Formal or Informal Practice?
Once heard, these thoughts penetrate the dailyness which we are told is illusion, and give rise to questions that cannot easily be answered.
The Four Thoughts are:
- Precious Human Birth
- Impermanence
- Karma
- The Ocean of Suffering
I will not attempt a treatise on all four, but rather just briefly explain the first Thought which in and of itself threatens to shake my torpor; that is how powerful this Thought is...
Precious Human Birth
There is danger of wasting one's lifetime in material pursuits and losing the chance to strive toward enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings. There is the possibility of rebirth---nay hundreds of rebirths--in squalor and constant labor where there is no luxury of time or education to learn the Dharma. This is the fate of those who sneer at slant boards.
Consider the miraculous advantages of this birth, here in the West in the 20/21 Century. The rare luck we enjoy, we who are relatively healthy and have most of our faculties, who have enough money to live in comfort, who have enough leisure to pursue the Dharma, who have enough intelligence to understand the Dharma, to live in an age and a place where Dharma teachings are available, to live in a place where qualified teachers are available...
Consider the rare luck of being human at all.
The treasure of this precious human birth is often described in metaphor: imagine the entire universe to be a huge ocean with a wooden yoke floating on the surface.
At the bottom of the ocean lives a blind turtle. He comes to the surface once every hundred years to breathe. What are the chances that when he does breathe, his head will go through that floating yoke buffeted by tides and winds? The chances are minute. But they are greater than the chances that you or I will enjoy such a privileged birth anytime soon again, for instance, in the next 300 or 3000 lifetimes.
Can this be proven? Not by me. And there are times I try to dismiss this thought as just a step away from threats of hell and brimstone made in other religions. Nevertheless, it worms its way into my consciousness and I cannot escape it.
Action
If we accept the above, and do not drown the initial spark of interest or intention in a sea of doubts and cynicism or complacency at this juncture, then the next step would be setting out upon some kind of
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