Part 2h - The Explanation of why the freedoms and favors are difficult to obtain

The way in which the freedoms and favors are difficult to to obtain:

It is harder for us to gain a human birth
Than for a tortoise to thrust its head into a yoke
That is tossed about in the middle of the ocean.
That is what the Teacher of gods and humans said.
Then why even speak of a free and well favored body?
So let us be diligent in days that are to come.

Let us say that a turtle lives in an ocean and comes to the surface once every hundred years. Floating upon that ocean is a single yoke with a hole in it, blown by the wind, so that it does not stay in one place for even a moment. It is barely possible that the turtle's throat will be thrust into it. Yet obtaining a human body from within the lower realms of samsara is taught to be far more difficult.

The Friendly Letter says:

From an animal state it is harder to gain human birth and the Dharma
Than that a turtle should meet the hole of a yoke in the ocean.
Therefore with these faculties of human beings
By practicing holy Dharma, let us reach its fruition.

The Bodhicharyavatara says:

This is the reason why the Blessed One has taught
That attaining human birth is much more difficult
Than for a turtle to put its head into a yoke,
Tossed within the vastness of a limitless ocean.

In what scripture is this taught?

The Bunch of Flowers (me tog gi tshoms) says:

It is difficult for the Buddha Bhagavats to enter into the world. But very much more difficult than that is attaining human birth and establishing the freedoms in their completeness. Let the reason for this be taught in an example. O Shariputra, for example, let this great earth be an ocean. Within it let there be a yoke, having a single hole. Let there also be a blind turtle. In that great ocean the wind blows from above and blows from below; and as it blows these things about, that blind turtle rises out of the ocean once in a hundred years. The difficulty of becoming human again after having fallen back is not equal to that of the throat of that blind turtle was said to rise once in a hundred years quickly entering into the hole of that quickly moving yoke. For those who fall away like that, becoming human again is very much more difficult.

If even attaining the human body is so very difficult, why even speak of a body with the freedoms and favors, and practicing Dharma?

The Bodhicharyavatara says:

That a Tathagata has actually arisen,
That we have faith, and have attained a human body,
And that, in addition, we can practice goodness;
When will what is so rare ever be gained again?

The Request of Jewel in the Crown (gtsug na rin po ches zhus pa) says:

To see a guide is something very hard to find.
To hear the teachings, the Dharma of peace, is very hard.
It is very hard to be born as a free and favored person.
Discipline and faith are always hard to find.