Bonus Episode: Meditation on Our Precious Human Life

Hi everyone, welcome to the Modern Buddhism Podcast. And in this bonus episode this week, as we begin to lean into a new year, we thought it would be great to share with everyone and engage in together. It's really inspiring and empowering meditation that enables us over time to get to a place in our heart where we wake up every day, feeling that we're living with an ever-increasing feeling of meaning, purpose, and joy in everyday life. And how through that we also feel we're continually improving our capacity to be of benefit to others. This meditation within the Kadampa Buddha's tradition is known as the meditation on our precious human life. And in this meditation, we're really encouraged to reflect on and meditate on what does it really mean to extract the greatest meaning possible from everyday of our life. And of course, at this time of the year, most of us are reflecting on the year ahead and maybe goals we're setting for that year. But a lot of these goals are focused on external aspects of our life and material development. So maybe I have this goal from my career, this goal from my physical health and well-being, I want to travel and so forth. All of these, of course, can be necessary conditions and a balanced approach to life. However, if you really ask yourself deep in your heart, what would bring me the most meaning, the most benefit? Maybe it comes down to what will bring me the deepest peace and the deepest happiness. Really if we accomplish all those external goals, but we don't feel an increasing sense of peace and happiness will always feel like something's missing in our life. However, if we begin to find that deeper peace, that deeper happiness, gradually we'll start to feel we're resolving our deepest longing, which is simply to be happy and free from suffering. This supreme and everlasting peace and happiness is what Buddha called enlightenment. And if we feel at some level our life is moving in that direction more and more every day, especially if it's motivated by a deeper love and compassion that wishes everyone else to experience that one day, we will feel every day as if increasing meaning, purpose and a deeper sense of joy. And what's great is that everyone listen to this podcast today, everyone you love indeed, everyone without exception has this potential already within them to experience that more and more day by day. Buddha called this our Buddha nature, a pure potential within our heart for all the good qualities of the heart, such as love, kindness and compassion, that we can continually cultivate and deepen over time and that leads to the very deepest peace, happiness and freedom from suffering over time. And also we can access all the teachings that Buddha taught and all the practices he taught to help us continually cultivate that potential so we realize our highest potential for enlightenment one day. As Geshe Kelsang says in the book, "The new eight steps to happiness. Each and every living being has within them the seed or potential to become a Buddha. This is our Buddha nature. In Buddha's teachings we have found the best method to realize this potential. What we need to do now is to put these teachings into practice." And that's essentially what this meditation is all about. We encourage ourselves, energizing ourselves to put these teachings of Buddha known as the Dharma into practice. Meaning taking these teachings on developing love, compassion, kindness, wisdom, more and more deeply to heart so that more we become familiar with them, the more peace, happiness, freedom from suffering we find and the more we're able to be of benefit to others. And so in this meditation on our precious human life, really what we're trying to get to is a place in our heart where we really deeply feel that our human life is precious, rare and immensely meaningful. And the more that we can see that, that we can experience that in our heart, the more naturally we'll come from the depths of our heart over time, this heartfelt determination to put the Dharma into practice purely and sincerely. And gradually that determination will guide our day, will guide our life to a deeper sense of meaning, a deeper sense of purpose, peace, joy and benefit to others throughout our day and throughout our life. So in this meditation we'll first settle the mind through a little bit of breathing meditation, connect to at least a degree of inner calm or peace of mind and just the natural feelings of happiness that come from that. And in that experience again it's really good to see the potential within you to become someone who's increasingly at peace, increasingly happy and increasingly able to be of benefit to others. In that experience then we're beginning to identify a little bit more and more over time with this pure potential within us, developing the confidence that we can take the Dharma more deeply to heart and feel the benefits of it in our lives and also in the lives of others. Then we'll generate a good-hearted motivation for the meditation to essentially improve our own good qualities and to be of increasing benefit to others. Then from feeling centered in that experience of our potential to change, we contemplate right now we have this amazing opportunity, we have the freedom to change. We