The main subject of the chapter, the teaching on how difficult it is to find the freedoms and advantages, is preceded by an explanation of the proper way to listen to any spiritual instruction.

I. THE PROPER WAY TO LISTEN TO SPIRITUAL TEACHING

The proper way to listen to the teachings has two aspects: the right attitude and the right conduct.

1. Attitude

The right attitude combines the vast attitude of the bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment, and the vast skill in means of the Secret Mantrayana.

1.1 THE VAST ATTITUDE OF THE BODHICITTA

There is not a single being in samsara, this immense ocean of suffering, who in the course of time without beginning has never been our father or mother. When they were our parents, these beings’ only thought was to raise us with the greatest possible kindness, protecting us with great love and giving us the very best of their own food and clothing.

All of these beings, who have been so kind to us, want to be happy, and yet they have no idea how to put into practice what brings about happiness, the ten positive actions. None of them want to suffer, but they do not know how to give up the ten negative actions at the root of all suffering. Their deepest wishes and what they actually do thus contradict each other. Poor beings, lost and confused, like a blind man abandoned in the middle of an empty plain!

Tell yourself: “It is for their well-being that I am going to listen to the profound Dharma and put it into practice. I will lead all these beings, my parents, tormented by the miseries of the six realms of existence, to the state of omniscient Buddhahood, freeing them from all the karmic phenomena, habitual patterns and sufferings of every one of the six realms.” It is important to have this attitude each time you listen to teachings or practice them.

Whenever you do something positive, whether of major or minor importance, it is indispensable to enhance it with the three supreme methods. Before beginning, arouse the bodhicitta as a skilful means to make sure that the action becomes a source of good for the future. While carrying out the action, avoid getting involved in any conceptualization,¹ so that the merit cannot be destroyed by circumstances.² At the end, seal the action properly by dedicating the merit, which will ensure that it continually grows ever greater.³ Note ¹For beginners, this means avoiding a materialistic or ambitions attitude to the practice. In fact only realized practitioners can practice with true freedom from concepts, but as one’s practice matures, freedom from grasping comes progressively. Note ²The positive energy of the practice can also be channelled away from enlightenment into other things. NT mentions four circumstances which destroy one’s sources of merit. (dge rtsa):
1. Not dedicating the action to the attainment of perfect Buddhahood for the sake of other.
2. Anger: one moment of anger is said to be capable of destroying kalpas of positive actions.
3. Regret: regretting the beneficial actions one has done, even partially.
4. Boasting of one’s positive actions to others. Note ³NT explains that just as when a drop of water becomes part of the ocean it will continue to exist as long as the ocean exists, when the merit of one’s actions is completely dedicated to “the fruit, the ocean of Omniscience,” it will not be lost until one has attained complete Buddhahood.

The way you listen to the Dharma is very important. But even more important is the motivation with which you listen to it.

What makes an action good or bad?
Not how it looks, nor whether it is big or small,
But the good or evil motivation behind it.

No matter how many teachings you have heard, to be motivated by ordinary concerns—such as a desire for greatness, fame or whatever—is not the way of the true Dharma. So, first of all, it is most important to turn inwards and change your motivation. If you can correct your attitude, skilful means will permeate your positive actions, and you will have set out on the path of great beings. If you cannot, you might think that you are studying and practicing the Dharma but it will be no more than a semblance of the real thing. Therefore, whenever you listen to the teachings and whenever you practice, be it meditating on a deity, doing prostrations and circumambulations, or reciting a mantra—even a single mani—it is always essential to give rise to bodhicitta.

The Torch of the Three Methods says of the Secret Mantrayana:

It has the same goal but is free from all confusion,⁴
It is rich in methods and without difficulties.⁵
It is for those with sharp faculties.⁶
The Mantra Vehicle is sublime.

Note ⁴ Note ⁵ Note ⁶

The Mantrayana can be entered by many routes. It contains many methods for accumulating merit and wisdom, and profound skillful means to make the potential within us manifest⁷ without our having to undergo great hardships. The basis for these methods is the way we direct our aspirations:

Everything is circumstantial
And depends entirely on one’s aspiration.

Note ⁷

Do not consider the place where the Dharma is being taught, the teacher, the teachings and so on as ordinary and impure. As you listen, keep the five perfections clearly in mind:

The perfect place is the citadel of the absolute expanse, called Akanistha, “the Unexcelled.” The perfect teacher is Samantabhadra, the dharmakaya. The perfect assembly consists of the male and female Bodhisattvas and deities⁸ of the mind lineage of the Conquerors and of the symbol lineage of the Vidyadharas. Note ⁸

Or you can think that the place where the Dharma is being taught is the Lotus-Light Palace of the Glorious Copper-colored Mountain, the teacher who teaches is Padmasambhava of Oddiyana, and we, the audience, are the Eight Vidyadharas, the Twenty-five Disciples, and the dakas and dakinis.

Or consider that this perfect place is the Eastern Buddhafield, Manifest Joy, where the perfect teacher Vajrasattva, the perfect sambhogakaya, is teaching the assembly of the divinities of the Vajra Family and male and female Bodhisattvas.

Equally well, the perfect place where the Dharma is being taught can be the Western Buddhafield, the Blissful, the perfect teacher the Buddha Amitabha, and the assembly the male and female Bodhisattvas and deities of the Lotus family.

Whatever the case, the teaching is that of the Great Vehicle and the time is the ever-revolving wheel of eternity.

These visualizations⁹ are to help us understand how things are in reality. It is not that we are temporarily creating something that does not really exist. Note ⁹

The teacher embodies the essence of all Buddhas throughout the three times. He is the union of the Three Jewels: his body is the Sangha, his speech the Dharma, his mind the Buddha. He is the union of the Three Roots: his body is the teacher, his speech the yidam, his mind the dakini. He is the union of the three kayas: his body is the nirmanakaya, his speech the sambhogakaya, his mind the dharmakaya. He is the embodiment of all the Buddhas of the past, source of all the Buddhas of the future and the representative of all the Buddhas of the present. Since he takes as his disciples degenerate beings like us, whom none of the thousand Buddhas of the Good Kalpa¹⁰ could help, his compassion and bounty exceed that of all Buddhas. Note ¹⁰

The teacher is the Buddha, the teacher is the Dharma,
The teacher is also the Sangha.
The teacher is the one who accomplishes everything.
The teacher is Glorious Vajradhara.

We, as the assembly gathered to listen to the teachings, use the basis of our own Buddha-nature, the support of our precious human life, the circumstance of having a spiritual friend and the method of following his advice, to become the Buddhas of the future. As the Hevajra Tantra says:

All beings are Buddhas,
But this is concealed by adventitious stains.
When their stains are purified, their Buddhahood is revealed.

2. Conduct

The right conduct while listening to teachings is described in terms of what to avoid and what to do.

2.1 WHAT TO AVOID

Conduct to avoid includes the three defects of the pot, the six stains and the five wrong ways of remembering.

2.1.1 The Three Defects of the Pot

1. Upside-down pot

Not to listen is to be like a pot turned upside down.

2. Pot with a hole

Not to be able to retain what you hear is to be like a pot with a hole in it.

3. Poison pot

To mix negative emotions with what you hear is to be like a pot with poison in it.

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1. Upside-down pot

The upside-down pot. When you are listening to the teachings, listen to what is being said and do not let yourself be distracted by anything else. Otherwise you will be like an upside-down pot on which liquid is being poured. Although you are physically present, you do not hear a word of the teaching.

2. Pot with a hole

The pot with a hole in it. If you just listen without remembering anything that you hear or understand, you will be like a pot with a leak: however much liquid is poured into it, nothing can stay. No matter how many teachings you hear, you can never assimilate them or put them into practice.

3. Poison pot

The pot containing poison. If you listen to the teachings with the wrong attitude, such as the desire to become great or famous, or a mind full of the five poisons, the Dharma will not only fail to help your mind; it will also be changed into something that is not Dharma at all, like nectar poured into a pot containing poison.

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1. Upside-down pot

This is why the Indian sage, Padampa Sangye, said:

Listen to the teachings like a deer listening to music;
Contemplate them like a northern nomad shearing sheep;^*
Meditate on them like a dumb person savouring food;^**
Practice them like a hungry yak eating grass;
Reach their result, like the sun coming out from behind the clouds.

^{*That is to say, meticulously, in their entirety, and without distraction.
**A dumb person can taste, but not describe the flavors they are tasting. In the same way, the taste of true meditation is beyond any description or concepts.}

When listening to the teachings, you should be like a deer so entranced by the sound of the vina that it does not notice the hidden hunter shooting his poisoned arrow. Put your hands together palm to palm and listen, every pore on your body tingling and your eyes wet with tears, never letting any other thought get in the way.

It is no good listening with only your body physically present, while your mind wanders off after your thoughts and your speech lets loose a rich store of gossip, saying whatever you like and looking around everywhere. When listening to teachings, you should even stop reciting prayers, counting mantras, or whatever other meritorious activities you may be doing.

2. Pot with a hole

After you have listened properly to a teaching in this way, it is then also important to retain the meaning of what has been said without ever forgetting it, and to continually put it into practice. For, as the Great Sage himself said:

I have shown you the methods
That lead to liberation.
But you should know
That liberation depends upon yourself.

The teacher gives the disciple instructions explaining how to listen to the Dharma and how to apply it, how to give up negative actions, how to perform positive ones, and how to practice. It is up to the disciple to remember those instructions, forgetting nothing; to put them into practice; and to realize them.

Just listening to the Dharma is perhaps of some benefit by itself. But unless you remember what you hear, you will not have the slightest knowledge of either the words or the meaning of the teaching—which is no different from not having heard it at all.

3. Poison pot

If you remember the teachings but mix them with your negative emotions, they will never be the pure Dharma. As the peerless Dago Rinpoche says:

Unless you practice Dharma according to the Dharma,
Dharma itself becomes the cause of evil rebirths.

Rid yourself of every wrong thought concerning the teacher and the Dharma, do not criticize or abuse your spiritual companions, be free of pride and contempt, abandon all bad thoughts. For all of these cause lower rebirths.

In the Well Explained Reasoning, it says:

Pride, lack of faith and lack of effort,
Outward distraction, inward tension and discouragement;
These are the six stains.

Avoid these six:

1. Pride

Proudly believing yourself superior to the teacher who is explaining the Dharma.

2. Lack of faith

Not trusting the master and their teachings.

3. Lack of effort

Failing to apply yourself to the Dharma.

4. Outward distraction

Getting distracted by external events.

5. Inward tension

Focussing your five senses too intently inwards.

6. Discouragement

Being discouraged if, for example, a teaching is too long.

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1. Pride

Of all negative emotions, pride and jealousy are the most difficult to recognize. Therefore, examine your mind minutely. Any feeling that there is something even the least bit special about your own qualities, whether worldly or spiritual, will make you blind to your own faults and unaware of others’ good qualities. So renounce pride and always take a low position.

2. Lack of faith

If you have no faith, the entrance to the Dharma is blocked. Of the four types of faith,¹¹ aim for faith that is irreversible. Note ¹¹

3. Lack of effort

Your interest¹² in the Dharma is the basis of what you will achieve. So depending on whether your degree of interest is superior, middling or inferior you will become a superior, middling or inferior practitioner. And if you are not at all interested in the Dharma, there will be no results at all. As the proverb puts it: Note ¹²

The Dharma is nobody’s property. It belongs to whoever has the most endeavour.

The Buddha himself obtained the teachings at the price of hundreds of hardships. To obtain a single four-line verse, he gouged holes in his own flesh to serve as offering lamps, filling them with oil and planting in them thousands of burning wicks. He leapt into flaming pits, and drove a thousand iron nails into his body.¹³ Note ¹³

Even if you have to face blazing infernos or razor-sharp blades,
Search for the Dharma until you die.

Listen to the teachings, therefore, with great effort, ignoring heat, cold and all other trials.

4. Outward distraction

The tendency of consciousness to get engrossed in the objects of the six senses¹⁴ is the root of all samsara’s hallucinations and the source of all suffering. This is how the moth dies in the lamp-flame, because its visual consciousness is attracted to forms; how the stag is killed by the hunter, because its hearing draws it to sounds; how bees are swallowed by carnivorous plants, seduced by their smell; how fish are caught with bait, their sense of taste lured by its flavor; how elephants drown in the swamp because they love the physical feeling of mud. In the same way, whenever you are listening to the Dharma, teaching, meditating or practicing, it is important not to follow tendencies from the past, not to entertain emotions about the future and not to let your present thoughts get distracted by anything around you . As Gyalse Rinpoche says: Note ¹⁴

Your past joys and sorrows are like drawings on water:
No trace of them remains. Don’t run after them!
But should they come to mind, reflect on how success and failure come and go.
Is there anything you can trust besides Dharma, mani-reciters?¹⁵Note ¹⁵

Your future projects and plans are like nets cast in a dry riverbed:
They’ll never bring what you want. Limit your desires and aspirations!
But should they come to mind, think how uncertain it is when you’ll die:
Have you got time for anything other than Dharma, mani-reciters?

Your present work is like a job in a dream.
Since all such effort is pointless, cast it aside.
Consider even your honest earnings without any attachment.
Activities are without essence, mani-reciters!

Between meditation sessions, learn to control in this way all thoughts arising from the three poisons;
Until all thoughts and perceptions arise as the dharmakaya,
This is indispensable—remembering it whenever you need it,
Do not give rein to deluded thoughts, mani-reciters!

It also said:

Don’t invite the future. If you do,
You’re like the father of Famous Moon!

This refers to the story of a poor man who came across a large pile of barley. He put it in a big sack, tied it to a rafter, and then lay down beneath it and started to day-dream.

“This barley is going to make me really rich,” he thought. “Once I’m rich, I’ll get myself a wife… She’s bound to have a boy… What shall I call him?”

Just then, the moon appeared and he decided to call his son Famous Moon. However, all this time a rat had been gnawing away at the rope that was holding up the sack. The rope suddenly snapped, the sack fell on the man and he was killed.

Such dreams about the past and future will never come to fruition and are only a distraction. Give them up altogether. Be mindful and listen with attention and care.

Do not focus too intently, picking out individual words and points, like a dremo bear digging up marmots—each time you seize one item, you forget the one before, and will never get to understand the whole. Too much concentration also makes you sleepy. Instead keep a balance between tight and loose.

Once, in the past, Ananda was teaching Srona to meditate. Srona had great difficulty getting it right. Sometimes he was too tense, sometimes too relaxed. Srona went to discuss the matter with the Buddha, who asked him: “When you were a layman, you were a good vina-player, weren’t you?”

“Yes, I played very well.”

“Did your vina sound best when the strings were very slack or when they were very taut?”

