Being born as a human being is one of the highest privileges of divine life.
You won’t always be a human being and you won’t always have the chance to be so intelligent and cognitive as you are in this life.
Depending on whether the thought, speech, and actions you do are good or bad, will determine whether you move up the scale of divine life into a heavenly existence or down the scale of divine life into a hellish existence.
You see, as a human man, you get to enjoy ogling at women’s breasts. If you were born a rooster, you would only see chicken breasts.
Do you know your human form is highly privileged to enjoy the sensory world? A human has 5 physical senses – sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. A worm on the other hand, only has 2 senses – taste and touch – it cannot see, hear, or smell. So, if you were a worm, you would only be able to grovel in darkness tasting soil. How is that compared to that delightful thousand island prawn & lobster salad that you eat as a human being?? It’s a huge privilege to be human, right? It’s at the top of the food chain. You have 5 senses to enjoy the world. Your food and environments have aromas and scents. You can see beautiful sights all around you, ogle at pretty girls and handsome guys, read books (animals can’t read). You can listen to world music, hear the Dolby Surround Sound of a movie theatre, hear and feel the roar of the engine of your car. More than what the poor worm can experience.
Why are you so privileged? Did you do some great good deeds in your past life to deserve all this great human life? I think you did. So you must know you are a privileged being. Treasure your human existence. Appreciate your 5 senses, but don’t abuse them. For example, abusing the sense of touch by having sex with many prostitutes or gigolos. Abusing your tongue, by eating tons of tasty foods like a glutton. Abusing your ears, by imploding them with loud music every night at the dance club. Abusing your mind by taking psychedelic drugs to see spinning colours and have floaty feelings.
The enjoyment of the senses is a reward for being a good being. You were upgraded into a human existence because of your good actions. But you must know, if you do bad, are evil, or dishonourable, you will push yourself down the spiral of divine life into a lower existence. You won’t always be a privileged humanoid being – like an elf, a fairy, a goddess, a buddha, a human etc. You might have one of the three unfortunate rebirths – an animal, a hungry ghost, or a hell being. No more high-class Shanghai cuisine for you, you know? Your Shanghai dumplings are replaced with scavenging through the dumpsters as a raccoon.
When you have the consciousness to be intelligent and able – you have eyes, ears, and mind; to see, listen, and understand; a mouth to speak good words; hands to help others – then please do your best to do good with your life. A puppy dog may want to see its owner become wealthy, but it does not have the mental capacity or physical form to help the family earn a lot of money through paid work. You on the other hand, have great capability and capacity for mental and physical work, so you should treasure the power God has given you to make money for your family.
Don’t abuse your senses, use them to learn and succeed in life – become rich from your work and business. Sexual indulgence and gluttony are the two favourite activities of demonic entities. The overindulgence of which, will drag your future life down to a lower form of existence. Maybe a farm rooster mating with hens all day (if you were not too bad a human being). Maybe a hungry ghost that has incredible sexual desire, but has no penis or vagina. (Unable to get satisfaction – suffering one’s constant lust unfulfilled.) Maybe a hell being who has to have his penis or her breast cut off and regrown every day.
It depends on what you do with your life that will drive you up to heaven or down to hell. It’s the accumulation of your karmic actions – your thoughts, words, and deeds. Are you being good or evil? Good beings get higher rebirths; evil beings get lower rebirths. So don’t be evil… it’s not worth it after you have come so far to become a human being. You should do good with your life and go higher to become a noble spirit or a god in your future life.
Namo Buddhaya.
Shalom,
Halabuth
Angel Reader
Magic Cross
This article is inspired by the writings of Kathleen McDonald (Sangye Khadro) in her book, How To Meditate On The Stages Of The Path: A Guide To The Lamrim, a book about how to gain the enlightenment of a buddha. It guides you along the stages of awakening. Look into this book if you are interested in the pathway to bodhichitta or ‘the mind of enlightenment’.
