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Freedoms And Advantages

• If somebody can fly from one mountain to another, that is considered amazing. But we have freedoms and advantages, we can go from samsara to buddhahood, it doesn’t feel amazing. Be happy about what you have.
• Advantages are advantages only if used. If you don’t use them, they are not advantages.
• What is the use of freedoms and advantages? Give rise to bodhicitta.
• This is what we have - prerequisites to practice dharma.
• This is result of good deeds of the past. Make this result meaningful.
• Freedoms and advantages are for using.
• Freedoms come from discipline, keeping the vows. Do analytic meditation. Have I killed? Have I lied? Know it. When you know it, confess it. Take corrective action. Then rest.
• To really have the advantages, we need to be free of 16 obstacles.
• Check – do you have these advantages? “If I have, I must practice.” That is the contemplation.
• Realize what one is free of. Use the freedoms.
• What is the cause of 10 advantages? Positive deeds.
• Freedoms come from discipline. Advantages come from merit. Together they come due to aspiration.
• Conclude “Freedoms and advantages is the most precious thing we can achieve in samsara.”
• Try to acquire what is missing. Rejoice in what you have. Promise not to waste.
• See your fortune. Feel fortunate.

[The 8 freedoms and 10 advantages that support precious human life, and the 16 obstacles that oppose it, are discussed in more detail in ‘The Words Of My Perceft Teacher’ by Patrul Rinpoche.]