Freedoms and Riches

At this time of having obtained the rare great ship of freedoms and riches,

To listen, reflect, and meditate, without any distraction day and night,

In order to liberate oneself and others from the ocean of samsara

Is the practice of bodhisattvas.*

This is the first on the list of “The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva” which was written by Gyalse Togme in the 1300s. This text is part of the mind training tradition of Buddhism, which is a tradition I like very much. I think I’m going to go through the 37 practices one by one. A bodhisattva is one who strives to cultivate compassion and wisdom for the benefit of others. This is what I aspire to be.

There’s some stuff to unpack here.

The rare great ship of freedoms and riches is our human life. The word ship is a metaphor because, like riding in a ship, we are in this body for a while and it takes us places, but then we’re not in it anymore. Now, plenty of us probably think some version of “My human life is not filled with freedoms and riches” because we’ve all had struggles and we’ve all been kicked in the heart at times. This was a struggle for me when I learned about it. To me it helps to think of it in this way. You were born as a human being in this time and place. You could have been born as a rat or bug or fish. But you weren’t. You were born as a human. Just by nature of that you have opportunities that many many other beings do not have. Additionally you were born in the modern world. You could have been born hundreds or even thousands of years ago and faced many more hardships than people in the world today must face. Not only that but also, as a result of being born in the modern world, you have access to information that people even a few decades ago couldn’t have fathomed.

In the context we’re talking about here we can think about the availability of teachings. If you’re Buddhist you have access to more teachings translated into your language than ancient people would have thought possible. And the possibility of communication with teachers from all over the world too. This applies to other religions just as much, I’m sure. Just a few centuries ago people were practicing Christianity without having the ability to read the Bible for themselves. And also the standards of…