Precious Human Life Contemplation

Given by the 12th Kenting Tai Situpa at Palpung Sherabling, December 2004.
Transcribed by Chang Chin & Changchub Saldon


Teaching Chapter 1 and Practice Chapter 1

Precious human life is the first contemplation. I use the word contemplation because there is slight difference between meditation and contemplation, I think. In Tibetan language we call this Chedgom. Chedgom means, Chedpa means you analyze, you think, you go through, and you confirm . So that kind of meditation is called Chedgom . And my limited knowledge of English, I think it is quite appropriate, contemplation. You contemplate. And another aspect of mediation is Jogom, so Jogpa. And there you are not analyzing. You try to maintain one particular state of being and try to go deeper. And try to develop or awaken the deeper, more profound wisdom from within so that is Jogom. So it not analyzing, not thinking about something, or not analyzing something, so that is Jogom. So I think that is more close to meditation. But I am not one hundred percent sure what is the English word equivalent. But Chedgom and Jogom I am quite sure, because that's my language.

Now, the precious human life it means that the life that we have as a human being is a precious human life, because it is completed with eighteen qualities - eighteen particular qualities. So for example, there is all kind of human lives, and all of the human life, of course, is precious because they are our kind. And we will protect all human life and we respect all human life . So that way it is precious. But precious by definition of its outcome then that and its productiveness, then it is depend on the eighteen qualities. So when we don't have the eighteen qualities, our life is precious human life , far as being precious is concerned. But it is not precious to attain greater wisdom, greater realization, and being more beneficial and productive for yourself and for others. For example, if we are born as a human being, but we have no aspiration, and we don't do anything with it. And we just eat, and sleep, and talk, and walk around, and again sleep and eat, and talk, and walk around. Then that way, our live will be born and we will just die, so we call it "Milutsampowa", just human. We are born to eat, and walk around, and digest, and then talk and do things, and go to sleep and wake up and eat again, so that is just human, not precious human life .

And then little bit more than that is doing things. One has some kind of aspiration to do something , but that doing something is for oneself, and for one's family, and for one's friends . And so you wanted to do something, and you don't want to do something to be a little more comfortable to yourself, to make a little more comfortable to our children, our parents, our family, and our friends. And become a little more liked and appreciated by all of them, then that is a little bit more than just human, but it is not precious human life for development of wisdom. It is not precious human life for enlightenment, but it is good, good family men, good family women, good father, good mother, that's good. But it is not going to lead you to ultimate realization of Buddhahood. It is just like all the good birds on the trees, they take care of their eggs . When they hatch them , they fly out and they feed them. And that they take pretty good care of them. So it is like that, so it is nice. But this is not the precious human life that we are talking about.

Then another kind of human life is, I don't know exactly how to describe it. But just as a working title, I will describe it as a dreadful human life. Dreadful, dreadful, you know? I give you a very simple example: human beings are supposed to be intelligent. We are intelligent, we are more intelligent than any animal, you know, sheep. We are more intelligent than sheep. We are more intelligent than pig . We are more intelligent than chicken, all of that. But then this dreadful human life is now using that intelligence, using that human life for doing dreadful things. Because we are more intelligent, then we are more able to do more dreadful things than animals and others who are less intelligent ever can think of. They cannot think of good things, but they cannot think of bad things either. If they fight, they fight to survive. If they survive, they don't fight. They don't fight for fun. They don't fight for other reasons. So that is dreadful human life.

I give you one example. This is a reality, not a story. This is a reality what some people do. I will not mention the place; I will not mention anything but the action , because I don't want it to be political, and I don't want it to be offending anybody. Some places they produce meat, meat production. I am not a vegetarian. So I am not saying that as a promotion of vegetarian. No. Vegetarian is good. But I am not saying this to promote vegetarian. There is no motive there. It is just basic reality I am telling you. So, some places, some people produce meat production. Of course we see lots of meat in the can, meat in the shop, so we know they are producing meat, right? That just does come, you know? So the meat production. So what this human being do is they buy cattle, by hundreds, by hundreds, thousands, you know, thousands. From the village to the meat production place is about two days, by truck. So first thing they do is, after they bought the hundreds of cattle, then they pull out their tongues, and they had their hot, red scissors, they cut the tongue with the scissors, so no bleeding. Then they have a metal nail, this long, you know, metal nail this long in the fire, so they put right through here to here. They bend it here. So tongue is not there but not bleeding. And this is all the way nailed down, but not bleeding, because it is all burned. Now they have to load the animals in the truck. So the standing animals take too much space. They have a wooden hammer and break all their legs. No bleeding. Then they put animals in the truck on the top of each other, like boxes. No pain-killer. No pain-killer. So they drive that truck two days. No water, no food. And why they do this? Is because they cannot regurgitate, animals normally have food in the stomach, they pull it out and eat again, and swallow again so digest. They cannot do it, so they won't lose weight in two days. Then they will slaughter them and sell the meat. Maybe very nicely labeled and very nicely packaged. I don't think all the meat productions are like that. But some people do that. Even right now, even right this moment, I am sure, happening because it is continuing business. So don't you think that is dreadful ways to use the intelligence, because it is quite scientifical, quite technical, quite practical. One truck can fit more animal. Even two day no food, does not lose weight. No bleeding. So that is dreadful human life, so this kind of, and that many other kinds of use of human intelligence, human quality. Wrong use of human quality is dreadful human life, not precious human life.

Listen. I am not an environmentalist. I am not a animal rights activist. O.K. I am not a vegetarian promoter. I am not of those things. But I am telling you the fact. A tiger who is very powerful, but does not have the intelligence of human being, they will not do this to us. If he is hungry, he would just jumps on us and get us by the neck and will eat us right away. And if we become a threat to tiger's cub, the mother would come and scratch us and throw us around and drive us away or even kill us. But will not do things like that. So sometimes, we also don't use our intelligence. So I got many times of the question, if human life is precious, why so many people are born here, why so much increase of population. I don't think precious human life is overpopulated. So we try our best to make those kind of human life to become precious human life.

So precious human life is with the eighteen qualities, then we are precious human life. I am quite sure, most of you or all of you will find you have all that eighteen qualities already. But you have to go through each one of them one by one, contemplate one by one. To confirm and to appreciate. And if anyone of the eighteen qualities is missing, then we can acquire them.

So now the first eight which is described as eight Dalwa . Dalwa actually means you can afford, you have the time, you have the condition. So Dalwa means you can afford. So this eight Dalwa is: If we are born in hell, we don't have the time and condition as we have now. Those animals in the truck are in hell. You know? All the way going like this and everything is broken. And how do you feel. No pain-killer. Yes. So if we are born in hell, how can we think of anything but just ouch, ouch, you know. More than that. More than that. So no Dalwa . So we not in hell for sure. Therefore we have the first Dalwa .

The second Dalwa is: we are not born in the hungry ghost realm. If we are born in the hungry ghost realm, we will be busy hungry, not busy with pain but busy hungry. I give you an example. If our stomach is the size of the mountain, our mouth is size of the hole of needle and our throat is size of a thread, then how hungry we would be. So if we are like that, so what will be there in our mind? Enlightenment for all sentient beings? There is all kinds of hungry ghosts, but some people are also like hungry ghost, and never get bad as hungry ghost to real one. So we are not borne in hungry ghost realm, so we have the Dalwa . We have the opportunity, we have the choice, we have the condition. Second condition.

Then third, we are not born as animal. Animal, of course, we respect but animal is always busy protecting themselves, fighting for survival. And all kind of things that are mostly involved with fear. In the sea, there is, sea is filled with animals, but they are all busy eating each other. One big one eats many small ones, many small ones eat one big one. Medium size ones eat each other. And even birds, look at the birds, we say beautiful birds, cute bird. But if you really look at them, can they pick up one grain or something with no fear? No. they look right they look left they look all the places and listen. They quickly pick up and as they are eating they are listening. You Know. Eating is cute, but actually they are afraid. That's what it is. So we are not born in the animal realm, that is the third Dalwa.

And the fourth Dalwa is we are not born as a barbarian. So barbarian description is totally misunderstood by most people. People think barbarian means who wears, how do you say, leaves and who live under a tree, who has hardly any cloth, and who don't have a written language. And that's barbarian, that is what people think. But that's wrong. Barbarian means who don't know what is right and what is wrong. So those who does those things to the cattle, they are barbarians. They might have very fancy hand-phone, they might drive very fancy car. They might live in a very fancy mansion. They might know Tiffany table manner by heart. They might know how to cook the meat of that animal, two hundred different ways. But still they are barbarians, because they don't know what's right and what's wrong.