also have access to all the necessary conditions we need, such as teachers and teachings, that enable us to affect the deepest, longest lasting change in our hearts and in our lives. We can take all of the Dharma more and more deeply to heart every day. We just allow ourselves to really appreciate that, the preciousness of this opportunity that our life presents us with right now. Also then we reflect on, whilst this opportunity is precious, it's also incredibly rare. If you look at how many people just struggle to get by in everyday life and how many people are struggling with distraction and busyness and just really feel they can't change at any deep level and don't have access to the methods to change, it's quite rare to have the conditions we have right now in this moment to be able to change. And also from a Buddhist point of view, to have all of these conditions gathered together in this life is very rare, there's no guarantee we'll have these conditions in our future lives anytime soon. And finally we contemplate deep in our heart. Right now I have this incredible opportunity to extract the greatest meaning from every moment of my life through developing these spiritual realizations and accomplishing my full spiritual potential, ultimately accomplishing my potential for enlightenment. Then on the basis of these contemplations we allow to come from the depths of our heart, a heartfelt determination, a most practiced Dharma purely and sincerely. And we hold that determination deep in our heart so that deep in moment by moment by moment and it guides our day in our life when we arise from meditation. So with all that said, let's engage in this meditation together. So eyes closed and gently breathing through the nose. Can leave your eyes open a little bit, just to allow some light in. That's nice and straight or relaxed. And on each relaxed inhalation and relaxed exhalation, just move your focus and attention closer and closer to the breath. Until you remain focused more and more on the ebb and flow of breath as it enters and leaves at the rim of the nostrils. If you come distracted in any way, just relax and return your attention to the breath each time. Just remaining there a little bit longer each time. Until you experience this gradual settling within the mind, increasing experience of inner calm or peace of mind as you come back to and remain with the breath. Thank you. [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] As we begin to experience some degree of inner calm or peace of mind, we remain with that state of mental calm or inner peace for a little while and just enjoy. And at the same time, try and see within that experience your potential to change, to become someone who experiences a deeper inner peace and happiness over time. Allow yourself to just simply pause and appreciate that. And from that experience of our own potential to change, we allow there to rise from our heart good intention for engaging in this meditation. I'm going to engage in this meditation to cultivate my pure potential for good qualities of the heart that lead to deep peace and happiness for myself and continually increase my capacity to be of benefit to others. And we contemplate gently in our heart how this human life that I have is precious, rare and immensely meaningful. Right now I have the freedom to change. Having this life from this perspective of my pure potential, I have the freedom to change. And I have access to all the necessary conditions to affect the deepest and most positive change in my heart and in my life. The teachers, the teachings, everything I need to move closer and closer. And I have the supreme and everlasting peace and happiness of enlightenment. Just allow yourself to pause and deeply appreciate the precious opportunity this life presents us with right now. Thank you. [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] And also right now we have this human life in which we can extract the greatest meaning from it through taking down a more deeply to heart, finding ever increasing peace, happiness, and capacity to benefit others. For these conditions to come together in this life is very rare. We have this life right now. This is our opportunity to really extract the greatest meaning from it. There's no guarantee we'll have these conditions in our next life or anytime soon. Just allow yourself to pause, deeply appreciate the preciousness and rarity of this opportunity we have right now. [ Silence ] [ Silence ] And finally we can contemplate. If I use this human life now to accomplish spiritual realizations it becomes immensely meaningful. I can actualize my full potential and move closer and closer to supreme and permanent peace, happiness of enlightenment and the perfect ability to be of benefit to others. I can solve all my human problems and in time fulfill all my own and others wishes. What could be more meaningful than this? [ Silence ] Finally, through contemplating in this way we allow there to rise from the depths of our heart, a strong determination. I must practice Dharma purely and sincerely. When this determination arises in your heart hold it, remain with it so you deepen it in your heart and guide your daily life. "Available for the next video." "Available for the next video." "Available for the next video."