsoever, imagine what that would be like and recognize what incredible freedom I have right now.
So then we can recognise that not only am I free of all those heavy impediments to being able to work with my mind skillfully, I’ve been born into a situation that has all these factors that encourage me, make it easy, entice me into the practice of Dharma. The mere fact that I’m a human being itself means I have a body and mind, speech, all of which can be used in so many ways to practice Dharma including tantra. I have a human level of intelligence that is able to recognize suffering as suffering, to understand its causes, to recognize what real happiness is and what are the causes. I’ve been born in a place where the dharma exists, with a healthy body and mind so that I can take advantage of that. And especially my mind is not heavily obscured by having created any of the five extreme negative actions.
These five extreme negative actions produce their result or begin to produce their result of great suffering and confusion even in this life. And most important of all, I have faith in the Dharma. So we can recognize that most human beings on this earth don’t have all of those factors. Most aren’t born where the dharma exists or with a healthy body and mind. Some have created these extreme negative actions, and most don’t have any faith.
Even myself, perhaps I wasn’t born in a place where the Dharma existed. And even if there was these spiritual teachings around, I had no faith in them. But now I do. Now I have all the five factors complete. And what reinforces there all this incredible good fortune is that I’ve been born at a time when the enlightening influence of the Buddhas exists in this fortunate eon especially I’ve been born even though I wasn’t born when Śākyamūni Buddha was on the earth.
Still his teachings exist. They’re still flourishing. There are great realized masters of these teachings. The monastic order still exists which is the basis for the Dharma to survive. And now I have the support of Dharma friends, Dharma centres, retreat centres, all the other things that I need to inspire myself, encourage me in the practice.
Everything is here right now. All the endowments, the ten endowments I’m experiencing. I have to recognise what this means. This is the optimum, perfect, most precious opportunity to become free of suffering. So then contemplate how, with all of these factors complete, then there is actually nothing stopping me from achieving any kind of temporal short term goal that I wish.
Any virtuous thing I want to accomplish, I can do so with this precious human rebirth. Developing equanimity, patience, perseverance, increasing my loving kindness, compassion, even generating bodhicitta, developing wisdom. All of these things I can accomplish with this precious human rebirth. Realizing the impermanent nature of things. If I apply myself to studying any Dharma texts, I want to become really well versed and expert in any particular teaching such as Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra.
If I apply my mind to it, then I can accomplish that. It’s just a matter of recognizing that I can do it do it and apply myself. And especially, I can achieve a good rebirth. This is the very at the very least, this this is what I can accomplish. That is the meaning of of having all this this freedom and endowment.
But the ultimate meaning of having this precious human rebirth is that I can achieve complete liberation from all the kinds of suffering of cyclic existence. And even more than that, I can actually achieve enlightenment. I can definitely establish the causes for that in this life, even possibly achieve those states in this life. And then another great meaning of having this precious human rebirth is that in no other rebirth can I make every moment of my existence meaningful? As an animal, a preta in the hell realms, as a god being, it’s impossible.
Most human beings can’t do this. But with a precious human rebirth, every moment, I can I can use my body, speech and mind in a meaningful way, meaningful for myself, meaningful for others? For example, no matter what I’m doing, nothing is stopping me from reciting mantras continuously, mantras that purify the mind, accumulate merit, develop all sorts of insights. Nothing is stopping me from doing that. The only thing that’s stopping me is recognising that I can do it and having the energy to do it.
Nothing is stopping me from making prostrations or making mandala offerings, doing water bowl offerings, making tsa-tsas, building stupas, painting stupas, helping to do this, or practicing generosity in any way, nothing is stopping me at all. As an animal, a god, a pretas, there’s no way I can do these things. With a precious human rebirth, I can do them all the time. With my mind, I can practice Dharma in every situation. Nothing is stopping me.
