Great Opportunities.

A Manual of the Excellent Man.
"Uttamapurisa Dīpanī"- The Venerable Ledi Sayādaw.

1. The Great Opportunity of Human Rebirth.

Is it because as a human being one is free from the lower realms of misery?
Is it because human pleasures are really great? No, not at all.

If sensual pleasures are regarded as great opportunities, then human pleasures are nothing compared to the celestial pleasures of the heavenly realms.

If pleasure were to be the criterion here, the Buddha would have mentioned birth in the heavenly realms as great opportunities.

The Buddha did not do so. It should therefore be understood that by “a great opportunity” the Buddha did not mean an opportunity to enjoy pleasure, but one for doing skilful actions or meritorious deeds. Human birth is the ideal opportunity to gain real happiness.

The wise man, seeing clearly the benefits in maturing the perfections, and riding the high tide of fortune leading to innumerable glorious future existences, should forsake the meagre pleasures of the present.”

2. The Great Opportunity of Meeting the Buddha.

Ordinary kammic merits are sought and won in all eras whether a Buddha arises or not.

In the dark ages of world cycles when no Buddha arises, there are people of virtue doing meritorious deeds. Therefore, the world abounds with devas and brahmās at those times too.

However, the 37 factors of enlightenment are known only when the Buddha’s teaching is still extant.

That is why the wise man, seeing clearly the benefits in maturing the perfections, and recognizing the precious opportunity that leads to enlightenment, should exert earnestly after the essential teaching of the Buddha contained in the 37 factors of enlightenment.

3) The Great Opportunity of Becoming a Bhikkhu.

There are three types of renunciation for the life of a bhikkhu:

A) renunciation through wisdom (paññā pabbajjita),

B) renunciation through confidence (saddhā pabbajjita)

C) renunciation through fear (bhayā pabbajjita).

Of these, the first two require previous accumulations of merit or perfections.

The last means taking up the life of a bhikkhu out of expediency: to seek political asylum, to recover from sickness, to take refuge from an enemy, or to avoid the struggles of the worldly life.

The Buddha’s teaching is a great opportunity for devas and brahmās to gain benefit. Hardly one human being among ten million celestial beings would have benefited, not one among ten thousand of them is a bhikkhu, the overwhelming majority are lay people.

During the Buddha’s lifetime, the city of Sāvatthī boasted millions of Noble Ones.Among them hardly a hundred thousand might have been bhikkhus.

“Being a bhikkhu is a great opportunity,” is therefore a statement with reference only to renunciation through confidence or wisdom.

One who renounces through wisdom exerts for knowledge; one who renounces through confidence exerts for the noble practice; one who renounces through fear exerts for material possessions permissible for a bhikkhu, i.e. the four requisites of alms-food, robes, monastic shelter, and medicine.

4. The Great Opportunity of Having Confidence.

A) Pasāda Saddhā is confidence in the Three Gems because the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha are recognized as being worthy of reverence.

It is based upon a superficial high regard for the Three Gems and not on a deep conviction, so it is not stable.

B) Okappana Saddhā is confidence inspired by the noble attributes of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.

It comes out of conviction and it endures for a lifetime, but after one’s death it vanishes from one’s consciousness.

C) Āgama Saddhā is the type of confidence acquired by bodhisattas.

After receiving recognition and assurance of future Buddhahood, a bodhisatta has unwavering confidence in the Three Gems, which implies an abiding confidence in the merit of good deeds.

D) Adhigama Saddhā is the confidence nurtured by the Noble One who, having won the fruits of path knowledge, has realized nibbāna.

They have an abiding confidence in the Three Gems, the upkeep of the five precepts, the performance of the ten kinds of meritorious deeds, and the practice of the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment.

5. The Great Opportunity of Hearing the Dhamma.

Saddhamma means sāsana or the Buddha’s teaching. The teaching has three main aspects:
A) Training for higher virtue,
B) Training for higher concentration,
C) Training for higher knowledge or wisdom.

These are referred to in the Commentary as learning (pariyatti), practice (patipatti), and realization (pativedha).

“Since the beginningless round of samsāra my two ears have been filled with human voices and human speech, or deva voices and deva speech, or brahmā voices and brahmā speech.

All worldly talk only fans the flames of defilements — craving, anger, delusion, personality view, aging and death — burning within me.
Never before have I heard this different kind of speech, which is the teaching exhorting me to extinguish these fires and showing me the way to do it.

How opportune it is for me!

From now on I will use my ears for listening to this most precious and timely sound before it is too late.”