How to Practice Dharma, II Explained in Detail How the FPMT Lineage Series, of Which This Book Is the Third, Came About
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The Perfect Human Rebirth FPMT Lineage Series FPMT Lineage is a series of books of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings on the graduated path to enlightenment drawn from his four decades of dis- courses on the topic based on his own textbook, Th e Wish-fulfi lling Golden Sun, and several traditional lam-rim texts, and in general arranged according to the outline of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Th is series is the most extensive contemporary lam-rim commentary available and comprises the essence of the FPMT’s education program. Th e FPMT Lineage Series is dedicated to the long life and perfect health of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, to his continuous teaching activity and to the fulfi llment of all his holy wishes. May whoever sees, touches, reads, remembers, or talks or thinks about these books never be reborn in unfortunate circumstances, receive only rebirths in situations conducive to the perfect practice of Dharma, meet only perfectly qualifi ed spiritual guides, quickly develop bodhicitta and immediately attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. FPMT Lineage Series Lama Zopa Rinpoche Th e Perfect Human Rebirth Freedom and Richness on the Path to Enlightenment Edited by Gordon McDougall Series editor Nicholas Ribush Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive • Boston www.LamaYeshe.com A non-profi t charitable organization for the benefi t of all sentient beings and an affi liate of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition www.fpmt.org First published 2013 Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive PO Box 636 Lincoln MA 01773, USA © Lama Th ubten Zopa Rinpoche 2013 Please do not reproduce any part of this book by any means whatsoever without our permission Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data To come Th ubten Zopa, Rinpoche, 1945- Th e perfect human rebirth : freedom and richness on the path to enlightenment / Th ubten Zopa, Rinpoche ; edited by Gordon McDougall ; series editor, Nicholas Ribush. pages cm. — (FPMT lineage series) Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: “Th is book is drawn from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s graduated path to enlightenment teachings given over a four decade period, starting from the early 1970s, and deals with how rare and precious it is to receive not just a human rebirth but a perfect human rebirth, with eight freedoms and ten richnesses, the best possible conditions for practicing Dharma” —Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-891868-50-4 1. Lam-rim. 2. Meditation—Buddhism. I. McDougall, Gordon, 1948– editor of compilation. II. Title. BQ7645.L35T52 2013 294.3’444—dc23 2013035486 ISBN 978-1-891868-50-4 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Cover and interior photographs by Carol Royce-Wilder: Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Lake Arrowhead, 1975 Line drawing by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Designed by Gopa&Ted2 Inc. ♻Printed in the USA with environmental mindfulness on 30% PCW recycled paper. Th e following resources have been saved: 21 trees, 618 lbs. of solid waste, 9.742 gallons of water, 2,160 lbs. of greenhouse gases and 9 million BTUs of energy. (papercalculator.org) This book is published by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Bringing you the teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche This book is made possible by kind supporters of the Archive who, like you, appreciate how we make these teachings freely available in so many ways, including in our website for instant reading, listening or downloading, and as printed and electronic books. Our website offers immediate access to thousands of pages of teachings and hundreds of audio recordings by some of the greatest lamas of our time. Our photo gallery and our ever-popular books are also freely accessible there. Please help us increase our efforts to spread the Dharma for the happiness and benefit of all beings. You can find out more about becoming a supporter of the Archive and see all we have to offer by visiting our website at http://www.LamaYeshe.com. Thank you so much, and please enjoy this ebook. Contents ., Publisher’s Acknowledgments ix Editor’s Preface xi 1 What is Dharma? 1 Th e path we must follow 1 What is Dharma? 6 Happiness and suff ering come fr om the mind 8 Th e inner science of happiness 11 Th e boat to cross samsara 14 2. The Freedoms 21 Identifying the perfect human rebirth 21 1. Th e freedom of not being born as a hell being 25 Th e hot hells and the surrounding hells 30 Th e cold and occasional hells 34 Our great good fortune to be fr ee fr om the hells 36 2. Th e freedom of not being born as a hungry ghost 37 3. Th e freedom of not being born as an animal 42 4. Th e freedom of not being born as a long-life god 44 5. Th e freedom of not being born when no buddha has descended 47 6. Th e freedom of not being born as a barbarian 48 7. Th e freedom of not being born as a fool 50 8. Th e freedom of not being born as a heretic 51 vi the perfect human rebirth 3. The Richnesses 55 1. Being born as a human being 55 2. Being born in a religious country 56 3. Being born with perfect organs 58 4. Being free of the fi ve immediate negativities 59 5. Having devotion to the teachings 61 6. Being born when a buddha has descended 62 7. Being born when the teachings have been revealed 63 8. Being born when the complete teachings exist 65 9. Being born when the teachings are being followed 69 10. Having the necessary conditions to practice Dharma 72 Th e purpose of meditating on the eight freedoms and ten richnesses 74 4. Thinking About the Great Benefit of the Perfect Human Rebirth 77 Th e temporal benefi ts 78 A favorable human rebirth 79 Th e potential to become anything we want 83 Rebirth in a pure land 84 We can achieve nirvana and become an arhat 87 We can become a bodhisattva 88 We can become enlightened in this very lifetime or within a few lifetimes 89 Th e ultimate benefi ts 86 How every moment is benefi cial 92 5. How the Causes Are So Difficult to Acquire 95 Th is life is precious because the causes are diffi cult to acquire 95 Th e diffi culty because of lack of morality 97 Th e diffi culty because of lack of generosity 100 Th e diffi culty because of anger and other delusions 101 Th e diffi culty because of wrong view 103 Some analogies for the diffi culty of acquiring it 104 Contents vii 6. It is Difficult by Nature to Acquire 109 Th e rarity of this life 109 Th e evolution of the human world 110 Th e rarity of this life compared to other realms 115 Even compared to other humans this life is rare 118 Th e brevity of this life 120 So little of our life is spent practicing Dharma 120 A fl ash of lightning and life is gone 122 Death can happen at any moment 123 7. Turning Away from Worldly Concern 129 Th e meaningless aff airs of this life 129 Th e eight worldly dharmas 134 No better than animals 139 Our past, present and future lives are squandered 143 Th e greatest folly 145 Taking the essence 147 Turning away fr om worldly concern 147 Only with a precious human body can we travel the whole path 152 8. This Precious Life 155 Th e preciousness of this life 155 More precious than a wish-granting jewel 155 Th e preciousness of the human body 161 Making life truly meaningful 163 Vows and purifi cation 165 Meditating on the lam-rim 168 Bodhicitta is the best motivation 170 Appendix 1 Meditating on the Perfect Human Rebirth 175 Meditating on the eight freedoms and ten richnesses 176 Meditation on the specifi c points of the eight eedomsfr and ten richnesses 178 Th e fr eedom of not being born as a hell being 180 Th e fr eedom of not being born as a hungry ghost 181 viii the perfect human rebirth Th e fr eedom of not being born as an animal 182 Th e fr eedom of not being born as a long-life god 184 Th e fr eedom of not being born when no buddha has descended 185 Th e fr eedom of not being born as a barbarian 186 Th e fr eedom of not being born as a fool 186 Th e fr eedom of not being born as a heretic 187 Meditation on the ten richnesses 188 Meditating on the other aspects of the perfect human rebirth 192 Appendix 2 How to Meditate on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment 193 Instructions on developing the spiritual realizations that relate to leisure and fortune 193 Glossary 195 Bibliography 213 Index 217 Publisher’s Acknowledgments ., n our previous title, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s How to Practice Dharma, II explained in detail how the FPMT Lineage Series, of which this book is the third, came about. So I won’t repeat all that here. In brief, the aim of the series is to publish all of Rinpoche’s lam-rim teachings as a sequence of commentaries on the key points of the path for both a general audience and a more specialized readership—serious lam- rim meditators trying to attain realizations and lam-rim teachers in need of the ultimate resource to enhance their knowledge.