To give ourselves a sense of how incredibly precious this rebirth is, how meaningful it is. It’s important to understand that this rebirth hasn’t come about just simply because we were born from our parents. That just produced our body. But the mind that has this particular body, to experience these eight freedoms and ten endowments, That comes from causes, very specific causes, practising pure morality, pure generosity, the other perfections and dedicating the merit of all that practice to actually achieving a precious human rebirth. Just think how difficult it is to do those things now.
So how did we ever achieve that in past lives? But somehow we did. Even now when we try to practice the Dharma, so often it’s very impure mixed with the eight worldly concerns. At some point in the path, with great effort, We accumulated the causes and now we’re experiencing the result. So how can we waste such an amazing result?
We can get a strong feeling for just how difficult it is to have a precious human rebirth by again reflecting how for every human being on this planet there are thousands and millions of beings trapped in the animal realm. This is simple to understand because actually every human being has many sentient beings living on their body, all over their body, and inside the body. As well as so many beings trapped as animals on the earth, in the earth, in the sky, in the water, infinite numbers of tiny insects and so on. And this is because it’s so easy to create the cause to have a suffering animal rebirth. So among human beings, those with the precious human rebirth are extremely rare also.
To help us understand this, the Buddha gave the analogy that if one were to throw a handful of sesame seeds up in the air and then you try to catch one of those on the tip of a needle, holding a needle in your hand and you try to catch one of those falling sesame seeds on the tip of a needle and it stayed there. That would be almost impossible. One would have to keep throwing handfuls up in the air again and again and again and again. It would be a miracle for one of these seeds to land on the tip of the needle and stay there. The Buddha said, It is far rarer, far more difficult to achieve a precious human rebirth.
Then we can reflect briefly that with this precious meaningful rebirth, what do we actually do with it most of the time? We waste it following the eight worldly concerns, chasing after worldly happiness which is just the suffering of change and fearing suffering. Not fearing its causes, but just fearing suffering. A life running after happiness, running away from suffering, usually getting angry when suffering happens and therefore creating the cause for more suffering, Being concerned about getting things, worrying about not getting them or losing them. Being concerned about having a good reputation, worried about not having a good reputation or losing our reputation.
Being concerned about and attached to being praised. And the more we have that concern, we have fear and aversion of criticism. So we do all sorts of negative things to avoid even the slightest criticism. So our precious human rebirth is often wasted in these eight worldly concerns. If we think about it, all the objects of our worldly concerns are impermanent.
They can’t last. They’re insubstantial. We’re bound to be separated from them sooner or later. And they have no real meaning. No lasting benefit.
So we could bring this contemplation to an end by making strong determination to be more and more mindful of our precious human rebirth, to recognise more and more this very precious opportunity I have to accomplish all good qualities, to achieve a good rebirth, to establish the causes for liberation and enlightenment, to make each moment of my existence not only meaningful for myself but for others. Determining to use this precious human rebirth in this way, recognising that this chance may never come again to completely renounce the eight worldly concerns, which are so meaningless and bound to suffering. Just in conclusion, we can reflect on words of the great if you knew how hard it is to acquire meaning that precious human rebirth, living the average life would be impossible If you saw its great benefits, you would be sorry if it stayed meaningless. If you thought about death, you would make preparations for your future life. If you thought about cause and effect, you would stop being reckless.
Make the determination to always be mindful of those things for one’s own sake, for the sake of others. Then recall the Buddha at the crown of one’s head, seeing the Buddha is extremely pleased with what we’ve meditated on and decided. Because of that, the Buddha happily dissolves into light. This blissful golden light comes down through the crown of our head, pervading our whole being, blessing our mind to gain a stable, correct realization of our precious human rebirth and its great meaning. We dedicate the merits, Page twenty seven of the morning prayers.
You who uphold the subdue his moral way, who serve as the bountiful bearer of all, sustaining, preserving and spreading Mañjuśrī’s victorious doctrine, who masterfully accomplished magnificent prayers honouring the Three Jewels, saviour of myself and others, your disciples, please, please live long.