Generating bodhicitta 

Through the virtues, I collected by giving and other perfections,

May I become a buddha for the benefit of all.

Repeat three times

To me, bodhicitta means to be a peacekeeper and spreader of positivity and happiness. I enjoy cultivating these seeds in myself and within my community, I aim to create I a better world that is.

Our precious human life

A quick quote from the contemplation is “If we use our human life to accomplish spiritual realizations, it becomes immensely meaningful”. The main purpose of this meditation is to encourage ourselves to practice dharma daily.

I then read this lamrim as a point to begin my meditation on. Soon after I found a single point of realization and began to meditate deeply.

Our human life is precious, rare and immensely meaningful. Due to their previous deluded views that denied the importance of spiritual practice, those who have taken rebirth as animals, for example, now have no opportunity to understand or practice Dharma. Since it is impossible for them to listen to, contemplate or practice Dharma, their present animal rebirth is itself an obstacle. Only human beings are free from such obstacles and have all the necessary conditions for engaging in spiritual paths, which alone lead to everlasting happiness. This combination of freedom and possession of necessary conditions is the special characteristic that makes our human life so precious.

Although there are many human beings in this world, each one of us has only one life. Each person may own many cars and houses, but even the richest person in the world cannot possess more than one life; and, when that is drawing to an end, he or she cannot buy, borrow or manufacture another. When we lose this life, it will be very difficult to find another similarly qualified human life in the future. Therefore, for each of us, a human life is very rare.

If we use our human life to accomplish spiritual realizations, it becomes immensely meaningful. By using it in this way, we actualize our full potential and progress from the state of an ordinary, ignorant being to that of a fully enlightened being, the highest of all beings; and when we have done this, we shall have the power to benefit all living beings without exception. Thus by using our life for gaining spiritual realizations, we can solve all our human problems and fulfill all our own and others’ wishes. What could be more meaningful than this?

As I dove into contemplation I flashed back living in San Francisco when I was driving with a dangerous and angry cab driver, I remember as we faintly avoided and oncoming car exclaiming “life is fragile”.

It is.

It really is.

After that moment, I began to see the world in a different lens that I had never experienced before. This meditation brings to light experiences like these, its your spirit telling you to sit up and live.

This life is precious, it is fragile and should be handled with care. We can care for ourselves, the people around us and the world we walk on. If our human life is precious all aspects of it should be treated with respect and care. Knowing who you are, what you stand for and where you are going are equally as important to how you fuel your light. The energies you surround yourself with, the food your place inside of you to the high-risk behaviors you may engage in. Sometimes people are born knowing this, others like myself need to learn this through trial and error.

I am thankful for this, I know how precious life can be. I am thankful for my good health I will use it to help others. I am thankful for my smile and the smile for those that I love, for we are alive!

Our human life is precious, rare and immensely meaningful.

It is.

It really is.