So they will only know what's right and what's wrong in two situations. First when there are merits manifested, so that their primordial wisdom, some part of it wakes up and they are able to see what they're doing. One way is that they realize what they are doing. So there is a very famous song, which is one of my favorite, that is written by a slave trader. He was trading slave in a ship, so he was on the top the ship, very comfortable. Captains, you know, maybe more than captain, he is the boss. So he sat there and a very nice day, and he realized what he was doing. So he wrote the song, called Amazing Grace. You know? "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound......." Blah blah blah, "....once I was lost now I am found...." Blah blah blah. Very good. So that is way to wake up a barbarian become the precious human life. And then another way to wake up the barbarian is that the same thing he is doing to the animal, the similar thing about to happen to him. Then he will realize my goodness, you know, this is painful. I don't like it. So only that way. That is another way. But first way to wake up is much better; second way is not good, because, you know, maybe too late. Second one. So we are definitely not barbarian.

Then another is if we are born as a god, then that is another shortcoming. Gods have everything. Gods are almighty. Gods are all powerful. They have no challenge. They have no shortcoming. So until their karma, of having all of that power and all of that glory, runs out, they have no way of knowing. They have no way of learning, they have no way of learning about anything. So we are not born as a god. Therefore, fifth condition. We are human being.

I like to clarify here one thing. This is not from the text. I am putting it in, because they can be misunderstanding. So many religions talk about god. Right? Maybe this has nothing to do with that god. Maybe when they say god, they are talking about something like a Buddha. But I can't put words in their mouths, you know. So therefore I cannot be so presumptuous to interpret their definition of god. So I will not try that. But I want to make sure if their definition of god is something like a Buddha, like a Bodhisattva, then this is not that. This is the god realm, the highest of the six realms, the god. The realm of god, "Tan Ren" (God). But I am not trying to be apologetic here. Apologize, you know, I am not trying to apologize here. Sometimes people try to make impossible comparisons. Recently one person, I mean a couple came to see me and we talked for some time and talked about Jesus Christ. And one of them said he is like a Buddha. Jesus Christ, Christian, the first one, who main founder. One of them said he is like a Buddha, another one said no no he is like a Bodhisattva.I keel quite......So at the end, I have to open my mouth to say something. I said I respect Jesus Christ for his teaching, I don't know much. But the ten commandments sounds very good, it sounds like ten virtue. You know. He tells you not to do things to the others that you will not to yourself. Sounds very good. But comparing Jesus Christ and Bodhisattva, Jesus Christ and Buddha, for me it is nonsense. Jesus Christ is good as Jesus Christ. You know. I think that is enough. In order to be sure whether he is a Bodhisattva or not, you have to know did he take Bodhisattva vow or not, from which Buddha. Maybe he did, maybe he did, but how do we know? Maybe he didn't. And to be sure about whether he is Buddha or not, we have to know did he really wish to become Buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings to become Buddha. Did he? How do we know? Maybe he did, maybe he did. So therefore at the end, I managed to barely convince them, in front of me, but after they ran out of my room I don't know they still argued. But in front of me, I am able to make them accept that doesn't matter. Jesus Christ is good as Jesus Christ, and his teaching is Christianity. And Christianity is Christianity. It is good as it is. Christianity is Buddhism or Buddhism is Christianity. You know I mean, what is the point? We will never know, we will never know, until we become Buddha. So now this way I tried to clarify when I use the word "god", it is the same word that everybody uses for the God. So I don't want any confusion there, so here I put this in. And it is not part of the Maha Mudra Ocean of Certainty, so I should not contaminate the Maha Mudra Ocean of Certainty. But I have to make this clarification. Because otherwise, you know, religious disharmony is the most dreadful thing that I can ever think of. And religious harmony is the most wonderful thing that I can think of. Most of problems in this world will be solved by religious harmony. And most of problems in this world is created by religious disharmony. All of you, as a Buddhist, I don't want you to have misgiving about god and this, you know, in the wrong way. This is about the god.

The sixth is wrong view, the wrong perception. That is the shortcoming. If we have wrong perception like these people who treat cattle in such way, that's wrong perception. For them, cattle are just like how you pack, you know, something, you know you just bend the leg here there and then pack it nicely, and then you can undo it and put it nicely. Just like that. It's a wrong view. It's not right, it's not right view. That is very simple version of wrong view. And then more serious version of wrong view is we don't know that we have perfect, profound, primordial, limitless potential of Buddha, in each one of us. We are the temple of Buddha , and if we think of ourselves as nothing, terrible, you know, and miserable, then that is wrong view. And present life is coming from the past. Future life is coming from present. How can you have today without yesterday and today without tomorrow? You know. Everything continues from the past to the present, to the future. And how can you have result without cause? And how can you have cause without condition? So having wrong view about that is the shortcoming. And we have the right view. We know today is the continuation of yesterday. And it will continue omorrow. When we die, our body will die but our mind will not die, because dead body cannot see, but alive body can see and talk. Dead body decays, living body does not decay. Of course, dead body doesn't do terrible things. But living body does. And dead body doesn't do wonderful things and living body does. This way, it is clear, there is something more than the body we have in us. And our mind is limitless. And I can prove to you very very simply from the negative view. Your appetite of greed is impossible to be fulfilled, if you don't decide to say: enough is enough. If I have the power to make you the king of the planet earth, I guarantee, within one week, you will want to me to make you the king of the whole solar system. If I make you that, I guarantee you, within one week, you will want me to make you the king of the whole universe, which is hundreds millions solar system. Otherwise when you manage to do that, then you want to definitely build, you know, intergalactical spaceship with lots of weapon to conquer others. I am sure. And then you don't need me at that time. I don't think you need me at that time. That time you would not ask me, because you can do it yourself. So this is proof that our potential has no limitation, the negative side. But the positive side of that is when all our potential is fully developed, we are Buddha. Limitless freedom, limitless liberation. And it can only happen for limitless purpose. You can never become Buddha for yourself; you can become Buddha for all sentient beings to become Buddha. So limitless result is starts with limitless cause and aspiration. And limitless result is for the limitless outcome of that result. So it will be limitless from all directions. So that way we don't have the wrong view. That is a very important part of the eight Dalwa.

And seventh is if no beings ever attained enlightenment on our planet, then it is a very big shortcoming because we will not have the lineage. On this earth, prophesized Buddha, seven already enlightened. And unprophesized Buddha, from that prophesy. Of course, other prophesy from other universe, definitely, but not this part. Countless beings attained enlightenment, so that way that shortcoming is not there.

Then the last one is that if we are deaf and dumb, then it would be very hard for us to learn the Dharma. Now there is wonderful thing is the deaf and dumb can learn, and with lots of efforts but can learn. There is all kinds of method, all kinds of signs, and all kinds of books, even blinds can read, and deaf and dumb can learn from the signs. It is wonderful. Deaf and dumb can read books now. If we are deaf and dumb, which you are not, then to acquire to overcome that shortcoming, you have to learn those things. Same way, anyone of the other, actually, six, because the seventh one Buddha already attained enlightenment here so that we don't have to do anything. The other six, if anyone of them we are shortage of, then we have to do whatever is appropriate to acquire that and overcome that shortcoming. Just like if we are deaf and dumb, we have to overcome it by learning how to read, and how to communicate, and how to learn. So at deaf and dumb, Dharma video will be wonderful, very meritorious. That is the eighth of eighteen qualities of precious human life.

The other ten, five of them are related with you, within you, five of them outside of you.

Now five that is related with oneself is: so this is five conditions which are related with oneself. The first of the five is we are born as human being. And the second is O Kyes. O Kyes means born in the central area. Now during the time of Lord Buddha, the central area is defined by where Lord Buddha's teaching is established and flourished. So this way, Yul O means area; Yul means area, the place; O means center. And that is described by certain cities as the edge of the central area, and center is the center of the teaching. But now we have to understand that with the meaning. So the meaning of that is during those days, those places, which are considered center, there are places where Lord Buddha's teaching is established, and Dharma is a common sense. And outside of that, the Dharma is not known and it is a new thing, and not familiar, not a basic common sense. So this way we have to understand now. Now which is not center is which is not Yul O , is we call Yul Takob. Takob means opposite to the center, where Dharma is not heard of and Dharma is not understood. Now these days, every place in the world, there is some sense of Yu Wu and some sense of Takob, because the situation change in 25 hundred year. So that there is pockets of people everywhere to whom the teaching of Buddha is commonsense: knowing that everyone has Buddha essence; kowing that everything is impermanent. Knowing that everything that we experience in this life are the result of the causes and conditions that we are responsible in the past. So on and so forth. So where these things are commonsense, then it is Yul O , and where these things are not commonsense, then it is Takob. Takob means a person would be called barbarian, but place cannot be called barbarian, so I don't know what you call that. In India , we use a very simple term, English language, of course, we call them backwards, but then backwards can mean many things. Some places might not have electricity, no running water, and we call them backwards. But they might have great wisdom, so they are not backwards at all. So I don't know the exact word for Takob. But not necessary, we don't have to label anybody with anything. But good label, you know. We don't have to have bad label, so bad label I can't translate, so that is good sign. We all appreciate Dharma and we all understand Dharma, and therefore it is we are same as born in the central place. That is there. Sometimes people come to me and say that they want to practice Dharma, but their environment is not very conducive to Dharma. People don't understand, they feel alienated, and they don't have support for the Dharma. They feel little bit strange to be monk or nun or practicing Dharma, or carrying a mala, for these sort of thing. So that somehow shows a little bit, those surrounded are a little bit like a Takob. But that is just superficial, really what is going on in those people's heads, you really don't know exactly what it is. So doesn't matter, you are appreciating Dharma, you understand Dharma, so that is what matters. The second, I think we can say we have that condition. I have that condition. Everything around me pushes me to practice Dharma.

Now third is we have all the senses, like eye, ear etc, are functioning. So nothing is missing. That is third condition. And I think all of us have everything. And those who are missing one or two things, that we know somewhere else, then of course there is ways to acquire them just like learning the sign language. So the same way, they can practice Dharma, but a little bit harder than us, because we have everything. How precious our eye is, how precious our ear is, how precious that everything we have got of all our sense is. You wouldn't know how precious it is until we miss one of them. So we have to appreciate what we have, but those who doesn't have doesn't mean they can't practice Dharma but harder for them. Because you have to somehow try very hard to learn those ways to, first they have to learn the ways to learn, you know. You already have means to learn, they have to learn the means to learn first, extra, one extra job.

Now the fourth is the karmic condition is such that if our activity is contrary to the Dharma. That means if our job is to kill, if our job is to steal, if our job is to lie, if our job is to slander, then this is very, very disadvantageous for Dharma practice. So we are not. We don't have that kind of job. This way our livelihood, our activity, our karmic manifestation is according to the Dharma, conducive to the Dharma.

Then the fifth of the condition that is related with you is, you have respect and appreciation for what is right. And you have devotion and appreciation to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Guru, Deity, Protector. This way you have the devotion upwards, and compassion downwards, and love and kindness to everyone. This is the fifth condition that is related with you. You must have all of these five. We call it rang-jor-nga, rang-jor-nga . Rang means yourself; Jor pa means having, acquire, and nga means five.

Then now the shan-jor-nga . The other five is shan-jor-nga , the five things that are outside of you. Now the " shan-jor-nga ". The first is in this world, Buddha Sakyamuni attain enlightenment. So that is first. The second is the teaching is manifested from the Buddha. So Buddha could have attained enlightenment, but the sentient being does not have the merit, then the Dharma will not manifest. So first seven weeks after the enlightenment, Buddha does not manifest any teaching. Then the two kings of the god, one is Brahma, another one is In-dra they came down from heaven and requested Buddha to turn the wheel of Dharma. And one of them offered golden wheel that with thousand spokes.

Another one offered a conch shell that turns in clock way. When they offered these, then two beautiful unicorn deer emerged from the forest and sat next to this Dharma chakra. So that is the symbol we have on every Buddhist temple. That represents the turning of wheel of Dharma. So first seven weeks, Buddha did not turn the wheel of Dharma. And after the seven weeks, then he taught the four noble truth in Varanasi . This is the teaching Buddha taught. Then Buddha manifested other teachings such as Mahayana teaching, and Vajrayana teachings, all aspects of teaching manifested. That is the second condition outside of us.

Then the third condition is the teaching of Buddha is still remaining alive. What does that mean? That means the lineage of the teaching of the Buddha is not broken. Lineage is continuing. That is the third condition. Now I'd like to say a little bit about lineage, because many people don't understand this importance of the lineage. Lineage means Buddha, the Prince Siddhattha, was truly enlightened. He became Buddha Sakyamuni. That was the beginning of our lineage. He, after the enlightenment, truly manifested teaching and disciples of all different levels heard the teachings of all different levels truly, and they practice them truly. Then these teachings that they practiced, they taught to their disciples as Buddha taught them. As they had practiced them, without contaminating. They taught them truly. So that continues from the Buddha until now, for two thousand five hundred years. More than two thousand five hundred years. And every teaching that is continued that way up to today is the Dharma that we practice. And few of the Dharma we don't have lineage, because they did not continue. So we just worship them. We can't learn them, we can't teach them, because we will never get it right. I can't say never, but once in a million chance. It is just like go to a library and pick up a meditation text and start to practice them, just like that. And then we become very funny Buddhist. Sometimes we go crazy. Even we don't go crazy, we are very strange. I don't think Buddha's teaching is meant to make us strange. Buddha's teaching is supposed to make us pleasant, happy, and better. Not meant to make us unpleasant, unhappy and confused. So therefore the teaching, the Dharma, even Buddha taught, if the lineage did not continue, then Dharma doesn't exist. No, Dharma exists, but lineage of Dharma doesn't exist, means the Buddha's teaching is not alive; lineage is broken.

There is two ways the lineage discontinued. First is no teacher taught such teaching and no disciple received such teaching, then lineage is discontinued. Only takes one generation. Second is, if disciple broke the Samaya with the practice, then it is discontinued. If some body received ordination, then the person received the transmission and the lineage. Then if that person remains to be Bhikshu or Bhikshuni then can continue the lineage. If that person breaks the vow, then lineage cannot continue from that person. It is just like electricity, if the line is cut, wherever the line is cut, after that there will be no electricity. The same thing with every teaching and every practice. If the Samaya is broken, then when it is repeated, it might sound like Dharma. When it is performed, it might look like Dharma. But it is not Dharma. There is prophesies that after some time, many of the Buddha's teaching will discontinue. It does not mean there won't be any more temple. It does not mean there won't be any more monks and nuns. It does not mean there won't be anymore Dharma text. But it means the lineage will discontinue.Build a temple is very easy. And make a monk or nun is very easy. Shave the hair and put on the dress. Very convenient, actually. The real definition of Dharma is the lineage. So Dharma is alive means lineage is alive, lineage is continuing. Therefore, it is very very serious thing for each one of us to maintain and continue the lineage. Sometimes, even my very close friends advise me and suggest to me that I am being too orthodox. And sometimes they say I am a bit too hard. But I must tell my dear friends, whoever they are, I have responsibility and I cannot compromise the lineage for anything else. Not matter what happens to me, it's ok. I will not be responsible for the discontinuation of the lineage that is alive today. I will not inflict, and cause any pain, and any suffering, and any loss to anybody to maintain the lineage. No. Because the purpose of the Dharma is to liberate all sentient beings from sufferings from samsara, but I will endure any pain and any suffering and any problem to maintain and uphold the lineage, I will. I consider that my practice, and honor, and purification, and accumulation of merits, for me. So I don't want you, any of you, to try to make my life difficult. By any reason if you do, I will endure. I am very tough on this. I have been. And I will be. Because I want the opportunity to purify my karma, I want the opportunity to accumulate merits. That's how I look at it. That's not coming from here. You know. But meaning is there. Meaning is there.

So now the fourth is T ei jye juk . So that means you are following that lineage. That living lineage, you are following it, so you become part of it. Now that means even Dharma is there, if we are not part of it, if we did not receive the transmission, then for us, individually, it is same as it is not there. It is like there is plenty of food, but if we don't eat, we will starve. The same thing.

Now the fifth condition from outside is, there is the general goodness in everyone, because if you wanted to be a sincere Dharma practitioner then you have to have that outer condition of general goodness. Otherwise, serious Dharma practitioner might suffer, and might not manage. And even Milarepa, when he was doing practice in the cave, and some hunters came. Hunter, you know, hunter. And first they wondered is this a ghost or is this a human being. So they got a little bit scared at the beginning and then finally they found out this is a yogi practicing Dharma. Then they provided him with everything they have got, they kept on providing him. They provided him so much. So that he ran away, to other cave. These are the five conditions, which is outside of you.

Now with this, the teaching chapter one, the practice chapter one is completed. How to practice these? First you go through each one of the eighteen conditions. And then once, I am quite sure you find, each one of you have all the eighteen conditions. If by any chance, there is shortage of any one of them, you have to develop them and complete them. But I don't think that will be necessary for you because I think you all have all the eighteen conditions. Then after that, you should have a very clear, very clear outcome of the appreciation of precious human life. Otherwise, it will be like you are a very rich person, who will not spend any money for food, any money for cloth, any money for house, any money for medicine. So that way you starve. It will be like that. Once you have the clear understanding of having the precious human life then you have to appreciate it. And the best way to appreciate it is by using it. Best way to use it is with two things. You should have developed compassion to all sentient being who does not have it. With compassion, you should develop Bodhicitta. I wish to attain Buddhahood by using precious human life to help all sentient being to become Buddha; whether they have the eighteen conditions, the precious human life or not, they all have Buddha nature. They all have primordial wisdom. They all have limitless potential. So Bodhicitta.

And then devotion. Devotion is extremely important together with compassion. If you have true Bodhicitta, true compassion, you have true devotion, because it is the other side of the coin. Compassion is to those who are less fortunate than you. Devotion is to those who have more wisdom, more compassion, more devotion than you. For example, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Guru, Deity, Protector, we have devotion to them.

Devotion we can describe in three ways. First one is Thang wa. Thang wa means when you think of Buddha, when you think of Dharma, when you think of Sangha, when you think the Guru, the Deity, the Protector, you feel such a pure presence of them. You feel such a pureness, such a sacredness about them. That is Thang wa. That is Thang wi tey pa. "tey pa" means devotion. "Thang wa". The second one is Yid chey pa. Yid chey pa means convinced. Because we have full faith and we are fully convinced about Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Guru, Deity, Protector. We are convinced about them, we have full faith in them. That is the second aspect of devotion. Now the third aspect is we wish to be Buddha, we wish to realize the essence of Dharma and practice Dharma. And we wish to be best, and most sincere Sangha. We wish to be non-dualistic one with Guru, Deity, Protector. We wish to be unseparable. But unseparable sometimes need explanation, it doesn't mean you have to somehow be like a dog of the Guru or Deity. One means the Guru become Guru because of the lineage, no lineage how somebody becomes your Guru. Guru becomes Guru because Guru's Guru transmitted the lineage to the Guru. So the unseparable with Guru means that teaching of Guru, the transmission, is the essence of Guru so that you receive to your body, your speech and your mind. And you are unseparable from Guru by receiving the transmission of the lineage of the Dharma. And also, it is same as being one with holy Sangha, because Guru is holy Sangha. Being one with the Diety means, the Buddha's Sambhogakaya is the deity. Diety manifests and we practice the deity to transform ourselves to become the deity so that we can reach the Buddhahood. That's how Marpa reach Buddhahood, that's how Milarepa reached Buddhahood, etc , etc. Marpa, and Milarepa etc reached Buddhahood.

Wisdom protectors are same as deity. It's the same thing. That is same as being one with the Buddha. Buddha, the Deity, the Wisdom Protector, all the same. But there are other kind of protector, who are not Wisdom Protector, they are different. They are like having a very good, powerful, capable team to help you to succeed in your Dharma practice. Some of them are truly invincible. Invincible. Most of them are invincible because they are invisible. If you can't see them, what can you do. They can do things to protect you from obstacles, and nobody can see them therefore nobody can stop them. Now this is the most important of all devotion, that is you wish to become. You wish to become Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Guru, Deity, Protector. That is the true, most sacred devotion. With these three aspects, then I think all aspects of devotion is completed.

So once you are clearly convinced that you have the precious human life, then you appreciate it. And then you make it productive and meaningful by compassion and devotion. Now first teaching chapter, first practice chapter is completed.

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Guru Yoga Prayer
Chanted by Kenting Tai Situpa in March 2006

Maha Mudra Practice

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Tilopa's Song