We leave the body of a horse to enter the womb of a donkey;
Time after time we pass through the halls of King Yama.
Right after going before Shakra's palace,
We fall into the Hell of Boiling Oil.

It isn't easy to become a person. Holding on to a human body is even more difficult. When the Buddha was in the world he picked up a handful of dirt from the ground and asked all of his disciples, "Is there more dirt in my hand, or is there more dirt in the entire earth?" The Buddha's disciples answered, "Of course, there's more dirt in the entire earth than there is in the Buddha's hand." The Buddha said, "Those in the world who obtain a human body are like the amount of dirt in my hand, and those who have lost a human body are like the amount of dirt in the entire earth."

The Buddha's analogy shows that it is very easy to lose a human body, but very difficult to obtain one. Having obtained a human body, to always keep that human body is also not easy. Why? Because we "turn our backs on enlightenment and unite with the dust"-we run off hand-in-hand with ignorance. But if we can turn our backs on the dust and unite with enlightenment, then we will follow wisdom. Take a look at humankind-how many understand the need to protect their bodies? Very, very few. And so the verse reads, "We leave the body of a horse to enter the womb of a donkey; time after time we pass through the halls of King Yama." Through the halls of King Yama, the King of the Underworld, you pass time and time again; it is not known how many times. "Right after going before Shakra's palace, we fall into the Hell of Boiling Oil." One has just visited Shakra's (Lord God's) heavenly palace, and then one ends up in the hells again. Still having offenses, one is brought before King Yama, judged and then banished to burn in the Hell of Boiling Oil. The turning wheel of the six paths is extremely dangerous!

Within a single thought, one can be born in the heavens, and within a single thought, one can fall into the hells. So it's said:
"The difference between heaven and hell lies within a single thought." If you want to go to the heavens, create merit and virtue. If you wish to enter the hells, then create offenses. In the end, we ourselves decide. People are born in the heavens because in the past they held the Five Precepts and practiced the Ten Good Acts. On account of that merit and virtue, they receive a heavenly reward. However, beings born in the heavens haven't gotten off the wheel of the six paths yet. The wheel of the six paths is also called "a very dangerous road." Your life is in constant danger when on this path, because at any moment you might lose your human body. Once lost, the human body is difficult to retrieve in ten eons. If we don't quickly cultivate and wake up, we will always be spinning circles in the dust of the world; we will never get out.

As was said, someone who cultivates the Five Precepts and practices the Ten Good Acts is born in the heavens. The Five Precepts are: no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no false speech, and no taking intoxicants. "No killing" includes not taking any form of life, not even a mosquito or an ant. It means always being protective of living beings and fostering kindness and compassion. "No stealing" is the next Precept. Why do people steal? Because of greed. If it weren't for greed, people wouldn't steal. People have insatiable greed. They feel "the more, the better," no matter what it is. They aren't afraid of having too much, unless it's having too much merit and virtue. They are afraid of having too much merit and virtue, but they aren't afraid of having too many offenses! Next, "No sexual misconduct." As the ancients said: "Of the ten thousand evils, sexual desire is the foremost. Don't go down that road of death! " "No false speech." It's very easy to lie. Suddenly and unknowingly we lie. And after having lied, we don't even know why we lied. Ignorance covers us over. The next is "No taking intoxicants." Once we take intoxicants, our conduct becomes confused. Those are the Five Precepts one should uphold.

In practicing the Ten Good Acts, one doesn't create the three evils of the body: one doesn't kill, steal, or engage in sexual misconduct; one doesn't create the three evils of the mind: greed, hatred, and stupidity; and one doesn't create the four evils of the mouth: gossip, lies, harsh speech, and duplicity. That is the practice of the Ten Good Acts.

