It is so rare to achieve the human form because it is very difficult to create the main cause of it, the practice of pure morality. The vast majority of all beings haven’t lived in pure morality, let alone taken vows of morality.

There are so many sentient beings in the lower realms

Recently I went to a big lake near the border of Canada. We sat on a carpet on the grass and had a picnic. I noticed that there were so many tiny insects. When the sun was shining you could see them, so many, millions of them, and when you walked on the grass they would jump up, trying to escape.

Scientists say there are twelve thousand different types of ants in the world—and that’s just the ants! So can you imagine all the beings in the entire animal realm! It is unbelievable.

Then think of the number of sentient beings who are reborn in the intermediate state: it must be as many as there are blades of grass in the world.

The number of beings in every second who are reborn as hungry ghosts is as many as there are grains of sand at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Then you’ll realize that the number of beings in every second who are reborn in the hell realms is as many dust particles as there are on this earth.

What causes one to take rebirth as a suffering transmigratory being is nonvirtuous actions motivated by a delusion: ignorance, anger, attachment or self-­cherishing thought and so forth. We create these negative karmas so many times every day. If we look at our actions in just one day, we can see clearly that almost all of them are done on the basis of these delusions. Almost all actions come from nonvirtue and the result is only suffering. Once we are reborn in the lower realms, it is extremely difficult to come back as a human.

In this life, from the time of our birth—actually since beginningless rebirths—we have created so many negative karmas that we have yet to experience, which we must purify, as I discuss in chapters 15 and 16.

Being human is like a miracle

However, the number of sentient beings is equivalent to the particles of dust on the earth, and those that are reborn as human beings, as Buddha explained, are as few as the dust particles that remain beneath your fingernails after having scratched the earth: so few.

It is even rarer to get a special perfect human rebirth—as rare as the number of grains of rice that would stick to a piece of glass; or as few as the grains of rice that would stick to the tip of a needle: that is how rare it is.

It is so rare to achieve the human form because it is so difficult to create the main cause of it, the practice of pure morality. The vast majority of all beings haven’t lived in pure morality, let alone taken vows of morality. See chapter 14.

It is like a miracle to receive a human rebirth, like a dream come true. And not only that: we have met the Dharma. Our permanent home has been the lower realms—we have only just come from there! Having this opportunity, then, is like a dream; it’s an impossible thing to have happened.

As humans we have so much potential

We human beings have so much potential. We can receive education, far greater education than animals and other beings are capable of, much deeper and subtler. During this perfect human rebirth you can free yourself from future rebirth in the lower realms and can instead create the causes to receive a higher rebirth in the human realm, or as a deva, or even in the pure land of Buddha. You can learn to have a happy life, happy death and happy rebirth by purifying negative karma and creating good karma, virtuous actions.

More than that, you can practice the Lesser Vehicle path that is revealed in the four noble truths, as a result of which you can achieve liberation from samsara. Then you can practice the Mahayana teachings, which reveal the path to full enlightenment by way of bodhicitta and the six paramitas, the perfections. Then you can practice the tantric path, Tantrayana, including Highest Yoga Tantra, which is much quicker than the Paramitayana path, giving us the opportunity to achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime of this degenerate time.

Right now, you have the opportunity to achieve all this by listening, reflecting and meditating on the teachings. All this is described in the lamrim; see chapter 13.

No chance to practice in the lower realms

If you look at animals—chickens, tigers, cows and the other creatures—you’ll notice that their attitude is only desire clinging to this life, seeking the happiness of this life, nothing else. Therefore all their actions are only nonvirtue.

There is no way for them to meet Dharma, to understand it, and to practice. Having taken an animal body, they are blocked from understanding the words, the meaning of Dharma. Even if you explain to them that happiness comes from virtue and that the meaning of virtue is actions motivated by non-­ignorance, non-­anger and non-­attachment; even if you explained it to them for thousands of years, billions of eons, there is no way for them to understand. They cannot learn how to practice Dharma.

Look at the nature of their life, their motivation and conduct. You can see that they create only negative karma. Because of that they will die and be born again in the lower realms. It will go on and on like that.

The purpose of this precious human rebirth is to help others

So you should think, “I must put all my effort into developing my mind in the complete path and achieving enlightenment. Even if I don’t achieve it in this life, I will achieve it in my next life. Even if it takes hundreds or thousands of lifetimes, even it takes eons, I will do it!”

Deep down in your heart there should be this strong determination that I will do it. No matter how difficult it is, no matter how long it takes, I will do it. Why? Because if you don’t do it, you will suffer in beginningless samsara without end. Without doing it, you make your suffering in samsara endless. That is totally crazy. That is the craziest, the most foolish, most ignorant thing. There is nothing more ignorant than that, nothing crazier than that.

Think especially, “Finally, if I don’t put all my effort into developing my mind in the complete path and achieving enlightenment, I can’t liberate others, I can’t help others—those numberless sentient beings from whom I received all the past happiness of my beginningless rebirths, all my present happiness and all my future happiness, including liberation and enlightenment. Everything good comes from them, even the smallest pleasure in a dream. It is from these numberless sentient beings that I receive everything, so they are the most precious, most kind ones.”

In other words, the purpose of having taken this precious human body in this life is to benefit others. Any purpose other than working for sentient beings is not the meaning of life.

remember

• To get a human birth is like a miracle, so rare.
• As a human being you have so much potential.
• It is a tragedy to waste this precious human life.
• Wasting it is using it to follow attachment and anger and harm others.
• The meaning of life is to use it to renounce suffering and its causes and to help others.