Reflections on a Precious Human Life as Taught in the Martsang Lam Rim

As students of Mahayana Buddhism, our motivation is to practice the dharma for the benefit of all sentient beings. By accumulating merit and wisdom, we deconstruct the ego and remove barriers between our self and others, opening up to love and compassion; and by accomplishing Buddhahood, we create the conditions for the liberation of all beings from suffering. It’s easy to understand this motivation in principle, but it can be difficult to incorporate it into our daily lives.

When we enter the path of the sutra, we learn the methods of study, reflection and meditation. Everyone wants to jump to the last of these three; some people like doing the first, but not everyone understands the importance of the middle one. Reflection is the bridge between study and meditation; it is the means to assimilate the teachings, remove doubts, ensure our understanding is consistent with our experience, and properly prepare the mind for meditation. Whenever I feel distracted or overwhelmed by everyday circumstances, I reflect on the teachings of the rarity of a precious human life as a means to reawaken my motivation and as an antidote to modern living.

In the Martsang Lam Rim, this teaching comes after the lessons on reincarnation. This makes perfect sense; we can’t fully appreciate the rarity of a human rebirth, unless we can place it in the continuum of an endless cycle of rebirths in many different forms and realms. In Buddhist cosmology, we talk about six realms of existence, namely: hell beings, ghosts, animals, humans, demi-gods and gods. Of these realms, a human life is considered to offer the best conditions to practice the dharma and escape from cyclical existence. This is because the lower realms have too much suffering for effective practice, and the higher realms don’t have enough suffering to provide the motivation.

This cosmology may seem a little abstract, as we’re not able to directly perceive hells or god realms here of earth. However, we only need to gaze into the sky at night to remind us how small our planet is within the vast cosmos. Astronomers estimate that there are some 10 trillion planets in our galaxy and over 200 billion potentially observable galaxies. Some of the conditions for life, being ice and water vapour, have already been discovered on Mars, our nearest planet; and so, whilst we haven’t yet confirmed the existence of extra-terrestrial life, it seems almost certain to exist. 

However, we don’t need to go into space to experience an extraordinary diversity of life forms. Here on earth there are birds, reptiles, fish, insects, amphibians and mammals, including humans, which comprise a total of 9 million different species. We know that to become enlightened requires significant effort through study, analysis and mental training; and whilst, we don’t know exactly the mental experience of all these lifeforms, it seems unlikely that animals have the mental faculties or conditions for organised religious practice. This means that there is only one species out of millions that is suitable for accomplishing Buddhahood.

I remember a few years ago that I was on an island, sitting on the beach watching a line of ants walk between a rock and some plants. As I looked into the lush vegetation and listened to the sound of crickets and dragonflies, I remember thinking that there must be a vast number of insects around the beach and an even larger number on the island. Later that day, I was curious and so I checked the Internet to see how many insects there were in the world – according to the entomologist, C B Williams, there are one million trillion! That means that if there were only humans and insects (forgetting all the other myriad of lifeforms), then we could expect to have a human rebirth in about one in every 125 billion lifetimes. All the other lifetimes we would only be insects!

Even being a human isn’t enough to accomplish Buddhahood. First of all, to stand any chance, we need to be born at a time and place that the dharma is flourishing. We’re very fortunate here in Britain today to have modern publishing, air travel, telephones and the Internet – information now travels quickly – but, if you went back only a few hundred years, there would be virtually no opportunity to learn about Buddhism in most of Europe. If you go back even further to the times when Shakyamuni Buddha was teaching in India, unless you were fortunate enough to live in one of the villages where he taught, you literally had no chance of hearing the teachings!

Today, although information is readily available, it doesn’t mean that we will have the desire or opportunity to study. There are many people who live in war-torn regions, in relative poverty or in remote parts of the world. There are many people who live in countries with alternative cultural and religious heritage or in non-secular societies. Even those brought up in Buddhist cultures are often distracted by the daily pressures of making a living and raising families; and with all those difficulties, even if one has the desire to study, there is no guarantee that we will be able find either the time or a teacher.

I was brought up in a middle-class family in the suburbs, with a good education and a supportive family. However, none of my family or friends had any real interest or connection to Buddhism. It wasn’t taught at my school, my town didn’t have a Buddhist centre, there were no books in the local library, and no-one ever encouraged me to study. I didn’t really know what Buddhism was until my thirties and even then, had many misconceptions and only had a passing interest. It was only when this passing interest caused me to browse a few books that I developed a little intrigue. At some point, this intrigue turned into a personal commitment to learn more, which led to seeking out a teacher. I cannot tell you how incredibly fortunate I feel to have met His Holiness, after he had recently arrived in the UK, as my first and only Buddhist teacher.

When I look back on those circumstances now, I find it almost implausible. I am studying directly with a true Buddhist master, learning the authentic dharma that leads to enlightenment. This is happening in England, a country without Buddhist heritage to someone with no prior training, knowledge or support. It’s happening now, at a time when Buddhist teachings are still renowned and flourishing. I am healthy with all of my faculties intact and I have the time and economic conditions to allow me to study and practice. I can do that because I was born on this planet, despite the vast number of planets in the cosmos, and I was born a human, despite the innumerable lifeforms around me. This situation is similar for all dedicated students of Buddhism. These conditions are so rare and precious that they should make our hair stand on end, and fill us with joy, inspiration and motivation, to use this exceptional opportunity to practice the dharma for the benefit of all beings.

Article author: Julian McIntyre

Martsang Lam Rim Student

Source: Martsang Lam Rim written by His Holiness Gangri Karma Rinpoche.