This precious human body, supreme instrument though it is for the attainment of enlightenment, is itself a transient phenomenon. No one knows when, or how, death will come. Bubbles form on the surface of the water, but the next instant they are gone; they do not stay. It is just the same with this precious human body that we have managed to find. We take all the time in the world before engaging in spiritual practice, but who knows when this life of ours will simply cease to be? And once our precious human body is lost, our mind stream, continuing its existence, will take birth perhaps among the animals, or in one of the hells or god realms where spiritual development is impossible.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven-Point Mind Training
translated by Padmakara Translation Group
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Further quotes from the book Enlightened Courage:
- Morning pledge
- Bodhicitta practice
- Taking advantage of suffering
- Honest examination
- The vows of the Mind Training
- Give up hoping for results
- All Dharma has a single goal
- The three essential factors on which the accomplishment of the Dharma depends
- Begin the training sequence with yourself
- Using illness on the path
- The impurity of our perception
- Always be sustained by cheerfulness
- Delusion
- Antidote to our ego-clinging
- Anger is an illusion
- Signs of realization
- Well rewarded
- Forsaking all self-centeredness
- The degree of self-clinging
- Failing to use the instructions as an antidote