At all times examine yourself-"return the light and look within"-maintain the Five Precepts, and always practice the Ten Good Acts. You can also cultivate the Six Paramitas:

1. giving
2. holding precepts
3. patience
4. vigor
5. dhyana samadni
6. prajna-wisdom

Cultivating the Six Paramitas increases one's merit and virtue. The first is giving. Giving means to give to others, not just wanting others to give to you. There is the giving of wealth, the giving of Dharma, and the giving of fearlessness. The first kind of giving, that of wealth, refers to providing others with money and wealth. The giving of Dharma refers to explaining the sutras and teaching living beings to understand the principles of cause and effect. The giving of fearlessness can mean soothing a person caught in a dangerous situation, causing him to be peaceful and untroubled. Those are the three kinds of giving.

Included in the Precepts are the Five Precepts the Eight Precepts, the Ten Major and Forty-eight Minor Bodhisattva Precepts, and the 250 Bhikshu and 348 Bhikshuni Precepts. What does the word "Precept" mean? Precepts, or moral codes, are the rules by which one does "not create any evil and performs all good deeds." In this case, you should also acquire the giving of fearlessness, because in order to hold the Precepts, one must develop a kind of fearlessness. You can't be afraid of suffering and difficulty. You can't be afraid of not having money. You can't fear anything when holding the Precepts.
Holding Precepts just means not getting angry-not getting angry at others and not getting angry at yourself; not getting angry at adults, and not getting angry at children-simply living in harmony and peace with everyone.

The next paramita, patience, means that if people are impolite to you-if someone should come up to you and strike you for absolutely no reason-you don't get angry. That could be called having true patience. There are three kinds of patience:

1. patience with dharmas
2. patience with production
3. patience in which no dharmas arise

The next paramita is vigor. Vigor is designed to counteract laziness. If you want to be successful in your cultivation, you should develop the paramita of vigor. Use vigor to chase away your laziness and laxity. You should be vigorous in both body and mind throughout the entire day and night.

The next paramita is that of Dhyana samadhi. There are Four
Dhyanas: the First Dhyana, the Second Dhyana, the Third
Dhyana. And the Fourth Dhyana, and if you include the Four
Stations of Boundlessness:

1. The Heaven of the Station of Boundless Emptiness
2. The Heaven of the Station of Boundless Consciousness
3. The Heaven of the Station of Nothing Whatsoever
4. The Heaven of the Station Beyond Thought and Non-Thought

-that makes eight samadhis. You can reach the four Dhyanas in meditation. In the First Dhyana, your breath stops-there's no breathing in or out; it's cut off. So you say, "If one stops breathing, one dies, right?" This isn't death; one doesn't die. Nevertheless, the breath does stop. That's the state of the First Dhyana.

When one reaches the Second Dhyana, the pulse stops; and when one reaches the Third Dhyana, one's coarse thoughts stop. In the first two Dhyanas, the thoughts still continue. In the Third Dhyana, however, false thinking stops. The Fourth Dhyana, called the State of Purity Which Comes from Renouncing Thought, is free of even a single thought. One returns to original purity. The First Dhyana is called the Station of Happiness Apart from Production. The Second Dhyana is called The Station of Happiness from Developing Samadhi. And the Third Dhyana is called the Station of the Wonderful Bliss of Leaving Happiness Behind.

Those who work hard in their cultivation can always easily attain the Four Dhyanas. After reaching the Four Dhyanas, one progresses to the Four Stations of Boundlessness. First is the Heaven of the Station of Boundless Emptiness where emptiness is perceived as being infinite. Next is the Heaven of Boundless Consciousness, where one's consciousness is limitless and boundless. And then is the Heaven of the Station of Nothing Whatsoever, where there is nothing at all. And finally is the Heaven of the Station Beyond Thought and Non-Thought, where neither thought nor the absence of thought exists. The Four Dhyanas and the Four Stations of Boundlessness together comprise the Eight Samadhis. If you add The Heaven of the Station of No Thought, that makes up the nine successive stages of concentration.
The sixth and last paramita is prajna. Why is it called prajna instead of just wisdom? Because prajna is perfect-it has no faults-whereas wisdom can be quite ordinary. Therefore, this perfection of wisdom is called prajna, and not simply wisdom. The Dharma of the Six Perfections, or Paramitas, has been discussed above. If you wish to escape from the turning wheel of the six paths, start with cultivating dhyana samadhi.

