Hard is it to be born a man;
hard is the life of mortals.
Hard is it to gain the opportunity of hearing the Sublime Truth,
and hard to encounter is the arising of the Buddhas.

- DhammaPada verse 182

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“Mendicants, suppose the earth was entirely covered with water. And a person threw a yoke with a single hole into it. The east wind wafts it west; the west wind wafts it east; the north wind wafts it south; and the south wind wafts it north. And there was a one-eyed turtle who popped up once every hundred years.

What do you think, mendicants? Would that one-eyed turtle, popping up once every hundred years, still poke its neck through the hole in that yoke?”

“It’s unlikely, sir.”

“That’s how unlikely it is to get reborn as a human being. And that’s how unlikely it is for a Realized One to arise in the world, a perfected one, a fully awakened Buddha. And that’s how unlikely it is for the teaching and training proclaimed by a Realized One to shine in the world. And now, mendicants, you have been reborn as a human being. A Realized One has arisen in the world, a perfected one, a fully awakened Buddha. And the teaching and training proclaimed by a Realized One shines in the world.

That’s why you should practice meditation …”

- SN 56.48

The Buddha is sharing in these teachings on the rarity of being born as a human being, on the rarity of being born at a time when a Buddha has arisen, and on the rarity of being born when one has gained access to the Dhamma.

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