“It sounded best when they were neither too taut nor too loose.”

“It is the same for your mind,” said the Buddha; and by practicing with that advice Srona attained his goal.

Machik Labdron says:

Be firmly concentrated and loosely relaxed:¹⁶
Here is an essential point for the View.

Note ¹⁶

5. Inward tension

Do not let your mind get too tense or too inwardly concentrated; let your senses be naturally at ease, balanced between tension and relaxation.

6. Discouragement

You should not tire of listening to the teachings. Do not feel discouraged when you get hungry or thirsty during a teaching that goes on too long, or when you have to put up with discomfort caused by the wind, sun, rain and so forth. Just be glad that you now have the freedoms and advantages of human life, that you have met an authentic teacher, and that you can listen to their profound instructions.

The fact that you are at this moment listening to the profound Dharma is the fruit of merits accumulated over innumerable kalpas. It is like eating a meal when you have only eaten once every hundred mealtimes throughout your life. So it is imperative to listen with joy, vowing to bear heat, cold and whatever trials and difficulties might arise, in order to receive these teachings.

2.1.3 The Five Wrong Ways of Remembering

Avoid remembering the words but forgetting the meaning,
Or remembering the meaning but forgetting the words.
Avoid remembering both but with no understanding,
Remembering them out of order, or remembering them incorrectly.

1. Avoid remembering the words but forgetting the meaning

Do not attach undue importance to elegant turns of phrase without making any attempt to analyze the profound meaning of the words, like a child gathering flowers. Words alone are of no benefit for the mind.

2. Avoid remembering the meaning but forgetting the words

On the other hand, do not disregard the way in which the teachings are expressed, as being just the words and therefore dispensable. For then, even if you grasp the profound meaning, you will no longer have the means through which to express it. Words and meaning will have lost their connection.¹⁷ Note ¹⁷

3. Avoid remembering both but with no understanding

If you remember the teaching without identifying the different levels—the expedient meaning, the real meaning and the indirect meaning—you will be confused about what the words refer to.¹⁸ This may lead you away from the true Dharma.

4. Avoid remembering them out of order

If you remember it out of order, you will mix up the proper sequence of the teaching, and every time you listen to it, explain it, or meditate on it the confusion will be multiplied.

5. Avoid remembering them incorrectly

If you remember incorrectly what has been said, endless wrong ideas will proliferate.¹⁹ This will spoil your mind and debase the teaching. Avoid all these errors and remember everything—(1)–the words, (2)–the meaning and (4)–the order of the teachings—(3)–properly and (5)–without any mistake. Note ¹⁸ Note ¹⁹

However long and difficult the teaching may be, do not feel disheartened and wonder if it will ever end; persevere. And however short and simple it may be, do not undervalue it as just elementary.

To remember both (1)–words and (2)–meaning (5)–perfectly, (4)–in the right order and (3)–with everything properly linked together, is therefore indispensable.

The conduct to be adopted while listening to teachings is explained as the four metaphors. the six transcendent perfections, and other modes of conduct.

2.2.1 The Four Metaphors

The Sutra Arranged like a Tree says:

Noble one, you should think of yourself as someone who is sick,
Of the Dharma as the remedy,
Of your spiritual friend as a skilful doctor,
And of diligent practice as the way to recovery.

1. We are sick

From beginningless time, in this immense ocean of suffering that is samsara, we have been tormented by the illness of the three poisons and their fruit, the three kinds of suffering.

2. Dharma is the medicine

When people are seriously ill, they go to consult a good doctor. They follow the doctor’s advice, take whatever medicine they prescribe, and do all they can to overcome the disease and get well. In the same way, you should cure yourself of the diseases of karma, negative emotions and suffering by following the prescriptions of that experienced doctor, the authentic teacher, and by taking the medicine of the Dharma.

3. Our teacher is the doctor

Following a teacher without doing what they say is like disobeying your doctor, which leaves them no chance of treating your illness. Not taking the medicine of the Dharma—that is to say, not putting it into practice—is like having innumerable medications and prescriptions beside your bed but never touching them. That will never cure your disease.

4. Practice leads to recovery

These days, people say full of optimism, “Lama, look on me with compassion!” thinking that even if they have done many terrible things, they will never have to endure the consequences. They reckon that the teacher, in their compassion, will toss them up into the heavenly realms as if they were throwing a pebble. But when we speak of the teacher holding us with their compassion, what this really means is that they have lovingly accepted us as disciples, and that they give us their profound instructions, opens our eyes to what to do and what not to do and shows us the way to liberation taught by the Conqueror. What greater compassion could there be? It is up to us whether or not we take advantage of this compassion and actually pursue the path of liberation.

Now that we have this free and well-endowed human birth, now that we know what we should and should not do, our decision at this juncture, when we have the freedom to choose, marks the turning-point which will determine our fate, for better or worse, far into the future.²⁰ It is crucial that we choose between samsara and nirvana once and for all and put the instructions of our teacher into practice. Note ²⁰

Those who conduct village ceremonies will have you believe that on your death-bed you can still go up or down, as if you were steering a horse by the reins. But by that time, unless you have already mastered the path, the fierce wind of your past actions will be chasing after you, while in front a terrifying black darkness rushes toward you as you are driven helplessly down the long and perilous path of the intermediate state. The Lord of Death’s countless henchmen will be pursuing you, crying, “Kill! Kill! Strike! Strike!” How could such a moment—when there is no place to run to and nowhere to hide, no refuge and no hope, when you are desperate and have no idea what to do—how could such a moment be the turning point at which you control whether you go up or down? As the Great One of Oddiyana says:

By the time empowerment is being given to the card marked with your name,²¹ it’s too late! Your consciousness, already wandering in the intermediate state like a dazed dog, will find it very hard to even think of higher realms.Note ²¹

In fact the turning point, the only time that you really can direct yourself up or down as if steering a horse with the reins, is right now, while you are still alive.

As a human being, your positive actions are more powerful than those of other kinds of being. This gives you, on the one hand, an opportunity here and now in this very life to cast rebirth aside once and for all.²² But (1)–your negative actions are more powerful too; thus you are also quite capable of making sure, on the other hand, that you will never get free from the depths of the lower realms. So now that (3)–you have met the teacher, the skilful doctor, and (2)–the Dharma, the elixir that conquers death, (4)–this is the moment to apply the four metaphors, putting the teachings you have heard into practice, and traveling the path of liberation. Note ²²

The Treasury of Precious Qualities describes four wrong notions that must be avoided, which are the opposite of the four metaphors we have mentioned:

Shallow-tongued men with evil natures
Approach the teacher as if he were a musk-deer.
Having extracted the musk, the perfect Dharma,
Full of joy, they sneer at the samaya.

Such people behave as though their (3)–spiritual teacher were a musk-deer, the (2)–Dharma were the musk, (1)–they themselves the hunters, and (4)–intense practice the way to kill the deer with an arrow or a trap. They do not practice the teachings they have received and feel no gratitude toward the teacher. They use Dharma to accumulate evil actions, which will drag them down like a millstone to the lower realms.

In the Tantra of Thorough Comprehension of the Instructions on all Dharma Practices, it says:

Make excellent offerings such as flowers and cushions (generosity),
Put the place in order and control your behavior (discipline),
Do not harm any living being (patience),
Have genuine faith in your teacher (diligence),
Listen to his instructions without distraction (concentration)
And question him in order to dispel your doubts; (wisdom)
These are the six transcendent perfections of a listener.

A person listening to the teaching should practice the six transcendent perfections as follows:

1. Make excellent offerings

Prepare the teacher’s seat, arrange cushions upon it, offer a mandala, flowers and other offerings, This is the practice of generosity.

2. Clean the place and behave

Sweep clean the place or room after carefully settling the dust with water, and refrain from all disrespectful conduct. This is the practice of discipline.

3. Harm nothing

Avoid harm to living beings, even the smallest of insects, and bear heat, cold and all other difficulties. This is the practice of patience.

4. Listen joyfully and faithfully

Lay aside any wrong views concerning the teacher and the teaching and listen joyfully with genuine faith. This is the practice of diligence.

5. Listen without distraction

Listen to the Lama’s instructions without distraction. This is the practice of concentration.

6. Understand clearly

Ask questions to clear up any hesitations and doubts. This is the practice of wisdom.

2.2.3 Other Modes of Conduct

All forms of disrespectful behavior should be avoided. The Vinaya says:

Do not teach those who have no respect,
Who cover their heads although in good health,
Who carry canes, weapons and parasols,
Or whose heads are swathed in turbans.

and the Jatakas:

Take the lowest seat.
Cultivate the dignified bearing of thorough discipline.
With your eyes brimming with joy,
Drink in the words like nectar
And be completely concentrated.
That is the way to listen to the teaching.

The main subject of the chapter is explained in four sections: reflecting on the nature of freedom, reflecting on the particular advantages related to Dharma, reflecting on images that show how difficult it is to find the freedoms and advantages, and reflecting on numerical comparisons.

1. Reflecting on the nature of freedom

In general, here, “freedom” means to have the opportunity to practice Dharma and not to be born in one of the eight states without that opportunity. “Lack of freedom” refers to those eight states where there is no such opportunity:

Being born in the hells, in the preta realm,
As an animal, a long-lived god or a barbarian,
Having wrong views, being born when there is no Buddha
Or being born deaf and mute; these are the eight states without freedom.

1. Hell

Beings reborn in hell have no opportunity to practice the Dharma because they are constantly tormented by intense heat or cold.

2. The pretas

The pretas have no opportunity to practice the Dharma because of the suffering they experience from hunger and thirst.

3. Animals

Animals have no opportunity to practice the Dharma because they undergo slavery and suffer from the attacks of other animals.

4. Gods

The long-lived gods have no opportunity to practice the Dharma because they spend their time in a state of mental blankness.²³ Note ²³

5. Barbarians
6. Wrong views
7. No Buddha

Those born as tirthikas or with similar wrong views have no opportunity to practice the Dharma because they never even hear of the Three Jewels, and cannot distinguish good from bad.

8. Mentally deficient

Those born mute or mentally deficient have no opportunity to practice the Dharma because their faculties are incomplete.

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1. Hell
2. The pretas
3. Animals

The inhabitants of the three lower realms suffer constantly from heat, cold, hunger, thirst and other torments, as a result of their past negative actions; they have no opportunity to practice the Dharma.

5. Barbarians

“Barbarians” means those who live in the thirty-two border countries, such as Lo Khatha,²⁴ and all those who consider harming others as an act of faith or whose savage beliefs see taking life as good. These people inhabiting the outlying territories have human form, but their minds lack the right orientation and they cannot attune themselves to the Dharma. Inheriting from their forefathers such pernicious customs as marriage to their mothers, they live in a way that is the very opposite of Dharma practice. Everything they do is evil, and it is in techniques of such harmful activities as killing insects and hunting wild beasts that they truly excel. Many of them fall into lower realms as soon as they die. For such people there is no opportunity to practice the Dharma. Note ²⁴

4. Gods

The long-lived gods are those gods who are absorbed in a state of mental blankness. Beings are born in this realm as a result of believing that liberation is a state in which all mental activities, good or bad, are absent, and of meditating upon that state. They remain in such states of concentration for great kalpas on end. But once the effect of the past actions that produced that condition has exhausted itself they are reborn in the lower realms because of their wrong views. They, too, lack any opportunity to practice the Dharma.

6. Wrong views

The term “wrong views” includes, in general, eternalist and nihilist beliefs, which are views contrary to, and outside, the teaching of the Buddha. Such views spoil our minds and prevent us from aspiring to the authentic Dharma, to the extent that we no longer have the opportunity to practice it. Here in Tibet, because the second Buddha, Padmasambhava of Oddiyana, entrusted the protection of the land to the twelve Tenma, the tirthikas themselves have not really been able to penetrate. However, anyone whose understanding is like that of the tirthikas, and contrary to that of the authentic Dharma and authentic masters, will thereby be deprived of the opportunity to practice according to those true teachings. The monk Sunaksatra spent twenty-five years as Lord Buddha’s attendant, and yet, because he did not have the slightest faith and held only wrong views, ended up being reborn as a preta in a flower-garden.

7. No Buddha

Birth in a dark kalpa means to be reborn in a period during which there is no Buddha. In a universe where no Buddha has appeared, no-one has ever even heard of the Three Jewels. As there is no Dharma, there is no opportunity to practice it.

8. Mental deficiency

The mind of a person born deaf and mute cannot function properly and the process of listening to the teachings, expounding them, reflecting on them and putting them into practice is impeded. The description “def mute” usually refers to a speech dysfunction. It becomes a condition without the opportunity for Dharma when the usual human ability to use and understand language is absent. This category therefore also includes those whose mental disability makes them unable to comprehend the teachings and thus deprives them of the opportunity to practice them.

Under this heading are included five individual advantages and five circumstantial advantages.

2.1 THE FIVE INDIVIDUAL ADVANTAGES

Nagarjuna lists them as follows:

Born a human, in a central place, with all one’s faculties,
Without a conflicting lifestyle and with faith in the Dharma.

1. Born a human

Without a human life, it would not be possible even to encounter the Dharma. So this human body is the advantage of support.

2. In a central place

Had you been born in a remote place where Dharma was unheard of, you would never have come across it. But the region you were born in is central as far as Dharma is concerned and so you have the advantage of place.

3. With all one’s faculties

Not to have all your sense faculties intact would be a hindrance to the practice of Dharma. If you are free of such disabilities, you have the advantage of possessing the sense faculties.

4. Without a conflicting lifestyle

If you had a conflicting lifestyle, you would always be immersed in negative actions and at variance with the Dharma. Since you now have the wish to do positive actions, this is the advantage of intention.

5. With faith in the Dharma

If you had no faith in the Buddha’s teachings you would not feel any inclination for the Dharma. Having the ability to turn your mind to the Dharma, as you are doing now, constitutes the advantage of faith.

Because these five advantages need to be complete with regard to one’s own make-up, they are called the five individual advantages.

1. Born a human

To practice the real, authentic Dharma, it is absolutely necessary to be a human being. Now suppose that you did not have the support of a human form, but had the highest form of life in the three lower realms, that of an animal—even the most beautiful and highly prized animal known to man. If someone said to you, “Say Om mani padme hum once, and you will become a Buddha,” you would be quite incapable of understanding his words or grasping their meaning, nor would you be able to utter a word.l In fact, even if you were dying of cold, you would be unable to think of anything to do but lie in a heap—whereas a man, no matter how weak, would know how to shelter in a cave or under a tree, and would gather wood and make a fire to warm his face and hands. If animals are incapable of even such simple things, how could they ever conceive of practicing Dharma?

Gods and other beings of the kind, however superior their physical form, do not meet the requirements laid down for taking the *pratimoksa vows, and therefore cannot assimilate the Dharma in its totality.

2. In a central place

As to what is meant by a “central region,” one should distinguish between a geographically central region and a place that is central in terms of the Dharma.

Geographically speaking, the central region is generally said to be the Vajra Seat at Bodh Gaya²⁵ in India, at the centre of Jambudvipa, the Southern Continent. The thousand Buddhas of the Good Kalpa all attain enlightenment there. Even in the universal destruction at the end of the kalpa, the four elements cannot harm it, and it remains there as if suspended in space. At its centre grows the Tree of Enlightenment. This place, with all the towns of India around it, is therefore considered the central region in terms of geography. Note ²⁵

In Dharma terms, a central place is wherever the Dharma—the teaching of Lord Buddha—exists. All other regions are said to be peripheral.

In the distant past, from the time Lord Buddha came into this world and as long as his doctrine still existed in India, that land was central in terms of both geography and Dharma. However, now that it has fallen into the hands of the tirthikas and the doctrine of the Conqueror has disappeared in that region, as far as Dharma is concerned even Bodh Gaya is a peripheral place.

In the days of the Buddha, Tibet, the Land of Snows, was called ‘the border country of Tibet,” because it was a sparsely populated land to which the doctrine had not yet spread. Later, the population increased little by little, and there reigned several kings who were emanations of the Buddhas. The Dharma first appeared in Tibet during the reign of Lha-Thothori Nyentsen, when the Sutra of a Hundred Invocations and Prostrations, a tsa-tsa mould and other objects fell on the palace roof.

Five generations later, in accordance with prophecies that he would understand the meaning of the sutra, there appeared the Dharma King Songtsen Gampo, an emanation of the Sublime Compassionate One.^* During Songtsen Gampo’s reign, the translator Thonmi Sambhota was sent to India to study its languages and scripts. On his return he introduced an alphabet to Tibet for the first time. He translated into Tibetan twenty-one sutras and tantras of Avalokitesvara, The Powerful Secret, and various other texts. The king himself displayed multiple forms, and along with his minister Gartongtsen, he used miraculous means to defend the country. He took as his queens two princesses, one Chinese and one from Nepal, who brought with them numerous representations of the Buddha’s body, speech and mind including the statues called the Jowo Mikyo Dorje and the Jowo Sakyamuni, the actual representatives of the Buddha.²⁶ The king built the series of temples known as the Thadul and Yangdul, of which the principal one was the Rasa Trulnang.²⁷ In this way he established Buddhism in Tibet.

^{* Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.} Note ²⁶ Note ²⁷

His fifth successor, King Trisong Detsen, invited one hundred and eight pandits to Tibet, including Padmasambhava, the Preceptor of Oddiyana, the greatest of the mantra-holders, unequalled throughout the three worlds. To uphold representations of the Buddha’s form, Trisong Detsen had temples built, including “unchanging, spontaneously arisen” Samye. To uphold the Buddha’s speech, the authentic Dharma one hundred and eight translators, including the great Vairotsana, learned the art of translation and translated all the main sutras, tantras and sastras then current in the noble land of India. The “Seven Men for Testing” and others were ordained as monks, forming the Sangha, to uphold the Buddha’s mind.

From that time onwards up to the present day, the teachings of the Buddha have shone like the sun in Tibet and, despite ups and downs, the doctrine of the Conqueror has never been lost in either of its aspects, transmission or realization. Thus Tibet, as far as the Dharma is concerned, is a central country.

3. With all one’s faculties

A person lacking any of the five sense faculties does not meet the requirements laid down for taking the monastic vows. Moreover, someone who does not have the good fortune to be able to see representations of the Conqueror to inspire his devotion, or to read and hear the precious and excellent teachings as the material for study and reflection, will not be fully capable of receiving the Dharma.

4. Without a conflicting lifestyle

“Conflicting lifestyle” refers, strictly speaking, to the lifestyles of people born in communities of hunters, prostitutes and so forth, who are involved in these negative activities from their earliest youth. But in fact it also includes anyone whose every thought, word and deed is contrary to the Dharma—for even those not born into such lifestyles can easily slip into them later in life. It is therefore essential to avoid doing anything which conflicts with the authentic Dharma.

5. With faith in the Dharma

If your faith is not in the Buddha’s teachings but in powerful gods, nagas and so forth, or in other doctrines such as those of the tirthikas, then, no matter how much faith you might place in them, none of them can protect you from the sufferings of samsara or from rebirth in lower realms. But if you have acquired a properly reasoned faith in the Conqueror’s doctrine, which unites transmission and realization, you are without doubt a fit vessel for the true Dharma. And that is the greatest of the five individual advantages.

A Buddha has appeared and has preached the Dharma
His teachings still exist and can be followed,
There are those who are kind-hearted towards others.

1. A Buddha has appeared

Those not born in a bright kalpa, one in which a Buddha has appeared, have never even heard of the Dharma. But we are now in a kalpa in which a Buddha has come, and so we possess the advantage of the presence of the particular teacher.

2. They have preached the Dharma

Although a Buddha has come, if they had not taught no-one would benefit. But since the Buddha turned the Wheel of Dharma according to three levels, we have the advantage of the teaching of the Dharma.

3. The teachings still exist

Although they have taught, had their doctrine died out it would no longer be there to help us. But the period during which the doctrine will remain extant has not yet ended, so we have the advantage of the time.

4. The teachings can be followed

Although the teachings still exist, unless we follow them they can be of no benefit to us. But since we have taken up the Dharma, we possess the advantage of our own good fortune.

5. There are spiritual friends who can teach us

Although we have taken up the Dharma, without the favorable circumstance of being accepted by a spiritual friend we would never come to know what the Dharma is really about. But since a spiritual friend has accepted us, we possess the advantage of their extraordinary compassion.

Because these five factors need to be complete with regard to circumstances other than one’s own, they are called the five circumstantial advantages

1. A Buddha has appeared

The time it takes for the universe to form, to stay in existence, to be destroyed and to remain in a state of emptiness is called a kalpa. A kalpa in which a perfect Buddha appears in the world is called a “bright kalpa;” while one in which a Buddha does not appear is called a “dark kalpa.” Long ago, during the great Kalpa of Manifest Joy, thirty-three thousand Buddhas appeared. A hundred dark kalpas followed. Then, during the Perfect Kalpa, eight hundred million Buddhas appeared, again followed by a hundred kalpas without Dharma. Then eight hundred and forty million Buddhas appeared during the Excellent Kalpa, after which there were five hundred dark kalpas. During the Kalpa Delightful to See, eight hundred million Buddhas appeared, and then there were seven hundred kalpas of darkness. Sixty thousand Buddhas appeared during the Joyous Kalpa. Then came our own kalpa, the Good Kalpa.

Before our kalpa arose, this cosmos of a billion universes was an immense ocean on whose surface appeared a thousand thousand-petalled lotuses. The gods of the Brahma-world, wondering how this could be, through clairvoyance understood it to signify that during this kalpa one thousand Buddhas would appear. “This will be a good kalpa,” they said, and “Good” became its name.

From the time when beings’ lifespan was eighty thousand years and the Buddha Destroyer-of-Samsara appeared, and up to the time when beings will live incalculably long and the Buddha Infinite-Aspiration will come, one thousand Buddhas will have taken their place in this world, on the Vajra Seat at the center of the Continent of Jambudvipa. Each one of them will have attained perfect Buddhahood there and turned the Wheel of Dharma. Therefore our present kalpa is a bright kalpa.

It will be followed by sixty peripheral, bad kalpas, and after that, in the Kalpa of Vast Numbers, ten thousand Buddhas will appear. Then another ten thousand bad kalpas will ensue. In this alternation of bright and dark kalpas, should we happen to be born during a dark kalpa, we would never even hear that there was such a thing as the Three Jewels.

Moreover, as the Great on of Oddiyana points out, the Secret Mantra Vajrayana in particular is taught only rarely:

Long ago, during the very first kalpa, the Kalpa of the Complete Array, the teachings of the Secret Mantrayana were promulgated by the Buddha known as Once-Come-King and achieved great renown. The teachings we have now, those of the present Buddha Sakyamuni, also include the Secret Mantrayana. In ten million kalpas’ time, during the Kalpa of the Array of Flowers, the Buddha Manjursri will come, as I have come now, to reveal the Secret Mantra teachings on a vast scale. This is so because beings in these three kalpas are suitable recipients for the Secret Mantras, and the reason why the Mantrayana teachings do not appear at other times is because the beings of those times are not capable of making use of them.²⁸

Note ²⁸

In this Good Kalpa, at the present time when the span of human life is a hundred years, the perfect Buddha Sakyamuni has come to the world, and so it is a bright kalpa.

2. They have preached the Dharma

Suppose that a Buddha had come, but was still in meditation and had not yet taught the Dharma. As long as the light of his Dharma had not appeared, his having come would make no difference to us. It would be just as if he had never come at all.

On attaining total and perfect Buddhahood upon the Vajra Seat, our Teacher exclaimed:

I have found a Dharma like ambrosia,
Deep, peaceful, simple, uncompounded, radiant.
If I explain it no-one will understand,
So I shall stay here silent in the forest.

Accordingly, for seven weeks he did not teach, until Brahma and Indra begged him to turn the Wheel of Dharma.

Furthermore, if those who hold the authentic teaching do not explain it, it is difficult for the Dharma to be of any real benefit to beings. An example is the great Smrtijnana of India, who came to Tibet because his mother had been reborn there in one of the ephemeral hells. His interpreter died on the journey, and Smrtijnana, who was wandering around the province of Kham unable to speak a word of the language, became a shepherd and died there without having been of very much benefit to anyone. When Jowo Atisa later arrived in Tibet and learned what had happened, he cried out: “How sad! Tibetans, your merit is weak! Nowhere in India, East or West, was there a pandita better than Smrtijnana,” and, placing his hands together, he wept.

For us, the Buddha Sakyamuni has turned the Wheel of the Dharma on three levels and, manifesting an inconceivable number of forms according to the needs and capacities of those to be helped, leads disciples through the nine vehicles of his teaching to maturity and liberation.

3. The teachings still exist

Even during a kalpa in which a Buddha has appeared and given teachings, once the time for those teachings to endure has come to an end and the authentic Dharma he has taught disappears it is exactly the same as in a dark kalpa. The period between the disappearance of one Buddha’s teachings and the next Buddha’s teachings being given is described as “devoid of Dharma.” In fortunate places where beings have adequate merit, pratyekabuddhas appear, but the doctrine is not taught or practiced.

These days we still have the teachings of the Buddha Sakyamuni. Their degree of survival follows a tenfold sequence. First, there are three periods, each consisting of five hundred parts.²⁹ During this time, there appears the “teaching of the heart of Samantabhadra,” which is the fruit.³⁰ Then comes three periods of five hundred parts for accomplishment.³¹ These are followed by three periods of five hundred parts for transmission. Finally, one period of five hundred parts arises when only the symbols are retained. Altogether, this makes ten periods, each of five hundred parts. At present we have reached the seventh or eighth period. We live in an age of increase in the five degenerations—those of lifespan, beliefs, emotions, time and beings. Nonetheless, the doctrine of transmission and realization does still exist. As it has not died out, we still possess the advantage of having the Dharma in its entirety. Note ²⁹ Note ³⁰ Note ³¹

4. The teachings can be followed

That the Doctrine is still present, however, is irrelevant unless you make use of it—just as the rising sun, although it lights up the whole world, does not make the slightest difference to a blind man. And just as the waters ofa great lake cannot quench the thirst of a traveler arriving at its shore unless he actually drinks from them, the Dharma of transmission and realization cannot infiltrate your mind by itself.

To enter the Dharma just to protect yourself from sickness and negative influences in this life, or because you fear the sufferings of the three lower realms in future lives, is called “Dharma as protection against fears,” and is not the right way to set out on the path.

To enter the Dharma merely to have food, clothing and sxo on in this life, or to obtain the pleasant reward of a divine or human rebirth in the next, is called “Dharma as quest for excellence.”

To enter the Dharma understanding that the whole of samsara has no meaning, striving to find a way to be free from it, is called “taking up the teaching by arriving at the starting point fo the path.”

5. There are spiritual friends who can teach us

Even if you start practicing the Dharma, unless you have been accepted by a spiritual friend it will be of no use. The Condensed Transcendent Wisdom says:

The Buddha and the teachings depend upon the spiritual friend.
Thus said the Conqueror, supreme embodiment of all good qualities.

The Buddha’s teaching is immense, its transmissions are numerous, and it covers an inexhaustible range of topics. Without relying on the pith instructions of a teacher we would never know how to condense the essential points of all those teachings and put them into practice.

Once, when Jowo Atisa was in Tibet, [Khu, Ngok and Drom](#khu-ngok-and-drom^* asked him:

^{* Atisa’s three main disciples (see glossary)}

“For someone to achieve liberation and complete omniscience, which is more important—the canonical scriptures and their commentaries, or the oral instructions of the teacher?”

“The teacher’s instructions,” Atisa replied.

“Why?”

“Because when it comes to doing the practice—even if you can explain the whole Tripitaka from memory and are very skilled in metaphysics—without the teacher’s practical guidance you and the Dharma will part company.”

“So,” they continued, “is the main point of the teacher’s instructions to keep the three vows and to strive to do good with body, speech and mind?”

“That is not the slightest bit of use,” Atisa replied.

“How can that be?” they exclaimed.

“You may be able to keep the three vows perfectly, but unless you are determined to free yourself from the three worlds of samsara it just creates further causes of samsara. You may be able to strive day and night to do good with body, speech, and mind, but unless you know how to dedicate the merit to perfect enlightenment, two or three wrong thoughts are enough to destroy it entirely. You may be teachers and meditators, full of piety and learning, but unless your minds are turned away from the eight ordinary concerns, whatever you do will only be for this present life, and you will not encounter the path that helps for future lives.”

This illustrates how important it is to be taken under the care of a teacher, a spiritual friend

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Checking your own life and circumstances for each of the eight freedoms and ten advantages, if you find that all these favorable conditions are present, you have what is known as “human life endowed with the eighteen freedoms and advantages.” However, the Omniscient Dharma King Longchenpa, in his Wish-granting Treasury, specifies sixteen additional conditions which preclude any opportunity to practice the Dharma—eight intrusive circumstances³² and eight incompatible propensities³³—under whose sway it is important not to fall. In his words: Note ³² Note ³³

Turmoil from the five emotions, stupidity, being dominated by evil influences,
Laziness, being inundated by the effect of past evil actions,
Enslavement to others, seeking protection from dangers, and hypocritical practice:
These are the eight intrusive circumstances that leave no freedom.

Being bound by one’s ties, flagrant depravity,
Lack of dissatisfaction with samsara, complete absence of faith,
Taking pleasure in bad actions, lack of interest in the Dharma,
Heedlessness of the vows and of the samayas:
These are the eight incompatible propensities that leave no freedom.

1. Strong five poisons

People in whom the five poisons—that is, negative emotions such as hatred for enemies, infatuation with friends and relatives, and so forth— are extremely strong, may wish from time to time that they could practice some kind of true Dharma. But the five poisons are too strong, dominating their minds most of the time and preventing them from ever accomplishing the Dharma properly.

2. Too stupid

Very stupid beings, lacking even the slightest glimmer of intelligence, might enter the Dharma but, being unable to understand a single word of the teaching or its meaning, they will never be able to study it or reflect and meditate upon it.

3. Led by false teacher

Once people have been taken as disciples by a false spiritual friend who teaches the view and action in a perverted manner, their minds will be led on to wrong paths and will not be in accord with the true Dharma.

4. Too lazy

People who want to learn the Dharma but are too lazy, without even a trace of diligence, will never accomplish it because they are so ensnared in their own indolence and procrastination.

5. Too many obscurations and negative actions

Some people’s obscurations and negative actions are such that, in spite of the effort they put into the Dharma, they fail to develop any of the right qualities in their minds. Their backlog of bad actions has overwhelmed them, and they will lose confidence in the teachings without perceiving that it is all due to their own past actions.

6. Servants without autonomy

Those who are in servitude to someone else, and have lost their autonomy, may want to take up Dharma; but the person who dominates them does not allow them to practice.

7. Out of fear without conviction

Some people take up Dharma out of fear for this present life—that they might lack food or clothing, or experience other afflictions. But since they have no deep conviction in the Dharma, they give themselves up to their old habits and get involved in things that are not Dharma.

8. Imposters

Others are imposters who, through a pretense of Dharma, try to win possessions, services and prestige. In front of others they assume the guise of practitioners, but in their minds they are only interested in this life, so they are far removed from the path of liberation.

These are eight circumstances that render it impossible to continue practising the Dharma.

2.4 THE EIGHT INCOMPATIBLE PROPENSITIES THAT LEAVE NO FREEDOM TO PRACTICE THE DHARMA

1. Tightly bound to worldly commitments

People who are tightly bound to their worldly commitments, wealth, pleasures, children, relatives, and so forth, are so preoccupied with the strenuous efforts entailed by these things that they have no time to practice the Dharma.

2. Very depraved

Some people lack any scrap of humanity, and their nature is so depraved that they are unable to improve their behavior. Even a genuine spiritual teacher would find it very difficult to set them on the noble path. As the sublime beings of the past said, “The abilities of a disciple can be shaped, but not hsi basic character.”

3. Uninterested in liberation from samsara or life’s sufferings

A person who feels not the slightest consternation either on hearing of lower rebirths and the ills of samsara, or in the face of this present life’s sufferings, has no determination whatsoever to liberate himself from samsara, and therefore no reason to engage in Dharma practice.

4. No trust in the teacher or teachings

To have no faith at all, either in the true Dharma or in the teacher, shuts off any access to the teachings and bars entry to the path of liberation.

5. Enjoy causing harm

People who take pleasure in harmful or negative actions, and who fail to control their thoughts, words and deeds, are devoid of any noble qualities and have turned away from the Dharma.

6. Uninterested in spiritual values and Dharma

Some people are no more interested in spiritual values and Dharma than a dog in eating grass. Since they feel no enthusiasm for the Dharma, its qualities will never develop in their minds.

7. Breakers of vows and commitments to bodhicitta

Anyone who, having entered the Basic Vehicle, breaks their vows and commitment to bodhicitta, has nowhere else to go but the lower realms. They will not escape from states where there is no opportunity to practice the Dharma.

8. Breakers of samaya commitments

Anyone who, having entered the Secret Mantra Vehicle, breaks their samaya commitments to their teacher and spiritual brothers and sisters, will bring about their own ruin and theirs, destroying any prospect of accomplishments.

These are eight propensities that lead one away from the Dharma and snuff out the lamp of liberation.

Before these sixteen factors that leave no opportunity for the practice have been carefully ruled out, people in these decadent times may look as if they hav all the freedoms and advantages and are true practitioners of the Dharma. However, the chieftain upon their throne and the lama beneath their parasol,³⁴ the hermit in their mountain solitude, the person who has renounced the affairs of state, and anyone who might have a high opinion of their own worth—each may think they are practicing Dharma, but as long as they are under the sway of these additional limiting conditions, they are not on the true path. Note ³⁴

So, before blindly assuming the forms of Dharma, check your own state carefully first to see whether or not you have all thirty-four aspects of the freedoms and advantages. If you do have them all, rejoice and reflect deeply on them over and over again. Remind yourself how, now that you have finally gained these freedoms and advantages that are so difficult to find, you are not going to squander them; whatever happens, you are going to practice the true Dharma. Should you find, however, that some aspects are missing, try to acquire them by whatever means may be possible.

At all times, you should take pains to examine carefully whether or not you have all elements of the freedoms and advantages. If you fail to check, and any one of those elements should be lacking, you will be missing the chance to practice the Dharma truly. After all, even the execution of a single minor everyday task requires many mutually dependent materials and conditions to be brought together. Is it any wonder that the realization of our ultimate goal—the Dharma—is impossible without the conjunction of many interconnected factors?

Imagine a traveler who wants to brew themself some tea. The making of tea involves many different elements—the pot, the water, the wood, the fire, and so on. Of these, just to light the fire alone is impossible without a flint, steel, some tinder, the traveler’s hands and so forth. If just one thing is missing, the tinder for instance, then the fact that the traveler has everything else they need is of no use whatsoever. They simply do not have what it takes to make tea. In the same way, if even one element of the freedoms and advantages is missing, there is no chance at all of practicing the true Dharma.

If you check your own mind carefully, you will see that even the basic eight freedoms and ten advantages are very difficult to attain, and that to have all ten advantages is even rarer than to have all eight freedoms.

Someone born as a human, with all their faculties intact and in a central region, but who becomes involved in a lifestyle conflicting with the Dharma and who has no faith in the Conqueror’rs teaching, only has three of the advantages. Were he to obtain either of the two others, he would still only have four. Now, to have a lifestyle which does not conflict at all with the Dharma is extremely hard. If any of a person’s thoughts, words and deeds are negative and his motives are for this life, then in fact, even if they have the reputation of a good and learned person, their lifestyle is in conflict with the Dharma.

The same applies to the five circumstantial advantages. If a Buddha has come, has taught the Dharma and the teachings still exist, yet a person has not entered the Dharma, that person has only three of those advantages. Here again, “entering the Dharma” does not simply mean asking for some teaching and being give in. The starting point of the path of liberation is the conviction that the whole of samsara is meaningless and the genuine determination to be free from it. To travel the path of the great-vehicle, the essential is to have genuinely aroused bodhicitta. The minimum is to have such unshakeable faith in the Three Precious Jewels that you would never renounce them, even to save your life. Without that, simply reciting prayers and wearing yellow robes is no proof that you have entered the Dharma.

Make sure that you know how to identify each of these freedoms and advantages, and to check whether you have them yourself. This is of crucial importance.

3. Reflecting on images that show how difficult it is to find the freedoms and advantages

The Buddha said that it is more difficult for a being to obtain human birth than it would be for a turtle coming up from the depths of the ocean to put its head by chance through the opening of a wooden yoke tossed around by huge waves on the surface.

Imagine the whole cosmos of a billion universes as a vast ocean. Floating upon it is a yoke, a piece of wood with a hole in it that can be fixed around the horns of draught oxen. this yoke, tossed hither and thither by the waves, sometimes eastward, sometimes westward, never stays in the same place even for an instant. Deep down in the depths of the ocean lives a blind turtle who rises up to the surface only once every hundred years.³⁵ That the yoke and the turtle might meet is extremely unlikely. The yoke itself is inanimate; the turtle is not intentionally seeking it out. The turtle, being blind, has no eyes with which to spot the yoke. If the yoke were to stay in one place, there might be a chance of their meeting; but it is continually on the move. If the turtle were to spend its entire time swimming around the surface, it might, perhaps, cross paths with the yoke; but it surfaces only once every hundred years. The chances of the yoke and the turtle coming together are therefore extremely small. Nevertheless, by sheer chance the turtle might still just slip its neck into the yoke. But it is even more difficult than that, the sutras say, to obtain a human existence with the freedoms and advantages. Nagarjuna expresses this in his Advice to King Surabhibhadra:³⁶ Note ³⁵ Note ³⁶

It is highly unlikely that a turtle might, by chance, arise through a yoke tossed about on a mighty sea;
And yet, compared to animal birth there is far less chance than even that
Of obtaining a human life. Accordingly, O Lord of Men,
Practice the authentic Dharma to make your fortune fruitful!

And Santideva says:

The Buddha declared that like a turtle that perchance can place
Its head within a yoke adrift upon a shoreless sea,
This human birth is difficult to find.

The difficulty of obtaining human birth is also compared to that of getting dried peas thrown at a smooth wall to stick to it, or to that of balancing a pile of peas on the tip of an upright needle—which is hard enough with even one single pea! It is important to know these comparisons, which are from the Nirvana Sutra, and similar ones in other texts.

4. Reflecting on numerical comparisons

When you consider the relative numbers of different kinds of beings, you can appreciate that to be born a human is hardly possible at all. By way of illustration, it is said that if the inhabitants of the hells were as numerous as stars in the night sky, the pretas would be no more numerous than the stars visible in the daytime; that if there were as many pretas as stars at night, there would only be as many animals as stars in the daytime; and that if there were as many animals as stars at night, there would only be as many gods and humans as stars in the daytime.

It is also said that there are as many beings in hell as specks of dust in the whole world, as many pretas as particles of sand in the Ganges, as many animals as grains in a beer-barrel³⁷ and as many asuras as snowflakes in a blizzard—but that gods and humans are as few a the particles of dust on a fingernail. Note ³⁷

To take form as any beings of the higher realms is already rare enough, but rarer still is a human life complete with all the freedoms and advantages. We can see for ourselves at any time how few human beings there are compared to animals. Think how many bugs live in a clod of earth in summertime, or ants in a single anthill— there are hardly that many humans in the whole world. But even within mankind, we can see that compared to all those people born in outlying regions where the teachings have never appeared, those born in places where the Dharma has spread are exceedingly rare. And even among these, there are only a very few who have all the freedoms and advantages.

With all these perspectives in mind, you should be filled with joy that you really have all the freedoms and advantages complete.

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A human life can be called a “precious human life” only when it is complete with all aspects of the freedoms and advantages, and from then onwards it truly becomes precious. But as long as any of those aspects are incomplete, then, however extensive your knowledge, learning and talent in ordinary things may be, you do not have a precious human life. You have what is called an ordinary human life, merely human life, hapless human life, meaningless human life, or human life returning empty handed. it is like failing to use a wish-fulfilling gem despite holding it in your hands, or returning empty-handed from a land full of precious gold.

To come across a precious jewel
Is nothing compared to finding this precious human life.
Look how those who are not saddened by samsara
Fritter life away!

To win a whole kingdom
Is nothing compared to meeting a perfect teacher.
Look how those with no devotion
Treat the teacher as their equal!

To be given command of a province
Is nothing compared to receiving the Bodhisattva vows.
Look how those with no compassion
Hurl their vows away!

To rule over the universe
Is nothing compared to receiving a tantric empowerment.
Look how those who do not keep the samayas
Jettison their promises!

To catch sight of the Buddha
Is nothing compared to seeing the true nature of mind.
Look how those with no determination
Sink back into delusion!

These freedoms and advantages do not come by chance or coincidence. They are the result of an accumulation of merit and wisdom built up over many kalpas. The great scholar Trakpa Gyaltsen says:

This free and favored human existence
Is not the result of your resourcefulness.
It comes from the merit you have accumulated.

To have obtained human life only to be wholly involved in evil activities without the least notion of Dharma is to be lower than the lower realms. As Jetsun Mila said to the hunter Gonpo Dorje:

To have the freedoms and fortunes of human birth is usually said to be precious,
But when I see someone like you it doesn’t seem precious at all.

Nothing has as much power to drag you down to the lower realms as human life. What you do with it, right now, is up to you alone:

Used well, this body is our raft to freedom.
Used badly, this body anchors us to samsara.
This body does the bidding of both good and evil.

It is through the power of all the merit you have accumulated in the past that you have now obtained this human life complete with its eighteen freedoms and advantages. To neglect the one essential thing—the supreme Dharma—and instead just spend your life acquiring food and clothes and indulging the eight ordinary concerns would be a a useless waste of those freedoms and advantages. How ineffectual to wait until death is upon you and then beat your breast with remorse! For you will have made the wrong choice, as it says in The Way of the Bodhisattva:

Thus having found the freedoms of a human life,
If I now fail to train myself in virtue,
What greater folly could there ever be?
How more could I betray myself?

This present life, therefore, is the turning-point at which you can choose between lasting good or lasting evil. If you do not make use of it right now to seize the citadel of the absolute nature within this lifetime, in lives to come it will be very hard to obtain such freedom again. Once you take birth in any of the forms of life in the lower realms, no idea of Dharma will ever occur to you. Too bewildered to know what to do or what not to do, you will fall endlessly further and further to ever lower realms. So, telling yourself that now is the time to make an effort, meditate over and over again, applying the three supreme methods: start with the thought of bodhicitta, do the practice itself without any conceptualization, and dedicate the merit at the end.

As a measure of how much this practice has truly convinced us, we should be like Geshe Chengawa, who spent all his time practicing and never even slept. Geshe Tonpa said to him: “You’d better rest, my son. You’ll make yourself ill.”

“Yes, I should rest,” Chengawa replied. “But when I think how difficult it is to find the freedoms and advantages that we have, I have no time to rest.” He recited nine hundred million mantras of Miyowa and did without sleep for the whole of his life. We should meditate until exactly that sort of conviction arises in our own minds.

Although I have won these freedoms, I am poor in Dharma, which is their essence.
Although I have entered the Dharma, I waste time doing other things.
Bless me and foolish beings like me
That we may attain the very essence of the freedoms and advantages.

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King Trisong Detsen (790 – 844)

The king who invited the scholar Santaraksita and the Tantric master Padmasambhava to Tibet. He built Samye, Tibet’s first monastery, and was responsible for establishing the Buddhist teachings on a firm basis.

Seeing this threefold world as a fleeting illusion,
You have left this life’s concerns behind like spittle in the dust.
Accepting all hardships, you have followed in the footsteps of the masters of old.
Peerless Teacher, at your feet I bow.

The way to listen to the teaching is as described in Chapter One. The actual subject matter consists of seven meditations:

1. the impermanence of the outer universe in which beings live,
2. the impermanence of the beings living in it,
3. the impermanence of holy beings,
4. the impermanence of those in positions of power,
5. other examples of impermanence
6. the uncertainty of the circumstances of death,
7. and intense awareness of impermanence.

Our world, this outer environment fashioned by the collective good karma of beings, with its firm and solid structure encompassing the four continents^37.1 and the heavenly realms, lasts for a whole kalpa. It is nonetheless impermanent and will not escape final destruction by seven stages of fire and one of water.

As the present great kalpa draws closer to the time of destruction, the beings inhabiting each realm below the god-realm of the first meditative state will, realm by realm, progressively disappear until not a single being is left.

Then, one after the other, seven suns will rise in the sky. The first sun will burn up all fruit-bearing trees and forests. The second will evaporate all streams, creeks and ponds; the third will dry up all the rivers; and the fourth all the great lakes, even Manasarovar. As the fifth sun appears, the great oceans, too, will progressively evaporate at first to a depth of one hundred leagues, then of two hundred, seven hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, and finally eighty thousand leagues. The sea-water that is left will shrink from a league down to an ear-shot, until not even enough remains to fill a footprint. By the time there are six suns all blazing together, the entire earth and its snow-covered mountains will have burst into flames. And when the seventh appears, Mount Meru itself will burn up, together with the four continents^37.1, the eight sub-continents,^37.1 the seven golden mountains,^37.2 and the circular wall of mountains at the world’s very rim^37.3. Everything will fuse into one vast mass of fire. As it blazes downwards, it will consume all the infernal realms. As it flares upwards, it will engulf the celestial palace of Brahma, already long abandoned. Above, the younger gods of the realm of Clear Light will cry out in fear, “What an immense conflagration!” But the older gods will reassure them, saying “Have no fear! Once it reaches the world of Brahma, it will recede. This has happened before.”^*

^{* These stages of destruction all take place within one kalpa, but even these long-lived gods can grow old between the first destruction by fire and the seventh, after which their realm—part of that of the second concentration—will be destroyed by water.} Note ^37.1

Note ^37.2

Note ^37.3

After seven such destructions by fire, rainclouds will form in the realm of the gods of the second concentration, and a yoke’s depth of torrential rain will fall, followed by a plough’s depth. Like salt dissolving in water, everything up to and including the realm of the gods of the Clear Light will disintegrate.

After the seventh such devastation by water is over, the crossed vajra of wind at the base of the universe will rise up. Like dust scattered by the wind, everything up to and including the realm of the gods of the third meditative concentration will be blown completely away.

Reflect deeply and sincerely—if every one of the billion universes which constitute the cosmos, each with its own Mount Meru, four continents and heavens, is to be simultaneously destroyed in this way, leaving only space behind, however could these human bodies of ours, which are like flies at the end of the season, have any permanence or stability?

From the summit of the highest heavens to the very depths of hell, there is not a single being who can escape death. As the Letter of Consolation says:

Have you ever, on earth or in the heavens,
Seen a being born who will not die?
Or heard that such a thing had happened?
Or even suspected that it might?

Everything that is born is bound to die. Nobody has ever seen anyone or heard of anyone in any realm—even in the world of the gods—who was born but never died. In fact, it never even occurs to us to wonder whether a person will die or not. It is a certainty. Especially for us, born as we are at the end of an era^* in a world where the length of life is unpredictable, death will come soon. It gets closer and closer from the moment we are born. Life can only get shorter, never longer. Inexorably, death closes in, never pausing for an instant, like the shadow of a mountain at sunset.

^{* The end of an era is a period of decline in which life is more fragile.}

Do you know for sure when you will die, or where? Might it be tomorrow, or tonight? Can you be sure that you are not going to die right now, between this breath and the next? As it says in The Collection of Deliberate Sayings:

Who’s sure they’ll live till tomorrow?
Today’s the time to be ready,
For the legions of Death
Are not on our side.

And Nagarjuna, too, says:

Life flickers in the flurries of a thousand ills,
More fragile than a bubble in a stream.
In sleep, each breath departs and is again drawn in;
How wondrous that we wake up living still!

Breathing gently, people enjoy their slumber. But between one breath and the next there is no guarantee that death will not slip in. To wake up in good health is an event which truly deserves to be considered miraculous, yet we take it completely for granted.

Although we know that we are going to die one day, we do not really let our attitudes to life be affected by the ever-present possibility of dying. We still spend all our time hoping and worrying about our future livelihood, as if we were going to live forever. We stay completely involved in our struggle for well-being, happiness and status—until, suddenly, we are confronted by Death wielding its black noose, gnashing ferociously at its lower lip and baring its fangs.

Then nothing can help us. No soldier’s army, no ruler’s decrees, no rich man’s wealth, no scholar’s brilliance, no beauty’s charms, no athlete’s fleetness—none is of any use. We might seal ourselves inside an impenetrable, armored metal chest, guarded by hundreds of thousands of strong men bristling with sharp spears and arrows; but even that would not afford so much as a hair’s breadth of protection or concealment. Once the Lord of Death secures its black noose around our neck, our face begins to pale, our eyes glaze over with tears, our head and limbs go limp, and we are dragged willy-nilly down the highway to the next life.

Death cannot be fought off by any warrior, ordered away by the powerful, or paid off by the rich. Death leaves nowhere to run to, no place to hide, no refuge, no defender or guide. Death resists any recourse to skill or compassion. Once our life has run out, even if the Medicine Buddha themself were to appear in person they would be unable to delay our death.

So, reflect sincerely and meditate on how important it is from this very moment onwards never to slip into laziness and procrastination, but to practice the true Dharma, the only thing you can be sure will help at the moment of death.

In the present Good Kalpa, Vipasyin, Sikhin and five other Buddhas have already appeared, each with their own circle of Sravakas and Arhats in inconceivable number. Each worked to bring benefit to innumerable beings through the teachings of the Three Vehicles. Yet nowadays all we have is whatever still remains of the Buddha Sakyamuni’s teaching. Otherwise, all of those Buddhas have passed into nirvana and all the pure Dharma teachings they gave have gradually disappeared.

One by one, the numerous great Sravakas of the present dispensation too, each with their entourage of five hundred Arhats, have passed beyond suffering into the state where nothing is left of the aggregates.

In India, there once lived the Five Hundred Arhats who compiled the words of the Buddha. There were the Six Ornaments and Two Supreme Ones, the Eighty Siddhas, and many others, who mastered all attributes of the paths and levels and possessed unlimited clairvoyance and miraculous powers. But all that remains of them today are the stories telling how they lived.

Here too in Tibet, the Land of Snows, when the Second Buddha of Oddiyana^* turned the Wheel of Dharma to ripen and liberate beings, there lived all his followers, like the twenty-five disciples known as the King and Subjects and the Eighty Siddhas of Yerpa. Later came the Ancient Tradition masters of the So, Zur and Nub clans; Marpa, Milarepa and Dagpo of the New Tradition; and innumerable other learned and accomplished beings. Most of them achieved high levels of accomplishment and had mastery over the four elements. They could produce all sorts of miraculous transformations. They could make tangible objects appear out of nowhere and disappear into nowhere. They could not be burned by fire, be swept away by water, be crushed by earth or fall from precipices into space—they were simply free from any harm that the four elements could bring about.

^{* Padmasambhava is often referred to as the second Buddha of our era, extending the work of Sakyamuni.}

Once, for example, Jetsun Milarepa was meditating in silence in Nyeshangkatya cave in Nepal when a band of hunters passed by. Seeing him sitting there, they asked him whether he was a man or a ghost. Milarepa remained motionless, his gaze fixed before him, and did not answer. The hunters shot a volley of poisoned arrows at him, but none of their arrows managed to pierce his skin. They threw him into the river, and then over the edge of a cliff—but each time there he was again, sitting back where he had been before. Finally, they piled firewood around him and set it alight, but the fire would not burn him. There have been many beings who attained such powers. But in the end, they all chose to demonstrate that everything is impermanent,^** and today all that remains of them is their stories.

^{** Such beings are considered to be beyond birth and death. However, like the Buddha Sakyamuni, they choose to die nonetheless to remind beings of impermanence.}

As for us, our negative actions, carried along by the wind of negative conditions in the prevailing direction of our negative tendencies, have driven us here into this filthy contraption made up of the four material elements, in which we are trapped and upon which our sentient existence depends—and as we can never be sure when or where this scarecrow of an illusory body is going to disintegrate, it is important that from this very moment onwards we inspire ourselves to thoughts, words and deeds which are always positive. With this in mind, meditate on impermanence.

There are magnificent and illustrious gods and risis who can live for as long as a kalpa, with statures measured in leagues or earshots and a power and resplendence that outshine the sun and moon, are nevertheless not beyond the reach of death. As The Treasury of Qualities says:

Even Brahma, Indra, Mahesvara and the universal monarchs
Have no way to evade the Demon of Death.

In the end, not even divine or human risis with the five kinds of clairvoyance and the power to fly through the sky can escape death. The Letter of Consolation says”

Great risis with their five-fold powers
Can fly far and wide in the skies,
Yet they will never reach a land
Where immortality holds sway.

Here in our human world there have been universal emperors who have reached the very pinnacle of power and material wealth. In the holy land of India, starting with Mahasammata, innumerable emperors ruled the entire continent. Later the three Palas, the thirty-seven Candras and many other rich and powerful kings reigned in both eastern and western India.

In Tibet, the Land of Snows, the first king, Nyatri Tsenpo, was of divine descent, an emanation of the Bodhisattva Nivaranaviskambhin. Then reigned the seven heavenly kings called Tri, the six earthly kings called Lek, the eight middle kings called De, the five linking kings called Tsen, the twelve and a half³⁸ kings of the Fortunate Dy nasty including the five of the Extremely Fortunate Dynasty, and others besides. In the reign of the Dharma King Songtsen Gampo, a magical army subdued all lands from Nepal to China. King Trisong Detsen brought two thirds of Jambudvipa^* under his power, and, during the reign of Ralpachen, an iron pillar was erected on the banks of the Ganges, marking the frontier between India and Tibet. Tibet exercised power in many regions of India, China, Gesar, Tajikistan and other countries. At the New Year festival, ambassadors from all those countries were required to spend one day in Lhasa. Such was Tibet’s power in the past. But it did not last, and nowadays, apart from the historical accounts, nothing is left.

^{* Here this term would seem to refer to South Asia, Mongolia and China.} Note ³⁸

Reflect on those past splendors. Compared to them, our own homes, belongings, servants, status, and whatever else we prize, seem altogether no more significant than a beehive. Meditate deeply, and ask yourself how you could have thought that those things would last forever and never change.

As an example of impermanence, consider the cycle of growth and decline that takes place over a kalpa. Long ago, in the first age of this kalpa, there were no sun and moon in the sky and all human beings were lit up by their own intrinsic radiance. They could move miraculously through space. They were several leagues tall. The fed on divine nectar and enjoyed perfect happiness and well-being, matching that of the gods. Gradually, however, under the influence of negative emotions and wrong-doing, the human race slowly degenerated to its present state. Even today, as those emotions become ever more gross, human lifespan and good fortune are still on the decrease. This process will continue until humans live no more than ten years. Most of the beings living in the world will disappear during periods of plague, war and famine. Then , to the survivors, and emanation of the Buddha Maitreya will preach abstinence from killing. At that time, humans will only be one cubit tall. From then on their lifespan will increase to twenty years and then gradually become longer and longer until it reaches eighty thousand years. At that point Lord Maitreya will appear in person, become Buddha and turn the Wheel of the Dharma. When eighteen such cycles of growth and decline have taken place and human beings live an incalculable number of years, the Buddha Infinite Aspiration will appear and live for as long as all the other thousand Buddhas of the Good Kalpa put together. The Buddha Infinite Aspiration’s activities for beings’ welfare, too, will match all of theirs put together. Finally this kalpa will end in destruction. Examining such changes, you can see that even on this vast scale nothing is beyond the reach of impermanence.

Watching the four seasons change, also, you can see how everything is impermanent. In summertime the meadows are green and lush from the nectar of summer showers, and all living beings bask in a glow of well-being and happiness. Innumerable varieties of flowers spring up and the whole landscape blossoms into a heavenly paradise of white and gold, scarlet and blue. Then, as the autumn breezes grow cooler, the green grasslands change hue. Fruit and flowers, one by one, dry up and wither. Winter soon sets in, and the whole earth becomes as hard and brittle as rock. Ponds and rivers freeze solid and glacial winds scour the landscape. You could ride for days on end looking for all those summer flowers and never see a single one. And so comes each season in turn, summer giving way to autumn, autumn to winter and winter to spring, each different from the one before, and each just as ephemeral. Look how quickly yesterday and today, this morning and tonight, this year and next year, all pass by one after the other. Nothing ever lasts, nothing is dependable.

Think about your village or monastic community, or wherever you live. People who not long ago were prosperous and secure now suddenly find themselves heading for ruin; others, once poor and helpless, now speak with authority and are powerful and wealthy. Nothing stays the same forever. In your own family, each successive generation of parents, grandparents and great-grandparents have all died, one by one. They are only names to you now. And as their time came many brothers, sisters and other relatives have died too, and no-one knows where they went or where they re now. Of the powerful, rich and prosperous people who only last year were the most eminent in the land, many this year are already just names. Who knows whether those whose present wealth and importance makes them the envy of ordinary folk will still be in the same position this time next year—or even next month? Of your own domestic animals—sheep, goats, dogs—how many have died in the past and how many are still alive? When you think about what happens in all of these cases, you can see that nothing stays the same forever. Of all the people who were alive more than a hundred years ago, not a single one has escaped death. And in another hundred years from now, every single person now alive throughout the world will be dead. Not one of them will be left.

There is therefore absolutely nothing in the universe, animate or inanimate, that has any stability or permanence.

Whatever is born is impermanent and is bound to die.
Whatever is stored up is impermanent and is bound to run out.
Whatever comes together is impermanent and is bound to come apart.
Whatever is built is impermanent and is bound to collapse.
Whatever rises up is impermanent and is bound to fall down.
So also, friendship and enmity, fortune and sorrow, good and evil,
all the thoughts that run through your mind—everything is always changing.

You might be as exalted as the heavens, as mighty as a thunderbolt, as rich as a naga, as good-looking as a god or as pretty as a rainbow—but no matter who or what you are, when death suddenly comes there is nothing you can do about it for even a moment. You have no choice but to go, naked and cold, your empty hands clenched stiffly under your armpits. Unbearable though it might be to part with your money, your cherished possessions, your friends, loved ones, attendants, disciples, country, lands, subjects, property, food, drink and wealth, you just have to leave everything behind, like a hair being pulled out of a slab of butter.^* You might be the head lama over thousands of monks, but you cannot take even one of them with you. You might be governor over tens of thousands of people, but you cannot take a single one as your servant. All the wealth in the world would still not give you the power to take as much as a needle and thread.

^{* The butter does not stick to the hair. Only the empty impression of the hair remains.}

Your dearly beloved body, too, is going to be left behind. This same body that was wrapped up during life in silk and brocades, that was kept well filled up with tea and beer, and that once looked as handsome adn distinguished as a god, is now called a corpse, and is left lying there horribly livid, heavy and distorted. Says Jetsun Mila:

This thing we call a corpse, so fearful to behold,
Is already right here—our own body.

Your body is trussed up with a rope and covered with a curtain, held in place with earth and stones. Your bowl is turned upside down on your pillow. No matter how precious and well loved you were, now you arouse horror and nausea. When the living lie down to sleep, even on piles of furs and soft sheepskin rugs, they start to feel uncomfortable after a while and have to keep turning over. But once you are dead, you just lie there with your cheek against a stone or tuft of grass, your hair bespattered with earth.

Some of you who are heads of families or clan chiefs might worry about the people under your care. Once you are no longer there to look after them, might they not easily die of hunger or cold, be murdered by enemies, or drown in the river? Does not all their wealth, comfort and happiness depend on you? in fact, however after your death they will feel nothing but relief at having managed to get rid of y our corpse by cremating it, throwing it into a river, or dumping it in the cemetery.

When you die, you have no choice but to wander all alone in the intermediate state without a single companion. At that time your only refuge will be the Dharma. So tell yourself again and again that from now on you must make the effort to accomplish at least one practice of genuine Dharma.

Whatever is stored up is bound to run out. A king might rule the whole world and still end up as a vagabond. Many start their life surrounded by wealth and end it starving to death, having lost everything. People who had herds of hundreds of animals one year can be reduced to beggary the next by epidemics or heavy snow, and someone who was rich and powerful only the day before might suddenly find themself asking for alms because their enemies have destroyed everything they own. That all these things happen is something you can see for yourself; it is impossible to hang on to your wealth and possessions forever. Never forget that generosity is the most important capital to build up.^*

^{* i.e. a capital of merit. This concept is explained in Part Two, Chapter 4}

No coming together can last forever. It will always end in separation. We are like inhabitants of different places gathering in thousands and even tens of thousands for a big market or an important religious festival, only to part again as each returns home. Whatever affectionate relationships we now enjoy—teachers and disciples, masters and servants, patrons and their proteges, spiritual comrades, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives—there is no way we can avoid being separated in the end. We cannot even be sure that death or some other terrible event might not suddenly part us right now. Since spiritual companions, couples and so forth might be split up unexpectedly at any moment, we had better avoid anger and quarrels, harsh words and fighting. We never know how long we might be together, so we should make up our minds to be caring and affectionate for the short while that we have left. As Padampa Sangye says:

Families are as fleeting as a crowd om market-day;
People of Tingri, don’t bicker or fight!

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Padampa Sangyen (11th – 12th centuries)

The famous Indian siddha who spread the teachings throughout India, China and Tibet. He and his disciple Machik Labdron established the lineages of the Cho teachings in Tibet.

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Whatever buildings are constructed are bound to collapse. Villages and monasteries that were once successful and prosperous now lie empty and abandoned, and where once their careful owners lived, now only birds make their nests. Even Samye’s central three-storeyed temple, built by miraculously emanated workers during the reign of King Trisong Detsen and consecrated by the Second Buddha of Oddiyana, was destroyed by fire in a single night. The Red Mountain Palace that existed in King Songtsen Gampo’s time rivalled the palace of Indra himself, but now not even the foundation stones are left. In comparison, our own present towns, houses and monasteries are just so many insects’ nests. So why do we attach such importance to them? It would be better to set our hearts on following to the very end the example of the Kagyupas of old, who left their homeland behind and headed for the wilderness. They dwelt at the foot of rocky cliffs with only wild animals for companions, and, without the least concern about food, clothing or renown, embraced the four basic aims of the Kadampas:

Base your mind on the Dharma
Base your Dharma on a humble life,
Base your humble life on the thought of death,
Base your death on an empty, barren hollow.^*

^{* i.e. die alone in a remote place where there are no disturbances.}

High estate and mighty armies never last. Mandhatri, the universal king, turned the golden wheel that gave him power over four continents; he reigned over the heavens of the Gods of the Thirty-three; he even shared the throne ofIndra, king of the gods, and could defeat the asuras in battle. Yet finally he fell to earth and died, his ambitions still unsatisfied. You can see for yourself that of all those who wield power and authority—whether around kings, lamas, lords or governments— not a single one can keep their position forever; and that many powerful people, who have been imposing the law on others one year, find themselves spending the next languishing in prison. What use could such transitory power be to you? The state of perfect Buddhahood, on the other hand, can never diminish or be spoiled, and is worthy of the offerings of gods and men. That is what you should be determined to attain.

Friendship and enmity, too, are far from everlasting. One day while the Arhat Katyayana was out on his alms-round he came across a man with a child on his lap. The man was eating a fish with great relish, and throwing stones at a bitch that was trying to get at the bones. What the master saw with his clairvoyance, however, was this. The fish had been the man’s own father in that very lifetime, and the bitch had been his mother. An enemy he had killed in a past existence had been reborn as his son, as the karmic repayment for the life the man had taken. Katyayana cried out:

He eats his father’s flesh, he beats his mother off,
He dandles on his lap the enemy that he killed;
The wife is gnawing at her husband’s bones.
I laugh to see what happens in samsara’s show!

Even within one lifetime, it often happens that sworn enemies are later reconciled and make friends. They may even become part of each other’s families, and end up closer than anyone else. On the other hand, people intimately linked by blood or marriage often argue and do each other as much harm as they can for the sake of some trivial possession or paltry inheritance. Couples or dear friends can break up for the most insignificant reasons, ending sometimes even in murder. Seeing that all friendship and enmity is so ephemeral, remind yourself over and over again to treat everyone with love and compassion.

Good fortune and deprivation never last forever. There are many people who have started life in comfort and plenty, adn ended up in poverty and suffering. Others start out in utter misery and are later happy and well-off. There have even been people who started out as beggars and ended up as kings. There are countless examples of such reversals of fortune. Milarepa’s uncle, for instance, gave a merry party one morning for his daughter-in-law, but by nightfall his house had collapsed and he was weeping with sorrow. When Dharma brings you hardships, then however many different kinds of suffering you might have to undergo, like Jetsun Mila and the Conquerors of the past, in the end your happiness will be unparalleled. But when wrong-doing makes you rich, then what-ever pleasure you might temporarily obtain, in the end your suffering will be infinite.

Fortune and sorrow are so unpredictable. Long ago in the kingdom of Aparantaka there was a rain of grain lasting seven days, followed by a rain of clothes for another seven days and a rain of precious jewels for seven days more—and finally there was a rain of earth which buried the entire population, and everyone died and was reborn in the lower realms. It is no use trying, full of hopes and fears, to control such ever-changing happiness and suffering. Instead, simply leave all the comforts, wealth and pleasures of this world behind, like so much spittle in the dust. Resolve to follow in the e of the Conquerors of the past, accepting courageously whatever hardships you have to suffer for the sake of the Dharma.

Excellence and mediocrity are impermanent, too. In worldly life, however authoritative and eloquent you may be, however erudite and talented, however strong and skilful, the time comes when those qualities decline. Once the merit you have accumulated in the past is exhausted, everything you think is contentious and nothing you do succeeds. You are criticized from all sides. You grow miserable and everyone despises you. Some people lose whatever meager advantages they once had and end up without any at all. Others, once considered cheats and liars with neither talent nor common-sense, later find themselves rich and comfortable, trusted by everyone and esteemed as good and reliable people. As the proverb says, “Aging frauds take pride of place.”

In religious life, too, as the saying goes, “In old age, sages become pupils, renunciants amass wealth, preceptors become heads of families.”k People who early in life renounced all worldly activities may be found busily piling up riches and provisions at the end. Others start out teaching and explaining the Dharma but end up as hunters, thieves or robbers. Learned monastic preceptors who in their youth kept all the Vinaya vows may in their old age beget many children. On the other hand, there are also many people who spend all their earlier years doing only wrong but who, in the end, devote themselves entirely to practicing the holy Dharma and either attain accomplishment or, if not, at least by being on the path when they die go on to higher and higher rebirths.

Whether someone appears to be good or bad just at present, therefore, is but a momentary impression that has no permanence or stability whatsoever. You might feel slightly disenchanted with samsara, develop a vague determination to be free of it, and take on the semblance of a serious student of Dharma to the point that ordinary folk are quite impressed, and want to be your patrons and disciples. But at that point, unless you take a very rigorous look at yourself, you could easily start thinking you really are as other people see you. Puffed up with pride, you get completely carried away by appearances and start to think that you can do whatever you want. You have been completely tricked by negative forces. So, banish all self-centered beliefs and arouse the wisdom of egolessness.^* Until you attain the sublime Bodhisattva levels, no appearance, whether good or bad, can ever last. Meditate constantly on death and impermanence. Analyze your own faults and always take the lowest place. Cultivate dissatisfaction with samsara and desire for liberation. Train yourself to become peaceful, disciplined and conscientious. Constantly develop a sense of poignant and deep sadness at the thought of the transitoriness of all compounded things and the sufferings of samsara, like Jetsun Milarepa:

^{* The wisdom that sees the emptiness of self and phenomena.}

In a rocky cave in a deserted land
My sorrow is unrelenting.
Constantly I yearn for you,
My teacher, Buddha of the three times.

Unless you maintain this experience constantly, there is no knowing where all the constantly changing thoughts that crop up will lead. There was once a man who, after having a feud with his relatives, took up the Dharma and became known as Gelong Thangpa the Practitioner. He learned to control energy and mind,³⁹ and was able to fly in the sky. One day, watching a large flock of pigeons gathering to eat the offering food he had put out, the thought occurred to him that wih an army of as many men he could exterminate his enemies. He failed to take this wrong thought on the path,⁴⁰ and as a result when he finally returned to his homeland he became commander of an army. Note ³⁹ Note ⁴⁰

For the moment, thanks to your teacher and your spiritual companions, you might have a superficial feeling for the Dharma. But bearing in mind what a short time any one person’s sentiments last, free yourself with the Dharma while you can, and resolve to practice as long as you live.

If you reflect on the numerous examples given here, you will have no doubt that nothing, from the highest states of existence down to the lowest hells, has even a scrap of permanence or stability. Everything is subject to change, everything waxes and wanes.

Once born, every human in the world is sure to die. But how, why, when and where we are going to die cannot be predicted. None of us can say for sure that our death will come about at a particular time or place, in a certain way, or as a result of this or that cause.

There are a few things in this world that favor life and many that threaten it, as the master Aryadeva points out:

Causes of death are numerous;
Causes of life are few,
And even they may become causes of death.

Fire, water, poisons, precipices, savages, wild beasts—all manner of mortal dangers abound, but only ver few things can prolong life. Even food, clothing and other things usually considered life sustaining can at times turn into causes of death. Many fatalities occur as a result of eating— the food might be contaminated; or it may be something eaten for its beneficial properties but becoming toxic under certain circumstances;⁴² or it might be the wrong food for a particular individual. Especially, nowadays most people crave meat and consume flesh and blood without a second thought, completely oblivious to all the diseases caused by old meat⁴³ or harmful meat spirits. Unhealthy diets and lifestyles can also give rise to tumors, disorders of phlegm, dropsy/edema and other diseases, causing innumerable deaths. Similarly, the quest for riches, fame and other glories incites people to fight battles, to brave wild beasts, to cross rivers recklessly and to risk countless other situations that may bring about their demise. Note ⁴² Note ⁴³

Furthermore, the moment when any of those numerous different causes of death might intervene is entirely unpredictable. Some die in their mother’s womb, some at birth, others before they learn to crawl. Some die young; others die old and decrepit. Some die before they can get medicine or help. Others linger on, glued to their beds by years of disease, watching the living with the eyes of the dead; by the time they die, they are just skeletons wrapped in skin. Many people die suddenly or by accident, while eating, talking or working. Some even take their own lives.

Surrounded by so many causes of death, your life has as little chance of enduring as a candle-flame in the wind. There is no guarantee that death will not suddenly strike right now, and that tomorrow you will not be reborn as an animal with horns on its head or tusks in its mouth. You should be quite sure that when you are going to die is unpredictable and that there is no knowing where you will be born next.

Meditate single-mindedly on death, all the time and in every circumstance. While standing up, sitting or lying down, tell yourself: “This is my last act in this world,” and meditate on it with utter conviction. On your way to wherever you might be going, say to yourself: “Maybe I will die there. There is no certainty that I will ever come back.” When you set out on a journey or pause to rest, ask yourself: “will I die here?” Wherever you are, you should wonder if this might be where you die. At night, when you lie down, ask yourself whether you might die in bed during the night or whether you can be sure that you are going to get up in the morning. When you rise, ask yourself whether you might die sometime during the day, and reflect that there is no certainty at all that you will be going to bed in the evening.

Meditate only on death, earnestly and from the core of your heart. Practice like the Kadampa Geshes of old, who were always thinking about death at every moment. At night they would turn their bowls upside-down;^* and, thinking how the next day there might be no need to light a fire, they would never cover the embers for the night.

^{* Turning someone’s bowl over was for Tibetans a symbol that the person had died.}

However, just to meditate on death will not suffice. The only thing of any use at the moment of death is the Dharma, so you also need to encourage yourself to practice in an authentic way, never slipping into forgetfulness or loss of vigilance, remembering always that the activities of samsara are transient and without the slightest meaning. In essence, this conjunction of body and mind is impermanent, so do not count on it as your own; it is only on loan.

All roads and paths are impermanent, so whenever you are walking anywhere direct your steps toward the Dharma. As it says in the Condensed Transcendent Wisdom:

If you walk looking mindfully one yoke’s-length in front of you, your mind will not be confused.

Wherever you are, all places are impermanent, so keep the pure Buddhafields in mind. Food, drink and whatever you enjoy are impermanent, so feed on profound concentration. Sleep is impermanent, so while you are asleep purify sleep’s delusions into clear light.⁴⁴ Wealth, if you have it, is impermanent, so strive for the [seven noble riche]s. Loved ones, friends and family are impermanent, so in a solitary place arouse the desire for liberation. High rank and celebrity are impermanent, so always take a lowly position. Speech is impermanent, so inspire yourself to recite mantras and prayers. Faith and desire for liberation are impermanent, so strive to make your commitments unshakeable. Ideas and thoughts are impermanent, so work on developing a good nature. Meditative experiences and realizations are impermanent, so go on until you reach the point where everything dissolves in the nature of reality. At that time, the link between death and rebirth⁴⁵ falls away and you reach such confidence that you are completely ready for death. You have captured the citadel of immortality; you are like the eagle free to soar in the heights of the heavens. After that there is no need for any sorrowful meditation on your approaching death. Note ⁴⁴ Note ⁴⁵

As Jetsun Mila sang:

Fearing death, I went to the mountains.
Over and over again I meditated on death’s unpredictable coming,
And took the stronghold of the deathless unchanging nature.
Now I have lost and gone beyond all fear of dying!

And the peerless Dagpo Rinpoche says:

at first you should be driven by a fear of birth and death like a stag escaping from a trap. In the middle, you should have nothing to regret even if you die, like a farmer who has carefully worked his fields. In the end, you should feel relieved and happy, like a person who has just completed a formidable task.

At first, you should know that there is no time to waste, like someone dangerously wounded by an arrow. In the middle, you should meditate on death without thinking of anything else, like a mother whose only child has died. In the end, you should know that there is nothing left to do, like a shepherd whose flocks have been driven off by their enemies.

Meditate single-mindedly on death and impermanence until you reach that stage.

The Buddha said:

To meditate persistently on impermanence is to make offerings to all the Buddhas.
To meditate persistently on impermanence is to be rescued from suffering by all the Buddhas.
To meditate persistently on impermanence is to be guided by all the Buddhas.
To meditate persistently on impermanence is to be blessed by all the Buddhas.
Of all footprints, the elephant’s are outstanding; just so, of all subjects of meditation for a follower of the Buddhas, the idea of impermanence is unsurpassed.

And he said in the Vinaya:

To remember for an instant the impermanence of all compounded things is greater than giving food and offerings to a hundred of my disciples who are perfect vessels,^* such as the bhiksus Sariputra and Maudgalyayana.

^{* i.e. perfectly capable of receiving the teachings correctly and making use of them.}

A lay disciple asked Geshe Potowa which Dharma practice was the most important if one had to choose only one. The Geshe replied:

If you want to use a single Dharma practice, to meditate on impermanence is the most important.

At first meditation on death and impermanence makes you take up the Dharma; in the middle it conduces to positive practice; in the end it helps you realize the sameness of all phenomena.

At first meditation first meditation on impermanence makes you cut your ties with the things of this life; in the middle it conduces to your casting off all clinging to samsara; in the end it helps you take up the path of nirvana.

At first meditation on impermanence makes you develop faith; in the middle it conduces to diligence in your practice; in the end it helps you give birth to wisdom.

At first meditation on impermanence, until you are fully convinced, makes you search for the Dharma; in the middle it conduces to practice; in the end it helps you attain the ultimate goal.

At first meditation on impermanence, until you are fully convinced, makes you practice with a diligence which protects you like armor; in the middle it conduces to your practicing with a diligence in action; in the end it helps you practice with a diligence that is insatiable.⁴⁶Note ⁴⁶

And Padampa Sangye says:

At first, to be fully convinced of impermanence makes you take up the Dharma; in the middle it whips up your diligence; and in the end it brings you to the radiant dharmakaya

Unless you feel this sincere conviction in the principle of impermanence, any teaching you might think you have received and put into practice will just make you more and more impervious⁴⁷ to the Dharma. Note ⁴⁷

Padampa Sangye also said:

I never see a single Tibetan practitioner who thinks about dying;
Nor have I ever seen one live forever!
Judging by their relish for amassing wealth once they don the yellow robe, I wonder–
Are they going to pay off Death in food and money?
Seeing the way they collect the best of valuables, I wonder—
Are they going to hand out bribes in hell?
Ha-ha! To see those Tibetan practitioners make me laugh!
The most learned are the proudest,
The best meditators pile up provisions and riches,
The solitary hermits engross themselves in trivial pursuits,
The renunciants of home and country know no shame.
Those people are immune to the Dharma!
They revel in wrong-doing.
They can see others dying but have not understood that they themselves are also going to die.
That is their first mistake.

Meditation on impermanence is therefore the prelude that opens the way to all practices of Dharma. When he was asked for instructions on how to dispel adverse circumstances, Geshe Potowa answered with the following words:

Think about death and impermanence for a long time. Once you are certain that you are going to die, you will no longer find it hard to put aside harmful actions, nor difficult to do what is right.
After that, meditate for a long time on love and compassion. Once love fills your heart you will no longer find it hard to act for the benefit of others.
Then meditate for a long time on emptiness, the natural state of all phenomena. Once you fully understand emptiness, you will no longer find it hard to dispel all your delusions.

Once we have such conviction about impermanence, all the ordinary activities of this life come to seem as profoundly abhorrent as a greasy meal does to someone suffering from nausea. My revered Master often used to say:

Whatever I see of high rank, power, wealth or beauty in this world arouses no desire in me. That is because, seeing how the noble beings of old spent their lives, I have just a little understanding of impermanence. I have no deeper instruction than this to offer you

So, just how deeply have you become permeated with this thought of impermanence? You should be like Geshe Kharak Gomchung, who went to meditate in the mountain solitudes of Jomo Kharak in the province of Tsang. In front of his cave there was a thorn-bush which kept catching on his clothes.

At first he thought, “Maybe I should cut it down,” but then he said to himself, “But after all, I may die inside this cave. I really cannot say whether I shall ever come out again alive. Obviously it is more important for me to get on with my practice.”

When he came back out, he had the same problem with the thorns. This time he thought, “I am not at all sure that I shall ever go back inside;” and so it went on for many years until he was an accomplished master. When he left, the bush was still uncut.

Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa would always spend the time of the constellation Risi, in autumn, at a certain hot spring. The sides of the pool had no steps, making it very difficult for him to climb down to the water and sit in it. His followers offered to cut some steps, but he replied: “Why take so much trouble when we don’t know if we will be around next year?” He would always be speaking of impermanence like that, my master told me.

We too, as long as we have not fully assimilated such an attitude, should meditate on it. Start by generating bodhicitta, and as the main practice train your mind by all these various means until impermanence really permeates your every thought. Finally, conclude by sealing the practice with the dedication of merit. Practicing in this way, strive to the best of your ability to emulate the great beings of the past.

Impermanence is everywhere, yet I still think things will last.
I have reached the gates of old age, yet I still pretend I am young.
Bless me and misguided beings like me,
That we may truly understand impermanence.

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Jetsun Trakpa Gyaltsen (1147 – 1216)

A great scholar and early teacher of the Sakya school.

Understanding that samsaric activities are empty of meaning,
With great compassion you strive only for the benefit of others.
Without attachment to samsara or nirvana, you act according to the Great Vehicle.
Peerless Teacher, at your feet I bow.

Listen to this chapter with the same attitude as you did the previous ones. It comprises a general reflection on the sufferings of samsara and reflections on the particular sufferings of each of the six realms of being.

I. THE SUFFERINGS OF SAMSARA IN GENERAL

As I have pointed out already, we may now have a life endowed with the freedoms and advantages which are so difficult to find, but it will not last for long. We will soon fall under the power of impermanence and death. If after that we just disappeared like a fire burning out or water evaporating, everything would be over. But after death we do not vanish into nothing. We are forced to take a new birth—which means that we will still be in samsara, and nowhere else.

The term samsara, the wheel or round of existence, is used here to mean going round and round from one place to another in a circle, like a potter’s wheel, or the wheel of a water mill. When a fly is trapped in a closed jar, no matter where it flies it cannot get out. Likewise, whether we are born in the higher or lower realms, we are never outside samsara. The upper part of the jar is like the higher realms of gods and men, and the lower part like the three unfortunate realms. It is said that samsara is a circle because we turn round and round, taking rebirth in one after another of the six realms as a result of our own actions which, whether positive or negative, are tainted by clinging.

We have been wandering since beginningless time in these samsaric worlds in which every being, without exception, has had relations of affection, enmity and indifference with every other being. Everyone has been everyone else’s father and mother. In the sutras it is said that if you wished to count back the generations of mothers in your family, saying, “She was my mother’s mother; her mother was so and so…” and so on, using little pellets of earth as big as a juniper berry to count them, the whole earth would be used up before you had counted them all. As Lord Nagarjuna says:

We would run out of earth trying to count our mothers
With balls of clay the size of juniper berries.

There is not a single form of life that we have not taken throughout beginningless samsara until now. Our desires have led us innumerable times to have our head and limbs cut off. Were we to try to pile up in one place all the limbs we have lost when we were ants and other small insects, the pile would be higher than Mount Meru. The tears we have wept from cold, hunger and thirst when we were without food and clothing, had they not all dried up, would make an ocean larger than all the great oceans surrounding the world. Even the amount of molten copper we have swallowed in the hells would be vaster than the four great oceans. Yet all beings bound to the realms of samsara by their desire and attachments, with never an instant’s remorse, will have to undergo still more sufferings in this endless circle.

Even were we able, through the fortunate result of some virtuous action, to obtain the long life, perfect body, wealth and glory of Indra or Brahma, in the end we would still not be able to postpone death; and after death we would again have to experience the sufferings of the lower realms. In this present life, what little advantages of power, wealth, good health and other things we enjoy might fool us for a few years, months, or days. But once the effect of whatever good actions caused these happy states is exhausted, whether we want to or not, we will have to undergo poverty and misery or the unbearable sufferings of the lower realms.

What meaning is there in that kind of happiness? It is like a dream that just stops in the middle when you wake up. Those who, as the result of some slight positive action, seem to be happy and comfortable at the moment, will not be able to hold on to that state for an instant longer once the effect of that action runs out. The kinds of the gods, seated high on their thrones of precious jewels spread with divine silks, enjoy all the pleasures of the five senses. But, once their lifespan is exhausted, in the twinkling of an eye they are plunged into suffering and fall headlong down to the scorching metal ground of hell. Even the gods of the sun and moon,⁴⁸ who light up the four continents, in darkness so deep that they cannot see whether their own limbs are stretched out or bent in. Note ⁴⁸

So do not put your trust in the apparent joys of samsara. Resolve that, in this very life, you will free yourself from the great ocean of its sufferings and attain the true and constant happiness of perfect Buddhahood. Make this thought your practice, using the proper methods for the beginning, the main part and the conclusion.

1. The eighteen hells

1.1 THE EIGHT HOT HELLS

These eight hells lie one above the other like the storeys of a building, from the Reviving Hell on top, down to The Hell of Ultimate Torment at the bottom. In each the ground and perimeter are like the white-hot iron of a smith—there is nowhere at all where you could safely put your foot. Everything is a searingly hot expanse of blazing, fiery flame.

1.1.1 The Reviving Hell

Here, amidst the burning embers that cover the incandescent metal ground, beings as numerous as the snowflakes of a blizzard are gathered together by the force of their actions. As the actions which drove them there were motivated by hatred, the effect similar to the cause makes them see each other as mortal enemies, and furiously they fight. Brandishing inconceivable weapons—a phantom armory created by their karma—they strike at each other until everyone is slain. At that time, a voice from the sky says, “Revive!” and they immediately come back to life and start fighting all over again. And so they suffer, continually dying and being revived.

How long do they live there? Fifty human years equal one day in the god realm of the Four Great Kings. Thirty of those days make a month, and twelve months make a year; five hundred such years equal one day in the Reviving Hell, where again, twelve months, each of thirty days, make up a year. They suffer there for five hundred of those years.

1.1.2 The Black-Line Hell

Here Yama’s henchmen lay their victims out on the ground of burning metal like so many firebrands and cross-rule their bodies with black lines—four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two and so on—which they use as guidelines to cut them up with burning saws. No sooner have their bodies been cut into pieces than they immediately become whole once more, only to be hacked apart and chopped up over and over again.

As for the length of their life there, a hundred human years correspond to one day for the gods in the Heaven of the Thirty-three, and a thousand years in the Heaven of the Thirty-three is equal to one day in this hell. On that scale, beings live there live for a thousand years.

1.1.3 The Rounding-Up and Crushing Hell

In this hell, beings by the million are thrown into vast mortars of iron the size of whole valleys. The henchmen of Yama, the Lord of Death, whirling huge hammers of red-hot metal as big as Mount Meru around their heads, pound their victims with them. These beings are crushed to death, screaming and weeping in unimaginable agony and terror. As the hammers are lifted, they come back to life, only to suffer the same torments over and over again.

Sometimes, the mountains on both sides of the valley turn into the heads of stags, deer, goats, rams and other animals that the hell-beings have killed in their past lives. The beasts butt against each other with their horn-tips spewing fire, and innumerable hell beings, drawn there by the power of their actions, are all crushed to death. Then, once more, as the mountains separate, they revive only to be crushed again.

Two hundred human years are equivalent to one day for the gods of the Heaven Without Fighting. Two thousand years in that realm correspond to one day in the Rounding-Up and Crushing Hell, and the beings in that hell live two thousand years.

1.1.4 The Howling Hell

Here, beings suffer by being roasted in buildings of red hot metal with no exit. They scream and cry, feeling that they will never escape.

Four hundred human years equal one day in the Joyous Realm. Four thousand years in that heaven are equivalent to one day in the Howling Hell, where life continues for four thousand years.

1.1.5 The Great Howling Hell

A vast host of Yama’s henchmen, armed and terrifying, shove victims by the million into metal sheds with double walls blazing with fire, and beat them with hammers and other weapons. Both the inner and outer doors are sealed with molten metal and the hell-beings howl in torment to think that, even if they could get past the first door, they would never be able to get through the second.

Eight hundred human years correspond to one day in teh Paradise of Joyful Magic. Eight thousand years there equal one day in the Great Howling Hell. Its beings have a lifespan of eight thousand years.

1.1.6 The Heating Hell

Here, countless beings suffer by being cooked in huge iron cauldrons the size of the whole cosmos of a billion worlds, where they boil in molten bronze. Whenever they surface, they are grabbed by the workers with metal hooks and beaten about the head with hammers, sometimes losing consciousness; their idea of happiness is these rare moments when they no longer feel pain. Otherwise, they continually experience immense suffering.

Sixteen hundred human years equal one day among the gods Enjoying the Emanations of Others. Sixteen thousand years of these gods correspond to one day in the Heating Hell, and beings stay there sixteen thousand of those years.

1.1.7 The Intense Heating Hell

The beings in this hell are trapped inside blazing metal houses, and Yama’s henchmen impale them through the heels and the anus with tridents of red-hot iron, until the prongs push out through the shoulders and the crown of the head. At the same time their bodies are wrapped in sheets of blazing metal. What pain they suffer! This continues for half an intermediate kalpa, a period of time immeasurable in terms of human years.

1.1.8 The Hell of Ultimate Torment

This is an immense edifice of blazing hot metal, surrounded by the sixteen Neighboring Hells. In it Yama’s henchmen toss incalculable numbers of beings into the center of a mountain of pieces of red-hot iron, glowing live like coals. They whip up the flames with bellows of tiger and leopard-skin until the bodies of their victims and the fire become indistinguishable. Their suffering is tremendous. Apart from the cries of distress, there is no longer any indication of the presence of actual bodies. They constantly long to escape, but it never happens. Sometimes there is a small gap in the fire and they think they can get out, but the workers hit them with spears, clubs, hammers and other weapons and they are subjected to all the agonies of the seven previous hells, such as having molten bronze poured into their mouths.

Lifespan here is a whole intermediate kalpa. It is called the Hell of Ultimate Torment because there could be no worse torment elsewhere. It is the hell where those who have committed the five crimes with immediate retribution, and practitioners of the Mantrayana who develop adverse views regarding the Vajra Master, are reborn. No other actions have the power to cause rebirth here.

1.1.9 The Neighboring Hells

Around the Hell of Ultimate Torment, in each of the four cardinal directions, there is a ditch of flaming embers, a marsh of rotting corpses, a plain of bristling weapons and a forest of trees with razor-edged leaves. There is one of each in the north, south, east and west, making sixteen in all. In each of the intermediate directions—the southeast, southwest, northwest, and northeast—stands a hill of iron salmali trees.

1. The pit of hot embers

When beings have purged most of the effects of actions connected with the Hell of Ultimate Torment and emerge from it, they see, far away in the distance, what looks like a shady trench. They leap into it with delight, only to find themselves sinking down into a pit of blazing embers which burn their flesh and bones.

2. The swamp of putrescent corpses

Then they see a river. Having been roasted in a brazier for a whole kalpa, they are so thirsty that seeing water fills them with joy and they rush towards it to quench their thirst. But of course there is no water. There is nothing but corpses—corpses of humans, corpses of horses, corpses of dogs—all decomposing and crawling with insects as they decompose, giving off the foulest of stenches. They sink into this mire until their heads go under, while worms with iron beaks devour them.

3. The plain of razors

When they emerge from this swamp, they are thrilled to see a pleasant green plain. But when they get there they find that it is bristling with weapons. The whole ground is covered with slender blades of burning hot metal growing like grass, which pierce their feet with each step. Each foot heals as they lift i—only to be excruciatingly stabbed again as soon as they put it down.

4. The forest of swords

Once again free, they rejoice to see a beautiful forest and rush towards it. But when they get there, there is no beautiful forest. It turns out to be a thicket whose trees have swords growing on their metal branches instead of leaves. As they stir in the wind, the swords cut those beings’ bodies into little pieces. Their bodies reconstitute themselves and are chopped up over and over again.

5. The hill of iron salmali trees

It is here that loose monks and nuns who have broken their vows of chastity and people who give themselves over to sexual misconduct are reborn. The effect of such actions brings them to the foot of the terrifying hill of an iron salmali trees. At the top they can see their former lovers calling them. As they climb eagerly up to join them, all the leaves of the iron trees point downwards and pierce their flesh. When they reach the top, they find ravens, vultures, and the like that dig out their eyes to suck up the fat. Again they see their friends calling them, now from the foot of the hill. Down they go, and the leaves turn upward, stabbing them through the chest again and again. Once they get down to the ground, hideous metallic men and women embrace them, biting off their heads and chewing them until the brains trickle out of the corners of their mouths. Such are the torments experienced here.

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Absorb all the details of the pains of the eight hot hells, the sixteen neighboring and supplementary hells and the hills of iron and salmali trees. Withdrawing to a quiet place, close your eyes and imagine that you are really living in the infernal realms. When you feel as much terror and pain as you would if you were really there, arouse the following thought in your mind:

“I feel such intense terror and suffering when I just imagine all that pain, even though I am not actually there. There are countless beings living in those realms right now, and all of them have been my parents in past lives. There is no knowing whether my parents, loved ones and friends of this life will not be reborn there once they die. Rebirth in those realms is caused primarily by actions arising from hatred, and I myself have accumulated an incalculable number of such actions in this present life as well as in all my past lives. I can be certain that I myself will be reborn in those hells sooner or later.”

“At present, I have a human life complete with all the freedoms and advantages. I have met an authentic spiritual teacher and received the profound instructions which offer the possibility of attaining the level of the Buddha. So I must do my best to practice the methods that will save me from ever having to be born in those lower realms again.”

Over and over again, reflect like this on the suffering of the hells. Confess your past misdeeds with intense remorse and make the unshakeable resolve that, even at the risk of your life, you will never again commit acts which lead to birth in the hell realms. With immense compassion for the beings who are there now, pray that they may all be freed from the lower realms this very instant. Put the teaching into practice, complete with the methods for the beginning, the main part and the conclusion.

In all these hells, the environment is entirely composed of snow mountains and glaciers, perpetually enveloped in snowy blizzards.

The beings there, all completely naked, are tormented by the cold.

1. The hell of blisters

In the Hell of Blisters, the cold makes blisters erupt on their bodies.

2. The hell of burst blisters

In the Hell of Burst Blisters, the blisters burst open.

3. The hell of clenched teeth

In the Hell of Clenched Teeth, the biting cold is intolerable and the teeth of the beings there are tightly clenched.

4. The hell of lamentations

In the Hell of Lamentations, their lamenting never ends.

5. The hell of groans

In the Hell of Groans their voices are cracked and long groans escape from their lips.

6. The hell of utpala-like cracks

In the Hell of Utpala-like Cracks, their skin turns blue and splits into four petal-like pieces.

7. The hell of lotus-like cracks

In the Hell of Lotus-like Cracks, their red raw flesh becomes visible, and the cold makes it split into eight pieces.

8. The hell of great lotus-like cracks

Lastly, in the Hell of Great Lotus-like Cracks, their flesh turns dark red and splits into sixteen, thirty-two and then into innumerable pieces. Worms penetrated the cracked flesh and devour it with their metal beaks.

The names of these hells derive from the different sufferings that beings endure in them.

As for the lifespan in these cold hells, imagine a container that could hold two hundred Kosala measures,^* filled with sesame seeds. Life in the Blistering Hell lasts as long as it would take to empty that container by removing a single grain every hundred years.

^{* An ancient measure named after the Indian city of Kosala (near modern Ayodhya).}

For the other cold hells, lifespan and sufferings increase by multiples of twenty for each one. Life thus lasts twenty times longer in the Hell of Burst Blisters than in the Blistering Hell; twenty times longer than that in the Hell of Clenched Teeth; and so on.

Take these sufferings upon yourself mentally, and meditate on them in the same way as for the hot hells. Think how unbearably cold it feels to stand naked in the winter wind even for an instant in this present human world. How could you stand it if you were reborn in those realms? Confess your faults and promise never to commit them again. Then develop compassion for the beings actually living in those worlds. Practice as before, employing each of the methods for the beginning, main practice and conclusion.

The ephemeral hells exist in all sorts of different locations and the sufferings experienced in them also vary considerably. Beings may be crushed between rocks, or trapped inside a stone, frozen in ice, cooked in boiling water or burnt in fires. Some feel that, when someone is cutting a tree, they are the tree having their limbs chopped off. Some suffer through identifying their bodies with objects that are constantly put to use, such as mortars, brooms, pans, doors, pillars, hobs and ropes.

Examples of stories about these hells are the accounts of the fish seen by Lingje Repa in Yamdrok Lake and the frog that the siddha Tangtong Gyalpo found inside a stone.

Yutso Ngonmo, the Blue Turquoise Lake, appeared while the dakini Yeshe Tsogyal was meditating in Yamdrok, when a piece of pure gold thrown by a Bonpo was transformed into water. It is one of the four famous lakes of Tibet, and is so long that to get from its head at Lung Kangchen to where it ends at Zemaguru is a walk of several days. One day the great siddha Lingje Repa was looking into this lake, when he started to weep, exclaiming, “Poor thing! Don’t misuse offerings! Don’t misuse offerings!”⁴⁹ Note ⁴⁹

When the people who were with him asked him to explain, he said, “The consciousness of a lama who misused offerings has been reborn in an ephemeral hell in this lake, and is suffering terribly.”

They wanted to see, so the siddha miraculously dried up the lake in an instant, revealing a huge fish so big that its body spanned the lake’s entire length and breadth. It was squirming in agony because it was completely covered with small creatures that were eating it alive. Lingje Repa’s attendants asked him who it was that had such evil karma, and he replied that it was Tsangla Tanakchen, the Black Horse Lama from Tsang. He was a lama whose speech had had great power and blessing.⁵⁰ A mere glance from him was enough to cure someone troubled by spirits. For this reason he was highly venerated in the four provinces of U and Tsang. But when he performed the transference of consciousness at funeral ceremonies, for each “P’et!“^* he uttered he would take as payment a large number of the horses and cattle belonging to the deceased.

^{* One use of the syllable P’et is to project the consciousness in the practice of transference (discussed in Part Three).} Note ⁵⁰

One day the siddha Tangtong Gyalpo was practicing the yoga exercises of the channels and energies on a big rock. The rock split in two. Inside there was a huge frog. Innumerable small creatures had attached themselves to it and were eating it alive, making it open and close its black mouth in unbearable pain. When his companions asked why this had come about, Tangtong Gyalpo explained that the being who had been reborn in that form had been a priest who sacrificed animals.

Look at the lamas of today! Each time a patron kills a nice fat sheep and cooks up the gullet, kidneys and other organs along with the meat and blood, serving it piled up with the still quivering ribs of a yak, our lamas pull the shawl of their robes over their heads and suck away at the entrails like babies at their mother’s breast. Then they cut themselves slices of the outer meat with their knives and munch them in a leisurely fashion. Once they have finished, their heads emerge again, hot and steaming. Their mouths gleam with grease and their whiskers have acquired a reddish tinge. But they will have a big problem in their next life, in one of the ephemeral hells, when they have to pay back with their own bodies all that they have eaten so many times in this life.

Once Palden Chokyong, High Abbot of Ngor, was at Derge. He posted many monks along the banks of the river Ngulda, commanding them to let nothing pass by. Towards evening, they saw a big tree-trunk floating on the water, so they hauled it in to the bank and took it to the Abbot, telling him that they had seen nothing else.

“That must be it,” he said. “Split it open.”

Inside they found a big frog being eaten alive by a mass of insects. After doing a purification ritual, the Abbot said that the frog had been a treasurer of Derge named Pogye. Today they might seem all-powerful, but all those chiefs and high dignitaries who dip into the public purse should think about the ephemeral hells and be careful.

At the time of the Buddha, there was a village butcher who made a vow never to kill animals at night. He was reborn in an ephemeral hell. At night his pleasure knew no bounds. He lived in a beautiful mansion, with four lovely women plying him with food and drink and other pleasures. During the day, however, the walls of the house would transform into blazing hot metal and the four women into terrifying brown dogs who fed on his body.

Long ago, Srona saw an adulterer who had vowed to keep from infidelity during the day. In contrast to the butcher, he suffered only during the night.

There was once a delightful monastery, housing about five hundred monks. When the bell rang around midday and the monks gathered to eat, the monastery would turn into a house of burning metal. The monks’ begging bowls, cups and so forth would change into weapons and the monks would beat each other with them. Once the lunch-hour had ended, they would separate and take their places again. In the days of Buddha Kasyapa, many monks had argued at the time of the midday meal, and this was the fully ripened effect.^*

^{* This is explained in the chapter that follows.}

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These eight hot hells, eight cold hells, the neighboring hells and the ephemeral hells are together called the eighteen hell realms. Carefully study their number, the length of time spent in them, their sufferings and the causes of being reborn there, and meditate with compassion on the beings born in them. Strive to ensure that no one, neither yourself nor anyone else, is ever reborn in those realms.

If you are content just to listen and know all this intellectually, without making it a living experience, you will just become one of those obdurate and arrogant practitioners criticized by sublime beings and condemned by the wise.

There was once a monk whose conduct was exemplary but whose pride was enormous. He came to visit Shang Rinpoche, who asked him what Dharma he knew.

“I have listened to many teachings,” replied the monk.

“Then tell me the names of the eighteen hells,” said shang Rinpoche.

“The eight hot hells and the eight cold hells… that makes sixteen… and eighteen if you add the Black and Red Hat Karmapas.”

It was not lack of respect that caused him to count the Karmapa Lamas with the hells. He had simply forgotten the names of the ephemeral hells and the neighboring hells, and since the Red and Black Hat Karmapas were very well known at the time, impulsively he put them in. Now, whether or not you have practiced the teachings you have received is one thing, but not to know at least the words and terms involved is truly shameful.

2.1 PRETAS WHO LIVE COLLECTIVELY

2.1.1 Pretas suffering from external obscurations

2.1.2 Pretas suffering from internal obscurations

2.1.3 Pretas suffering from specific obscurations

2.2 PRETAS WHO MOVE THROUGH SPACE

3.1 ANIMALS LIVING IN THE DEPTHS

3.2 ANIMALS THAT LIVE SCATTERED IN DIFFERENT PLACES

4.1 THE THREE FUNDAMENTAL TYPES OF SUFFERING

4.1.1 The suffering of change

4.1.2 Suffering upon suffering

4.1.3 The suffering of everything composite⁵³

4.2.1 The suffering of birth

4.2.2 The suffering of old age

4.2.3 The suffering of sickness

4.2.4 The suffering of death

4.3.1 The fear of meeting hated enemies

4.3.2 The fear of losing loved ones

4.3.3 The suffering of not getting what one wants

4.3.4 The suffering of encountering what one does not want

I. NEGATIVE ACTIONS TO BE ABANDONED
**1. The ten negative actions to be avoided

1.1 TAKING LIFE

1.2 TAKING WHAT IS NOT GIVEN

1.3 SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

1.4 LYING

1.5 SOWING DISCORD

1.6 HARSH SPEECH

1.7 WORTHLESS CHATTER

1.8 COVETOUSNESS

1.9 WISHING HARM ON OTHERS

1.10 WRONG VIEWS

2. The effects of the ten negative actions

2.1 THE FULLY RIPENED EFFECT⁸⁰

2.2 THE EFFECT SIMILAR TO THE CAUSE

2.2.1 Actions Similar to the Cause

2.2.2 Experiences Similar to the Cause

2.3 THE CONDITIONING EFFECT

2.4 THE PROLIFERATING EFFECT