You are blessed with the four great fortunes

“You are blessed with the four great fortunes. All you have to do now is to make all these four great fortunes into Nibbāna.”

The first great fortune is being born as a human being because if you are born as an animal, you are not able to study the teachings of the Buddha. And you cannot practice the teachings of the Buddha. So you cannot be enlightened if you are an animal. But when you are a human being, like you are now, you can study and you can practice following the Dhamma teachings. So this is the first great fortune.

The second great fortune is to have discovered or found the Dhamma teachings. You need the Dhamma teachings to lead you to enlightenment. If there is no Dhamma teaching in this world, nobody will be able to become enlightened by themselves. Only the Buddha can teach himself to become enlightened. All other human beings have to rely on the Buddha’s teachings. All of the Buddha’s Noble Disciples and all the Arahants had to listen to the teachings of the Buddha and then practice by following the teachings. So this is the second great fortune, to have found or to have discovered the Dhamma teachings of the Buddha.

The third great fortune is to be alive, to be breathing. If you are not alive today, you cannot be there tonight. In order to become enlightened, you have to be alive so that you can listen or study the Dhamma teachings. And after you have learned the Dhamma teachings, you can apply the Dhamma teachings in your practice. So this is the third great fortune, being alive.

The fourth great fortune is to have the time and the effort to study and practice the Dhamma teachings, like you have tonight. You have the time and you make the effort to bring yourself to Wat Palelai so that you can listen to the Dhamma talk and meditate.

If you don’t have the time or the effort to practice, even though you might be a human being, you might have found the teachings of the Buddha, and you are still alive, you are not be able to utilize your great fortune. So it is all up to you. You are the only person who can find the time and the effort to study and to practice the Dhamma teachings.

If you do find the time and the effort to practice, the result of your practice will eventually appear because this is the way people have become enlightened from the time when the Buddha gave his first Dhamma discourse to the five ascetics. Listening to Dhamma talks is like studying. After the ascetics had listened, they applied it in their practice. They had already developed dāna (charity). They had already developed sīla, keeping precepts. They had developed samādhi, a calm and peaceful mind. So all they needed to do was to develop vipassanā.

Samatha-bhāvanā is samādhi. Vipassanā-bhāvanā is paññā. So it is all up to you. You are the one who can make it happen. Nobody else can make it happen. And you have all the necessary ingredients to make it happen. You have human birth, you have found the teachings of the Buddha, you are alive. So all you need now is the time and effort to really study and to really practice. Once you have them, then you will have the results. The results consist of the four paths and four fruits. The first path and fruit is called Sotāpanna. The second path and fruit is called Sakadāgāmī. The third path and fruit is called Anāgāmī. And the fourth path and fruit is called Arahant. Once you have arrived at the fruit of Arahant, you also will proceed on to Nibbāna.

Once you have realized Nibbāna, you will no longer have to take birth again. You will no longer have to get old, get sick, die, and be separated from your loved ones or face the things or people that you don’t like to face. All these only happen when you take birth. When you don’t have to take birth, there is no sickness, aging, dying or separation. So this is what we call eternal happiness. Paramaṁ sukkhaṁ means supreme happiness. It is supreme because there is no sadness, no suffering in this kind of happiness. And it lasts forever. So these are the things you should consider.

You are blessed with the four great fortunes. All you have to do now is to make all these four great fortunes into Nibbāna, into the cessation of suffering, into the cessation of endless rounds of rebirth.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto