Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 42-minute guided meditation session, Venerable Thubten Dondrub walks practitioners through reflections on the precious human rebirth and the eight worldly concerns. He begins by establishing why renunciation is essential to enlightenment and bodhicitta, then guides a systematic reflection on the eight freedoms and ten endowments of human birth — emphasizing rarity, gratitude, and the optimum conditions for practice. The heart of the teaching unpacks how the eight worldly concerns (attachment to pleasure, possessions, reputation, and praise; aversion to their opposites) waste this precious opportunity. He traces these concerns to the ego’s wish for a permanent, cosy self and shows how each blocks genuine spiritual progress. The session concludes with a visualisation invoking the Guru Buddha to bless stable realisation of the human rebirth’s preciousness and the utter meaninglessness of worldly pursuits. Suited for practitioners with some Dharma background or those engaged in preliminary practices.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 13b. Day 4 Meditation Precious Human Rebirth & Eight Wordly .mp3
UUID: 968355dd-7347-4a65-9ebd-b0915911ebba
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: Meditations DTL (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2006 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 42.4 minutes
Words: ~2,078
To achieve enlightenment which fulfills my own purpose and the purpose of all beings, I have to achieve the three principal paths. I have to achieve the wisdom realising emptiness and combine that with the mind of bodhicitta. But to gain these two major realizations that bring about enlightenment, firstly, I have to develop the renounced mind. While my mind is attached to saṃsāra, I will never be able to generate bodhicitta or realise emptiness. I’ll be able to develop some compassion, loving kindness, some patience, some of the qualities, but I will never be able to attain them fully while I remain attached to cyclic existence.
So the preliminaries of it, of realizing emptiness, the preliminaries of generating bodhicitta are working hard on developing renunciation. And in order to develop great renunciation, renouncing attachment to anything in cyclic existence, first, I have to turn my mind away from obsession with this life. And to do that, I have to realize that I have this amazing, precious human rebirth, but also I have to realize that right even though I’ve got it, I’m wasting it by my pathetic obsession with the meaningless concerns of this life, following the self-cherishing thought, following the eight worldly concerns. So again briefly reflect it as strongly as one can the fact that what I have, all the eight freedoms, how incredibly fortunate that is to really appreciate that we need to feel right now what it would be like to be in those unfree states where there’s virtually no freedom to practice the Dharma, to meet it or practice it or realize it, especially in the lower realms as an animal, a pretas, a hell being. Even in the god realms, there’s so much pleasure.
We don’t see any need to practice. As we reflect on that suffering and lack of freedom, we need to do that in the context that we have been trapped in those realms most of our existence. And we have the unpurified karmic seeds that can throw us in those realms again and again. It’s just very briefly we have this freedom. And then among human beings, all human beings are free of the eight what are the four most difficult rebirths, but so many human beings have have very little freedom to practice Dharma either because they live in a very barbaric place or culture where the idea of practicing morality and altruism hardly exists, or have been born with defective mind or body or blind or deaf, have very strong wrong views, have been born at a time, a place where the Buddha has never appeared and taught.
So right now, we’re completely free of those very difficult human situations. And then reflect that not only do we have this amazing freedom from all the difficulties to practice, We have taken a rebirth with many endowments that encourage us, make it easy, as easy as possible to work with our mind, to discover our Buddha nature and liberate it. Just the mere mere fact that we are human. We have the human body and mind. But more than that, we have been born where the Dharma exists with a healthy body and mind that can practice that Dharma, and we’re not hindered by having created any of the five extreme negative actions.
And most precious of all, we do have faith in in the Dharma, in the teachings. And we’ve been born in an environment where, at a time in the fortunate eon where the Buddhas are existing, that have they have taught they have taught the Dharma, turned the wheel. These existing these teachings are still existing, are a vital force in the world, And there are great realized masters of these teachings. We have the opportunity to meet them, to follow their teachings. And the the monastic order is still existing that upholds the the basis of the Dharma existing in the world.
And we’re incredibly fortunate not to be isolated, but to be surrounded by friends who can help us in in so many ways. And because of dharma friends existing, we have dharma centers and retreat centers and all the the the things we need, dharma texts and images and so on. Such an environment is unbelievably difficult to define. Certainly, in Australia, it it didn’t exist forty thirty, forty years ago, and it won’t exist in the future. But right now, it’s existing.
To how incredibly fortunate we are. And then what is the meaning of having this freedom and all these endowments? It means that we have the optimum chance to achieve any temporary meaningful goal we wish. If we really turn our mind to it, any dharma quality that we wish to achieve in this life, we can. Developing our qualities of wisdom and compassion, patience and so on, increase our understanding of the dharma itself.
If we apply our mind to these things, we have all the freedom, all the conditions to do so. What holds us back is our failure to recognize this and our obsession with the eight worldly concerns. So I’m definitely going to die. I’m definitely going to take rebirth. And, look, the rebirth I’m gonna take depends on the imprints in my mind.
So the with the uncontrolled mind, it’s almost definite. The negative imprints will ripen. But with this precious human rebirth, I have the optimum situation to purify my mind, accumulate merit, and and ensure that I die well and take a good rebirth. The only thing stopping me is my failure to recognize this and my obsession with the eight worldly concerns. The very special meaning of the precious human rebirth is that I have the optimum chance, to achieve liberation, and complete enlightenment.
I have found the Mahāyāna teachings that lead to enlightenment have possibly even met the tantric teachings that enable me to do this as quickly as possible. There’s nothing holding me back in this life, from achieving liberation and enlightenment, or at least entering the path. It’s only from my own side the failure to recognise this precious opportunity and my obsession with the eight worldly concerns. And I need to remind myself that with this amazing, precious human rebirth, in fact, I can make every moment of my life meaningful for myself, for others. I have this optimum freedom and encouragement to use my body, my speech, my mind, Every moment in a meaningful way, avoiding negative actions, purifying those already done, accumulating merit, developing compassion, wisdom.
In every every every moment, there’s some opportunity to do those things. Again, it’s just a matter of recognizing that. But what gets in the way is my obsession with the eight worldly concerns. To really appreciate that freedom that we have, this optimum chance, We need to reflect that this freedom has come about through causes that are immensely difficult to create. We have to have engaged in pure morality, which means practicing free of the eight worldly concerns.
Having renounced this life, So at some point in some other life, we hadn’t managed to do that. But right now, we have the precious human rebirth, but somehow, again, we are trapped with the eight worldly concerns. Are we practicing pure morality now to create the cause of another good rebirth? Are we practicing the other perfections purely? Those are the causes of a precious human rebirth.
Recall the example Geshe la gave yesterday of the blind turtle. The chances of that turtle placing its head through the the yoke floating on the surface of the ocean. It’s virtually impossible. The Buddha said that it’s even more rare to achieve a precious human rebirth. And yet, miraculously, we have one right now.
And we’re wasting it on the eight worldly concerns. So just reflect now how oneself is obsessed with the eight worldly concerns, how these manifest in our own life. We could be totally concerned with Dharma practice, of working with our mind, protecting our mind, cultivating our mind, but instead, look how much time I spend just being concerned and attached to pleasure and comfort. And what goes with that is aversion and fear of discomfort and problems and suffering, Not the aversion to the causes of suffering, but just the suffering itself. I’m just very frightened of that.
I don’t want that, so I’ll do anything to stop it. And, therefore, I become very attached to any little thing that hides my problems, become obsessed with them. So much energy goes into achieving these things, avoiding the opposite, thinking about them. Instead of con being concerned about having inner qualities, I’m concerned about having things, possessions, gaining stuff, becoming happy when someone gives me something and and being attached to it, attached to all these things. And what goes with that is the fear of not having things, of not being given things, of not gaining stuff, fear of losing it.
Think how much time and energy goes into those two worldly concerns. We never think that we’re going to lose all this stuff when we die anyway. Doesn’t matter how much stuff we have, in one instant, it’s gone at death. Instead of being concerned with developing the qualities that are admired by all holy beings. Instead, we are worried about having a good reputation among deluded people.
We think about this, worry about it, do all sorts of negative things to be acceptable to others. And we’re so concerned about not fitting in with others, having a bad reputation. So so much time and energy is caught up in that. Remember how Pabongka Rinpoche says, in fact, that this attachment to reputation, big name, is the worst of the eight worldly concerns ultimately because even if one practices the Dharma and gains some special qualities, there can be this very special, subtle attachment to thinking one is a special person, one is a holy being, and one even works to achieve qualities to be admired. And then think how much of our precious rebirth is wasted in behaving in ways so that people will praise us.
So we say and do things, so people will like us and praise us. And then we’re happy when that happens and get attached to that. And the more we’re attached to that, then the more we’re worried about people criticizing us. So we we do sorts of all sorts of stupid, negative things to make sure that we don’t upset people so they won’t criticize us, so they won’t dislike us. In a sense, all the eight worldly concerns come down just to trying to be cosy and comfortable, the feeling I can create a world where I’ll be cosy and comfortable forever.
And that all is related to the sense that there is this little me that has to be protected in this way, that needs all these things, praise and stuff, to be comfortable and secure. That little person who needs to be so cozy and comfortable can never achieve liberation and enlightenment. Samsāra isn’t cozy, comfortable, or secure. It can never be made that way. Its nature is the very opposite.
But our our worldly concerns are just focused on trying to create this little permanent world of pleasure where I’m always happy and liked and loved and nothing goes wrong and everything is in its place forever. So we can conclude our meditation by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful that I have this amazing, precious human rebirth that is really quite literally very precious. You know, we would always, you know, like to win the lottery or something, thinking, then I could be happy. But we have won the most precious thing of all. So we’ve we’ve got to recognize this, so we don’t waste our life on those meaningless worldly concerns, but instead direct our mind more and more to the Dharma.
So then recall the Guru Buddha at the crown of your head, seeing the Buddha very pleased with our practice, And because of that dissolving into light and that blissful golden light coming down through our crown pervading our whole being and blessing our mind to gain the complete reliable, stable, unmistaken realization of the preciousness, meaning, and rarity of our human rebirth, our realization of the complete meaninglessness of the eight worldly concerns, blessing our mind again, the realization of renunciation.