Notes from the DC "Not-a-Study-Group" discussion,
1st section of This Precious Life by Khandro Rinpoche - entering the gateway: she lays the groundwork, moving into 4 reminders. The rest of the book is essentially the 4 reminders. “Genuine appreciation of our human mind, body and potential, and with exertion, we can create the cause for genuine happiness. …”
Pg.17 - the Four Thoughts that Transform the Mind
“Contemplating the preciousness of human existence brings a genuine appreciation of our human body, mind, and potential. With exertion we can create the cause for genuine happiness and benefit for others.”
The 18 Qualities of a Precious Human Existence
P 28 - the 8 freedoms
1 through 3 are the freedom from birth in the three lower realms.
4 not being born in a barbarous realm
5 free from being born in a god realm
6 freedoms from wrong view
7 of not being born in a place without the presence of a Buddha
8 of not being born deaf and dumb (the ADA qualifiers)
P 34 - The 10 endowments
The 5 self endowments
1 Having a human mind capable of generating compassion and wisdom
2 our body was born in a central land
3 we were born with our 6 senses intact
4 we were born with the right view
5 we have the capability of devotion and irreversible confidence
The 5 circumstantial endowments
1 a Buddha has come into this world
2 that the Buddha taught in this world
3 that we were born in a time when the teachings are being taught
4 that we have living examples of the truth of the teachings
5 (most important) the genuine kindness in the heart of our teacher
P 46 quotes from Shantideva translated by H.E. JKR
Having attained this precious human existence
like a ship that crosses the ocean of samsara
without falling into distractions or laziness of mind
through ignorance,
allow yourself to awaken to the preciousness of this moment.
like a ship that crosses the ocean of samsara
without falling into distractions or laziness of mind
through ignorance,
allow yourself to awaken to the preciousness of this moment.
We must start with recognizing our Buddha-nature. The rest of the stuff is layers. Then there is irreversible confidence, really grounding in that. She spends a chapter on being confidence on this, and contemplation – see signs of blaming – watch out for highlight of habit of highlighting negative tendencies – paG. 25. IT WILL prevent you from putting B,S,M on path of practice.
Ruth- it’s cowardly to highlight your negative tendencies. Ken – that sounds very shambhalian. It’s denying your Buddha-nature. There is an element of perfection in us – veiled.
18 qualities of a Precious Human Existence – first 8-
The contemplations mixed through book – p 27. Ask yourself, how do these emotions arise, are they useful, can they be proven?
The 8 freedoms –
For each, reflect on loud on various distractions and pain described, and how small your problems are by comparison. Reflect on the 8 freedoms with a sense of true preciousness of this PHE.
1) Freedom from birth in hell realm. Perceptions of environment around you – can walk down the street, and be doom and gloom when everyone around is having a good time. We don’t even have to debate the actual ‘hell’ realms. We do a good job of creating them ourselves. This applies to all the realms, really – we are just debating the flavors.
2) Freedom from the hungry ghost realm. Not too far from what was said before. Not being satisfied constantly – we have more than enough food available in this country. Or constantly feeling unsatisfied. Even a Wall Street executive that always feels like he needs more, no matter how many millions he has. More literal, the folks starving in Darfur. All they can think of is food. There is no way to think of anything transcendent. Personally I don’t have the problem. How many chances like this will we get?
3) Freedom from the animal realm. Slavery. Animals are often enslaved by people. Slaves can’t study or practice ABCs. There are also wild animals in dog-eat-dog world. All they can do is get food and avoid predators. But they don’t have the intelligence, the wiring to understand things like the dharma, only occasionally hear about monkey taunting a yogi. That’s more of a monkey getting some of the merit of the yogi.
4) Freedom from birth in a barbarous place or barbarian land. Patrul Rinpoche explained it in WOMPT as those who live in the "32 low-lying areas". These are areas around Tibet and parts of Burma. All those who consider taking life is good. These people have human form, but their minds are not turned to the dharma. They live in a way that is opposite from the dharma. Khandro Rinpoche – really means a place where there is no understanding of selflessness, of compassion, only concerned with feeding our egos, ourselves no thought about others at all.
Ken’s guess- this is also supposed to be the ashura realm. They have the reputation of being all the above. Could be similar to # 7, born in a place w/o a Buddha.
5) Freedom from being born in a Deva. A loss of faith during their fall will alter there perceptions. Could see – “h, there is cause and effect” - instead, the gods get disillusioned. They think karma didn’t exist, it[s all pure chance. Even if they had heard of the dharma before, it’s destroyed. It’s so easy to get distracted. Maiterya is said to be up there, hanging out, waiting for his turn. Generally, we shouldn’t count on it. Ruth- sense that in god realm, there is actually possibility of enlightenment, but it would take extraordinary circumstances. Incredibly rare. Don’t count on it. It’s like rock stars. Everyone telling them they are amazing, here, want some cocaine.
