by Kimmy Sensei

When we are newborns, one of the first pieces of information to get logged into our
medical record is a diagnosis code. The most commonly received code in America is “Z-3-8”, this is the diagnosis code that describes being born.

Being born is a condition. Being human is a condition. One that we all share.

Spiritual practice leader, Baba Ram Das, talks about this in a lecture called “The Human Predicament of Modern Humanity”. He shares a personal conundrum that I often find myself asking, “What am I doing here on Earth? Who made this mistake?”

After all, I find myself feeling submerged in what Buddha called The Five Hinderances, feeling…

Ill will
Sensory Desire
Doubt
Sloth
Restlessness/Remorse

Yet, it is important to remember, when exploring these hindrances, that none of us are “wrong” or “bad” for having these kinds of experiences. They can be thought of as symptoms of an underlying disconnection or dissatisfaction (dukkha); of old wounds, stemming from our immediate, familial, and cultural karmas. These hindrances are symptoms of our human condition. They are impersonal reactions to the discomfort, loss, and danger that are inevitable in life. They are habits of the heart and mind (samsara) that are rooted in the heart’s attempt to stay safe in an unsafe world. They are reactive, judgmental, and above all, not under our conscious control.

Ram Das goes on to tell a story where he is presented with this response to his
question about why he is here, he is told, “You are in school, why don’t you try taking
the curriculum? Why don’t you try being human?”

With that, I want to share something with you all, please know, I am speaking directly to each and every one of you…

your incarnation is not an error.

Several years back at retreat, our Kalyana Mitra- Matt shared data from an infographic available online called “What are the Odds”. To sum up only a small portion of what this visual data represents, here are some of the numbers on the likelihood of being born, and while the words in your story may differ, I encourage you to use your imagination to find the commonalities and not the differences…

Odds of your parents even meeting – 1 in twenty thousand.

Probability of your mom’s egg and your dad’s sperm having all the right DNA to make you – 1 in four hundred quadrillion

Consider that those odds need to happen every generation all the way back until you
reach single celled organisms – the actual beginning of your timeline. The probability of that happening comes out at 10 followed by more than two and a half million zeros. For comparison, that is more than the number of atoms in the known Universe!

Buddha talks about this in the Chiggala Sutra, he tells the story of the Blind Turtle to his disciples – Suppose the earth was entirely covered with water. And a person threw a sandalwood log with a single hole into it. The east wind blows it west;
the west wind blows it east; the north wind blows it south; and the south wind blows it north.

And suppose there was a one-eyed turtle who popped up once every hundred years.
What do you think…?

Would that one-eyed turtle,
popping up once every hundred years,
still poke its neck through the hole in that log?

…that’s how unlikely it is to get born as a human being.

Buddha goes on to explain how even more rare it is for a human to discover Dharma in their lifetime.

This human condition can be understood as one of unbearable beauty. You are, what’s called, “in the dance of life”, “the play”, “Leela.” Leela is a Sanskrit word that can be translated to “divine play”. Vedantic philosophy explains Leela as, “the springs from the abundance of divine bliss, which provides a motive for creation.” This life, however challenging and painful, is a gift. From birth to death.

Christopher sensei teaches how, “Each of our individual lives are utterly unique and
unrepeatable…and not just a life to endure.”

In his Dharma Talk titled “We all want to go to Heaven”, our dear friend, our Kalyana
Mitra, Bevis, wrote about his experience in seeing his terminal illness as a gift in
bringing awareness to living in present moment. He explains it like this,

“Awareness is cultivated not only in formal meditation but also by “waking up” to our
immediate experience throughout the day, integrating what we learn into our entire way of being. This practice involves a “daily life awareness,” where one continually
remembers to bring attention to immediate experience to cultivate inner clarity, develop compassion, and understand the impermanent nature of self and phenomena; which leads to liberation and a more peaceful way of being. A oneness of life.”

Life is not a puzzle that needs to be solved. Just as when we are dancing or playing
music, we aren’t doing so to reach a final destination or only to hit the last chord. As
Alan Watts puts it, “the journey itself is the point.”

From Jack Kornfield, “Being alive is finding ourselves in the midst of this great and
mysterious paradox. There are ten thousand joys and sorrows in every life, and at one time or another we will be touched by all of them. We will all experience birth and death, success and loss, love and heartbreak, joy and despair. And in every moment of your life there are millions of humans just like you all over the world who are being confronted by situations just like yours, some that are joyful and some that are overwhelming where they are struggling to somehow learn how to survive them.”

When we feel dukkha from the symptoms, or hindrances, of the human condition, it is important to remember that these are natural expressions of the nervous system trying to stay safe. Buddhist sensei Sean Oaks teaches how, “We can bring mindfulness and compassion to ourselves and others. Understanding the conditions in which the hindrances arise and thrive can teach us how to create more supportive conditions for the heart and mind to settle, come out of unnecessarily activated states, and experience the joy and ease of undistracted presence. The hindrances are the path, but working through them can be empowering and transformative in all parts of our life.”

All too often, we may allow the heart to be veiled by the mind; yet, the gift of life can
only be expressed through love. In everyday Buddhism, that can look like a practice in gratitude, offering compassion to ourselves and others, and in exploring our own
creative nature. Writer and philosopher, Erich Fromm shares this from his book called, “The Art of Loving”. He writes, “…love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.”

I would like to end with this thought from the Dalai Lama,

“Every day,
think as you wake up,
today I am fortunate to be alive,
I have a precious human life,
I am not going to waste it.
I am going to use all my energies to develop myself,
to expand my heart out to others;
to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.
I am going to have kind thoughts towards others,
I am not going to get angry or think badly about others.
I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

Namu Amida Butsu.