In the six paths, some belong to the path of the heavens-gods and goddesses-where life-spans range from 500 to 84,000 celestial years. In the heaven where the life-span is 500 years, a single day and night is equivalent to fifty years of human time and fifty years among people amounts to a single day and night in that heaven, the Heaven of the Four Kings. In the Heaven of the Four Kings, the average life-span is 500 years. One enjoys 500 years of heavenly bliss, but if one passes through those 500 years without cultivating, one will fall.

Among the path of people, nobody knows his or her past causes or future results. People are unaware of what transpired before their murky and muddled entrance into this world. They pass their entire lives in confusion, and right when they begin to understand a little, it's time for them to die. Then the next time around, right when they are about to understand a little, they die again, and so on. Therefore, most people remain totally addled and confused life after life.

Then there is the path of asuras. Asuras can enjoy heavenly blessings but lack heavenly virtue. Female asuras are extremely beautiful; male asuras extremely ugly. Why are they called asuras? Because they are stubborn and fond of fighting. They. love to fight and be hateful. Head strong and lacking patience, they thrive on contention and rancor. That's what asuras are like. In the path of humans, we find people who are a mixture of good and evil. There is a little bit of goodness and a little bit of evil to them-half-and-half-and as a result, they are born in the human realm. When people deteriorate, they fall into the three evil paths: the hells, the hungry ghosts, and the animals. Who creates the hells? Is it Earth Store Bodhisattva who creates the hells?

No. We create the hells with our own minds. When the mind stirs, then all kinds of dharmas arise, and when the mind is still, then all kinds of dharmas vanish. With a mind covered over with ignorance, you are sometimes murky and sometimes clear. Initially you understand a little, but then you become confused; from confusion you then begin to understand. That's what it's like to be a person. The path of humans is a precarious one. If humans progress, step-by-step, they can make it all the way to the stage of a Buddha. But if they regress, then it is very easy for them to degenerate into strange ghosts, goblins, and demons. Or they might be reborn as hungry ghosts and animals.

So it's a matter of whether or not you understand. If you understand, then everything is empty. If you don't understand, then you still have to balance accounts and pay back your debts. The turning wheel of the six paths ties people up so that they can't escape. We cultivate in order to unravel birth and death and get off the turning wheel. If we end birth and death, we will no longer have the afflictions of the human realm with all the fighting and contention that follow-we can leave all that. This has been a general explanation of the turning wheel of the six paths.
When studying the Buddhadharma, we should make the four vast vows:

Living beings are limitless, I vow to save them all.
Afflictions are boundless, I vow to end them all.
Dharma-doors are numberless, I vow to learn them all.
The Buddha Way is supreme, I vow to realize it.

Every day you should return your light and look within. Ask yourself, "Living beings are limitless, I vow to save them all. Have I saved them? Have I rescued them?" If you haven't liberated living beings, then you should quickly do so. If you have already done it, don't be self-satisfied. Don't think, "I can save living beings." Don't be arrogant and self-satisfied."Afflictions are boundless, I vow to end them all." Afflictions never cease. If each person had as much money as he has afflictions, it would be terrific-but it's not that way. Afflictions are inexhaustible. Have you cut them off or not? You should ask Yourself this. "Have I cut off my afflictions, or not?" Look within Yourself. "Dharma-doors are numberless." The Buddhadharma is limitless and boundless. You must "deeply enter the Sutra store to gain oceanic wisdom." You should ask yourself this question: "Have I studied the Dharma?"

"The Buddha Way is supreme, I vow to realize it." Ask yourself, have you become a Buddha or not? If you haven't become a Buddha, be courageous and vigorous and cultivate the Way. Only then can you make progress. These four vast vows are the mother of all Bodhisattvas and the father of all who cultivate the Way. I hope you realize these four vast vows and progress in you cultivation.