Wednesday, January 1, 2014

A Precious Human Birth

Acho Rinpoche: Today is the first day of the first Lunar Month, which is also the Supernatural Day of the Buddhist Calendar; the Tibetan Calendar is one day later. The power of blessing of the Supernatural Day is inconceivable. You should practise with vigor within this month in order to cleanse your negative karma; develop your brilliance and wisdom. Strive to maintain a happy mind at every moment, immersing in a spiritual joy. This is how we should cherish this life and our encounter with the precious Tantra. Do practice well. Is there anything else that anyone would like to share?
 
Xin: I had a dream one night, after chanting the heart mantra of Acho Rinpoche and later retiring to bed. In my dream, I saw a man following me closely. I did not recognise this man who seemed to be in his forty. Suddenly, he became smaller and smaller in size and he finally transformed into a silver dragon! It was beautiful! It was illuminating with rainbow light. It asked me to ride on its back. I hesitated slightly but eventually decided to take the ride. At that juncture, I woke up from my dream.  
Acho Rinpoche: Xin achieved a spiritual response after chanting my heart mantra. I have a very profound affinity with the Dragon Buddha who was the first dragon attaining Buddhahood in the dragon world. I told the audience at the Dragon Vase Practice held in Penang, Malaysia that if Dragon Buddha graced the occasion, it would mean that the highest merit was attained. As Dragon Buddha has a very profound connection with me, those who chant my heart mantra and practice well will be protected by the dragon kings! This is the promise of Dragon Buddha. They will help you and even give you a ride, bringing you to the various inconceivable places. Dragon Buddha is the biggest Buddha in the dragon world who looks after the rest of the dragons. Those who chant my heart mantra will receive very powerful blessing and achieve superior spiritual responses.
Mayumla had a vision of light during our last prayer session? Let’s invite her to do the sharing.
Mayumla: It was a special sensation that occurred during our chanting of Karmapa’s mantra. When I visualised the image of the 17th Karmapa, I felt more closely connected with the 16th Karmapa instead. I could feel his aura showering my body and my heart chakra emitted light outward, returning into the body of the 16th Karmapa. It seemed to be in a circular motion. When I seemed to nearly enter a state of quietude, I hesitated because I was worried that I might end up losing my way. I remained in that strange sensation for quite awhile.
Acho Rinpoche: The special occasion (Acho Rinpoche came across the picture of the 17th Karmapa in Chinese monk robe hung in a shop) was the cause of doing a special prayer on that day of chanting the mantra of Karmapa. Karmapa descended during our prayer, including all the lineage patriarchs ranging from Vajradhara, Tilopa, Naropa… to the 17th Karmapa, giving us blessing. Mayumla saw light emitted from her heart chakra because she has a special connection with the 16th Karmapa. She saw light being exchanged between her heart chakra and that of the 16th Karmapa. That was a very good spiritual response and attainment. I hope you would cherish such inconceivable power of blessing and seize the opportunity to practise well, and strive for the state of enlightenment in this lifetime.  
Cyclic Existence is an inconceivable phenomenon. If you fail to practise well, you will continue to be stranded in the Six Realms of Cyclic Existence perpetually. We are not certain if we could still come across the precious Buddha Dharma in future. It will be extremely difficult for one to gain a human birth. However, it will be extremely easy for one to lose a human birth and fall into the Three Lower Realms (animal, hell being and hungry ghost); there is no way to make a comparison numerically. Therefore, I repeated many times that as long as a man does not practise or fail in his practice of the Buddha Dharma, he will not be able to keep his human birth. It is indeed very hard to gain a human birth but the opportunity of falling into the Three Lower Realms is much greater, let alone the difficulty of rising to the highest Path of Buddhahood. It is very hard to go beyond the Six Realms of Existence and return to the Path of Buddhahood. It is also very hard to return to the Human Realm from the Three Lower Realms. One will be stranded within the Three Lower Realms for a long time once fallen.
Do not assume that the Three Lower Realms are no big deal and ignore the likelihood of falling. Once fallen into the Three Lower Realms, one will continue to be born as a snake, cat, dog, worm, hell being, hungry ghost etc. Do not assume that the Hungry Ghost Realm is not big deal because it is in a state of great suffering, likewise the Hell Realm. Hungry ghosts are perpetually in starvation but they will never be able to eat anything at all, for millions of year. It will be very difficult for one to rise from a lower realm to the Human Realm. Since we are fortunate enough to be reborn in the Human Realm based on good karma, we ought to cherish this precious human birth and put it to practice. With the superior power of blessing, we should strive towards enlightenment. We should return to this world to help the rest of the sentient beings after attaining Buddhahood, and remain in this world to perpetually turn the Wheel of Dharma to help the sentient beings.
This life will pass in no time. I repeated many times that your wife, children, career etc. will vanish in a blink of eye; what is most important is to do your spiritual practice.
A Dharma Discourse given by Acho Rinpoche on 10 Feb 2013.