6) Freedom from wrong view. No faith in cause and effect, no genuine devotion to qualities of the dharma. We actually create damage to ourselves and others. Pg. 30 – not understanding karma, the monk that waited on the Buddha that had no faith in what Buddha taught. He lacked faith and had wrong view. Was reborn as a preta in a garden. Freedom from it is understanding importance of abandoning negative activities – the 5 poisons. And then you justify that anger/jealousy/desire/etc. Important not to be too tough on ourselves. We needn’t lose sleep thinking “I’m the anti-Buddhist”J as long as we understand ….
Some get terrified when Khandro Rinpoche calls on them. MM/DZG masters would say, look at that brain freeze.
7) Freedom from not being born in a place without a Buddha. Without the presence of a teacher. The teachings will die out between Buddhas. The dharma rises, and then the dharma declines, and then there is a dark age where the dharma dies out. People in raja yoga, they talked of 4 time periods- golden age- time of peace of prosperity, then slips – silver, bronze, iron. An explosion, and then a golden age again. A period of time where nothing is happening. Parallels between the Hindu cosmology and the Buddhist one. In a universe where a Buddha has not appeared, there is no ability to practice. Khandro Rinpoche -pg. 31 – we may live next to a Buddhist center, and because of our parochial nature, we don’t get them.
8) Freedom from not being born deaf and dumb. This is not a criticism. It is acknowledging how easy it is for us. A very skillful way of handling a potential landmine. If you understand the difference btwn good and bad, you aren’t here. Helen Keller was able to learn, communicate, etc. This is an example of just how rare it is for causes and conditions, and great teacher w/ incredible will, to get through to teach in the god realm.
Pg. 33. Other than our own grasping, we are well endowed. We need to remain in the understanding of precious human existence.
The 10 endowments-
1- Being born a human in a central place with all ones faculties without a conflicting livelihood and with faith in the dharma.
2- A Buddha has appeared, has taught the dharma, the dharma still exists, can be followed, and there are still people who are kind hearted to others.
The five Self-endowments vs. the five circumstantial endowments
Self-endowments - ours we can control.
Circumstantial -endowments– about the situation – things we can’t control.
1) We have choice. This is why the human realm is best. We can choose btwn good and bad, right and wrong, we feel effects of our actions, which gives impetus to do the right thing. VKR- animal realm – some of you think it would be great to be reborn a housecat. Even our must loved animals have so much fear. When will they be fed again? When will the dog get walked again? When will they get to go to the bathroom again? Where we can go to the bathroom any time?
2) Our body was born in a central land. In Tibet, there were remote hamlets, some monk would come by every 3 months. You aren’t going to learn the dharma that way. But if you are living in Lhasa, there is dharma everywhere. Beth left Penn State because it was in the middle of nowhere – no dharma.
3) All six senses intact. This is about interacting with the world. The more intact, the more we can interact. It provides a lot of chances to – your senses each have a consciousness. Plus the database – the 6th- mind consciousness. Then #7 – your klesha consciousness. When you get enlightened, that consciousness goes away. When someone gets angry -= sometimes there is a gap – a visual thing happens, go through database, then do reaction. Vajrayana – watch your mind when you do it – there is a long gap which is very useful – if you rest in it…. The 8th- the alaya- the undefiled is Buddha nature. The defiled alaya of unconcsnessness. Basic ignorance. The storehouse of karma. It feeds the kleshas. The klesha enact because of karmic tendencies.
Karma is not a linear thing. It’s wiggling a cobweb which will bounce back at some point, like Angry Birds.
4) Born with access to right view.
5) Capability of devotion and irreversible confidence. If we see something good, we understand it works, and want to do it again. We do it enough; we will have devotion in it. Irreversible confidence is the technical term for the experience of the 1st bhumi. Ordinary people think that is enlightenment. No, it’s the moment of recognizing the experience of enlightenment. We need the teaching, or else we’d miss it. It’s a natural human experience. The Buddhist view- if you have the right view going in, and the right support coming out, you can make use of it to go places “enlightenment”. If not, you may miss it. The Christians have different words for different levels of experience. Buddhism tells us how spirituality is wired, and then can understand the rest.
The 1st bhumi lasts about 20 seconds, J.
We are teachable beings.
Circumstantial-
1. A Buddha came into this world.
2. You need that teacher actually taught. (All the pratekabuddhas figured it out, but it never occurred to them to pass it on to others)
3. We were born in a time when the teachings were being taught.
4. We have living examples of the truth of the teachings. Don’t have to be fully enlightened. See jann Jackson. J
5. The genuine kindness the heart of our teacher. Most important!!!! Look at the kindness of Khandro Rinpoche as she waits for us to figure things out for ourselves
Patrul rinpoche – pg. 19- 39. If you have all these and are born in a barbarian realm, the virtues will be to be unvirtuous. Imagine a traveler (in 19th century Tibet) – to make tea, need flint, steel, tinder, tea pot, water, etc. If even one element of the freedoms and advantages is missing, you can’t practice dharma.
If you lack even one of the 18 qualities, you can't practice.
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