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Meditation of a Person of Initial Scope

There are five meditations of a person of initial scope:

1. Meditation on the preciousness of our human life

2. Meditation on death

3. Meditation on the danger of lower rebirth

4. Meditation on going for refuge

5. Meditation on karma

MEDITATION ON THE PRECIOUSNESS OF OUR HUMAN LIFE

THE PURPOSE OF THIS MEDITATION

The purpose of this meditation is to encourage ourself to take the real meaning of our human life and not to waste it in meaningless activities. Our human life is very precious, but only if we use it to attain permanent liberation and the supreme happiness of enlightenment through practising Dharma purely and sincerely. We should encourage ourself to accomplish the real meaning of our human life. What is the real meaning of human life?

Many people believe that material development is the real meaning of human life, but we can see that no matter how much material development there is in the world it never reduces human suffering and problems. Instead, it often causes suffering and problems to increase; therefore it is not the real meaning of human life. We should know that at present we have reached the human world for just a brief moment from our former lives, and we have the opportunity to attain the supreme happiness of enlightenment through practising Dharma. This is our extraordinary good fortune. When we attain enlightenment we will have fulfilled our own wishes, and we can fulfil the wishes of all other living beings; we will have liberated ourself permanently from the sufferings of this life and countless future lives, and we can directly benefit each and every living being every day. The attainment of enlightenment is therefore the real meaning of human life.

As mentioned in Part One, enlightenment is the inner light of wisdom that is permanently free from all mistaken appearance, and whose function is to bestow mental peace on each and every living being every day. Right now we have obtained a human rebirth and have the opportunity to attain enlightenment through Dharma practice, so if we waste this precious opportunity in meaningless activities there is no greater loss and no greater foolishness. This is because in the future such a precious opportunity will be extremely hard to find. In one Sutra Buddha illustrates this by giving the following analogy. He asks his disciples, ‘Suppose there existed a vast and deep ocean the size of this world, and on its surface there floated a golden yoke, and at the bottom of the ocean there lived a blind turtle who surfaced only once in every one hundred thousand years. How often would that turtle raise its head through the middle of the yoke?’ His disciple, Ananda, answers that, indeed, it would be extremely rare.

In this context, the vast and deep ocean refers to samsara – the cycle of impure life that we have experienced since beginningless time, continually in life after life without end – the golden yoke refers to Buddhadharma, and the blind turtle refers to us. Although we are not physically a turtle, mentally we are not much different; and although our physical eyes may not be blind, our wisdom eyes are. For most of our countless previous lives we have remained at the bottom of the ocean of samsara, in the three lower realms – the animal, hungry ghost and hell realms – surfacing only once in every one hundred thousand years or so as a human being. Even when we briefly reach the upper realm of samsara’s ocean as a human being, it is extremely rare to meet the golden yoke of Buddhadharma: the ocean of samsara is extremely vast, the golden yoke of Buddhadharma does not remain in one place but moves from place to place, and our wisdom eyes are always blind. For these reasons, Buddha says that in the future, even if we obtain a human rebirth, it will be extremely rare to meet Buddhadharma again; meeting Kadam Dharma is even rarer than this. We can see that the great majority of human beings in the world, even though they have briefly reached the upper realm of samsara as human beings, have not met Buddhadharma. This is because their wisdom eyes have not opened.

What does ‘meeting Buddhadharma’ mean? It means entering into Buddhism by sincerely seeking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and thus having the opportunity to enter and make progress on the path to enlightenment. If we do not meet Buddhadharma we have no opportunity to do this, and therefore we have no opportunity to accomplish the pure and everlasting happiness of enlightenment, the real meaning of human life.

THE OBJECT OF THIS MEDITATION

The object of this meditation, or the object on which we focus single-pointedly, is our determination to practise Dharma purely and sincerely. We should learn to develop this determination through contemplating the above explanation of the purpose of this meditation. When, through this contemplation, a firm determination to practise Dharma purely and sincerely develops in our heart, we have found the object of this meditation.

THE ACTUAL MEDITATION

We should think:

At present I have briefly reached the human world and have the opportunity to attain permanent liberation from suffering and the supreme happiness of enlightenment through putting Dharma into practice. If I waste this precious opportunity in meaningless activities there is no greater loss and no greater foolishness.

Thinking in this way we make the strong determination to practise Dharma, Buddha’s teachings, of the stages of the path to enlightenment sincerely and purely, while we have the opportunity. We hold this determination in our heart without forgetting it and remain on it single-pointedly for as long as possible. Through continually training in this meditation we will develop a spontaneous wish to practise Dharma, the stages of the path, purely and sincerely. This wish is the realization of this meditation.

During the meditation break we should put our determination into practice.

MEDITATION ON DEATH

THE PURPOSE OF THIS MEDITATION

The purpose of this meditation is to prevent the laziness of attachment, the main obstacle to Dharma practice. Because our desire for worldly enjoyment is so strong, we have little or no interest in Dharma practice. From a spiritual point of view, this lack of interest in Dharma practice is a type of laziness called ‘laziness of attachment’. For as long as we have this laziness, the door to liberation will be closed to us, and consequently we will continue to experience misery and suffering in this life and in countless future lives. The way to overcome this laziness, the main obstacle to our Dharma practice, is to meditate on death.

We need to contemplate and meditate on our death again and again until we gain a deep realization of death. Although on an intellectual level we all know that eventually we are going to die, our awareness of death remains superficial. Since our intellectual knowledge of death does not touch our hearts, each and every day we continue to think ‘I will not die today, I will not die today.’ Even on the day of our death, we are still thinking about what we will do tomorrow or next week. This mind that thinks every day ‘I will not die today’ is deceptive – it leads us in the wrong direction and causes our human life to become empty. On the other hand, through meditating on death we will gradually replace the deceptive thought ‘I will not die today’ with the non-deceptive thought ‘I may die today.’ The mind that spontaneously thinks each and every day ‘I may die today’ is the realization of death. It is this realization that directly eliminates our laziness of attachment and opens the door to the spiritual path.

In general, we may die today or we may not die today – we do not know. However, if we think each day ‘I may not die today’, this thought will deceive us because it comes from our ignorance; whereas if instead we think each day ‘I may die today’, this thought will not deceive us because it comes from our wisdom. This beneficial thought will prevent our laziness of attachment, and will encourage us to prepare for the welfare of our countless future lives or to put great effort into entering the path to liberation and enlightenment. In this way, we will make our present human life meaningful. Until now we have wasted our countless former lives without any meaning; we have brought nothing with us from our former lives except delusions and suffering.

Our death is the permanent separation of our body and mind. We may experience many temporary separations of our body and mind, but these are not our death. For example, when those who have completed their training in the practice known as ‘transference of consciousness’ engage in meditation, their mind separates from their body. Their body remains where they are meditating, and their mind goes to a Pure Land and then returns to their body. At night, during dreams, our body remains in bed but our mind goes to various places of the dream world and then returns to our body. These separations of our body and mind are not our death because they are only temporary.

At death our mind separates from our body permanently. Our body remains at the place of this life but our mind goes to various places of our future lives, like a bird leaving one nest and flying to another. This clearly shows the existence of our countless future lives, and that the nature and function of our body and mind are very different. Our body is a visual form that possesses colour and shape, but, as explained in Part One, our mind is a formless continuum that always lacks colour and shape. The nature of our mind is empty like space, and its function is to perceive or understand objects. Through this we can understand that our brain is not our mind. The brain is simply a part of our body that, for example, can be photographed, whereas our mind cannot.

We may not be happy to hear about our death, but contemplating and meditating on death is very important for the effectiveness of our Dharma practice. This is because it prevents the main obstacle to our Dharma practice – the laziness of attachment to the things of this life – and it encourages us to practise Dharma purely right now. If we do this we will accomplish the real meaning of human life before our death.

THE OBJECT OF THIS MEDITATION

The object of this meditation is our thought ‘I may die today, I may die today.’ We should learn to develop this thought through contemplating the above explanation of the purpose of this meditation. When, through this contemplation, the thought ‘I may die today, I may die today’ develops in our heart, we have found the object of this meditation.

THE ACTUAL MEDITATION

We contemplate and think:

I will definitely die. There is no way to prevent my body from finally decaying. Day by day, moment by moment, my life is slipping away. I have no idea when I will die; the time of death is completely uncertain. Many young people die before their parents, some die the moment they are born – there is no certainty in this world. Furthermore, there are so many causes of untimely death. The lives of many strong and healthy people are destroyed by accidents. There is no guarantee that I will not die today.

Having repeatedly contemplated these points, we mentally repeat over and over again, ‘I may die today, I may die today’, and concentrate on this belief. We transform our mind into this belief ‘I may die today’ and remain on it single-pointedly for as long as possible. Through continually training in this meditation we will develop each and every day the spontaneous belief ‘I may die today’. This belief is the realization of this meditation.

During the meditation break we think, ‘Since I will soon have to depart from this world, there is no sense in my becoming attached to the things of this life. Instead, from now on I will devote my whole life to practising Dharma purely and sincerely.’ We then maintain this determination day and night, without laziness.

We need to apply effort in our Dharma practice. Realizing that worldly pleasures are deceptive, and that they distract us from using our life in a meaningful way, we should abandon attachment to them. In this way, we can eliminate laziness, the main obstacle to pure Dharma practice.

MEDITATION ON THE DANGER OF LOWER REBIRTH

THE PURPOSE OF THIS MEDITATION

The purpose of this meditation is to encourage us to prepare protection from the dangers of lower rebirth. If we do not do this now, while we have a human life with its freedoms and endowments and we have the opportunity to do so, it will be too late once we have taken any of the three lower rebirths; and it will be extremely difficult to obtain such a precious human life again. A precious human life means a human rebirth in which we have the opportunity to attain permanent liberation from all suffering, known as ‘nirvana’. It is said to be easier for human beings to attain enlightenment than it is for beings such as animals to attain a precious human rebirth. Understanding this will encourage us to abandon non-virtue, or negative actions, to practise virtue, or positive actions, and to seek refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha (the supreme and pure spiritual practitioners); this is our actual protection.

Performing non-virtuous actions is the main cause of taking lower rebirth, whereas practising virtue and seeking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are the main causes of taking a precious human rebirth. Heavy non-virtuous actions are the main cause of rebirth as a hell being, middling non-virtuous actions are the main cause of rebirth as a hungry ghost, and lesser non-virtuous actions are the main cause of rebirth as an animal. There are many examples given in Buddhist scriptures of how non-virtuous actions lead to rebirth in the three lower realms.

There was once a hunter whose wife came from a family of animal farmers. After he died he took rebirth as a cow belonging to his wife’s family. A butcher then bought this cow, slaughtered it and sold the meat. The hunter was reborn seven times as a cow belonging to the same family, and in this way became food for other people.

In Tibet there is a lake called Yamdroktso, where many people from the nearby town used to spend their whole lives fishing. At one time a great Yogi with clairvoyance visited the town and said, ‘I see the people of this town and the fish in this lake are continually switching their positions.’ What he meant was that the people of the town who enjoyed fishing were reborn as the fish, the food of other people, and the fish in the lake were reborn as the people who enjoyed fishing. In this way, changing their physical aspect, they were continually killing and eating each other. This cycle of misery continued from generation to generation.

THE OBJECT OF THIS MEDITATION

The object of this meditation is our feeling of fear of taking rebirth in the lower realms as an animal, a hungry ghost or a hell being. We should learn to develop this feeling of fear through contemplating the above explanation of the purpose of this meditation. When, through this contemplation, a feeling of fear of taking such a rebirth develops in our heart, we have found the object of this meditation.

In general fear is meaningless, but the fear generated here has great meaning. It arises from our wisdom and directly leads us to prepare the actual protection from taking lower rebirth, which is sincerely seeking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, or in Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka. As the result of this, our next rebirth will be a precious human rebirth, which will give us the opportunity to continually make progress in our practice of Dharma, both Sutra and Tantra. Or our next rebirth will be in Keajra Pure Land through being led by Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka. If we do not generate this fear now we will never prepare these protections.

THE ACTUAL MEDITATION

We contemplate as follows: