freedom from being born as a hungry spirit
We meditate:
Beings who take rebirth as hungry spirits experience constant hunger and thirst. When I am feeling hungry I cannot give much thought to my spiritual practice and I cannot develop much interest in listening to or reading Dharma. Yet hungry spirits experience extreme hunger and thirst all the time and so they never have the freedom or the wish to practise Dharma. How fortunate I am not to have taken rebirth as a hungry spirit.
freedom from being born as an animal
We meditate:
Although some animals, like dogs, are clever at finding food and can be taught to obey our command, it is impossible for them to train their minds in the stages of the path to enlightenment because animals suffer from great confusion and stupidity. Even if we try to encourage them to meditate they are completely incapable of comprehending our advice. Our spiritual instructions are like wind in their ears. How fortunate I am not to have taken rebirth as an animal.
freedom from being born as an ordinary god
We meditate:
Long-life gods experience only two gross minds – one when they realize that they have taken heavenly rebirth and the other when they are about to die. The rest of their life is spent in a state that resembles sleep in which they become like mindless stones, perceiving nothing. Although their lives are long, these gods cannot reap any benefit from them by practising Dharma, and when they die they are born again in one of the lower realms.
Gods of the form realm other than long-life gods also lack the freedom to practise Dharma because they spend their whole life in a state of solitary tranquillity. They never experience suffering as we do, and they never see the sufferings of others, and so they have no way of developing realizations of renunciation, great compassion or bodhichitta. Some gods, such as the gods of the desire realm, spend their whole life engrossed in distractions and so they never develop an interest in Dharma, and when they die they are thrown into lower realms. Since from the point of view of Dharma, rebirth as an ordinary god is totally meaningless, how fortunate I am not to have taken such a rebirth.
There was once a doctor called Kumara who followed his Spiritual Guide, Shariputra, with great devotion. Even if Kumara was on an elephant, as soon as he saw Shariputra he would immediately dismount and pay homage. When he died he took rebirth as a god of the desire realm. Shariputra knew of this by means of his clairvoyance and he decided to visit his disciple to see if he could continue to instruct him in Dharma. When Shariputra entered the pleasure garden where this god was now playing, his former disciple merely waved at him from a distance and then withdrew into the company of the goddesses who were his playmates. Shariputra did not get the chance even to greet his former disciple, let alone to offer any spiritual advice.
The remaining four freedoms are freedoms from being born as a human being in conditions that either prevent or seriously impede spiritual practice:
5 Freedom from being born and remaining in a country where there is no religion
6 Freedom from being born and remaining in a country where there is no Buddhadharma
7 Freedom from being born and remaining with mental or physical disabilities
8 Freedom from holding wrong views denying Dharma
freedom from being born and remaining in a country where there is no religion
We meditate:
If I had been born in a savage and uncivilized place or in a country where religion is not tolerated, it would have been impossible for me to meet Dharma and put it into practice. There are many places in the world today where there is no religion or where people can be imprisoned and even tortured if they try to practise their religion; and there are many places where people have no opportunity to meet a Spiritual Guide who can show them how to train their minds. How fortunate I am not to be in such a place.
freedom from being born and remaining in a country where there is no buddhadharma
We meditate:
If I had been born in a country where religion is tolerated but where there is no one practising Dharma and no one to teach it to others, it would still have been impossible for me to develop interest in Dharma and to learn how to put it into practice. How fortunate I am not to be in such a place.
freedom from being born and remaining with mental or physical disabilities
We meditate:
If I had been mentally disabled for life I would not have been able to understand and apply Dharma, and if I had been physically disabled for life it would have been much more difficult for me to make contact with the teachings. If I had been blind I would not have been able to read many Dharma books. If I had been deaf I would not have been able to listen to teachings. If I had been physically disabled it would have been difficult for me to visit Dharma centres or temples and to learn how to meditate. How fortunate I am to be free from mental or physical disabilities.
freedom from holding wrong views denying dharma
Holding a wrong view is a state of mind that is like a door closed and locked against Dharma. It is a mind that clings stubbornly to a view that denies the existence of any object that it is necessary to understand in order to attain liberation or full enlightenment. An example is a mind clinging to the view that past and future lives do not exist, without having the openness of mind to investigate whether or not this view is correct. A wrong view may be held dogmatically or opinionatedly as a result of incorrect or imperfect reasoning, or it may be held blindly without even a pretence of reasoning. We meditate:
Holding wrong views is the main obstacle to pure Dharma practice because it prevents us from developing faith in Dharma, and faith is the basis for attaining every spiritual realization. How fortunate I am not to be holding wrong views.
the ten endowments
The first five endowments are personal endowments:
1 Being born human
2 Being born and remaining in a country where Dharma is flourishing
3 Being born and remaining with complete powers, free from mental and physical disabilities
4 Not having committed any of the five actions of immediate retribution
5 Having faith in the three sets of Buddha’s teachings
We can understand the importance of each of the five personal endowments by contemplating the following analogy. Being born human is like possessing a car. Being born and remaining in a country where Dharma is flourishing is like getting the car on the road. Being free from mental or physical disabilities is like having petrol in the car. Being free from still having to experience the results of any of the five actions of immediate retribution is like having a licence to drive. Having faith in Dharma is like having the confidence to drive. Just as when any of these five conditions of successful motoring is absent we cannot arrive at our destination, so when any of the five personal endowments is absent we cannot reach enlightenment, which is the proper destination of this precious human life.
The five actions of immediate retribution referred to in the fourth endowment are the five worst negative actions: killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, killing a Foe Destroyer, drawing the blood of a Buddha with harmful intention and causing division within the Sangha or Dharma community. If we commit any of these actions it is very difficult to gain realizations and when we die we go straight to hell. When that hellish life comes to an end we continue to experience the heavy results of our action as mental obstructions to our Dharma practice. There have been a few exceptions, such as King Ajatashatru who killed his father Bimbisara