Why Is It So Difficult to Obtain a Human Rebirth?

Sentient beings today are almost all deeply afflicted by greed, hatred, and delusion, yet they remain unaware of it. However, greed, hatred, and delusion create boundless negative karma, which will almost certainly lead them to fall into the three evil realms in the future, making the hope of being reborn as a human again extremely slim. Sentient beings create karma of greed, hatred, and delusion precisely because of ignorance; and due to this ignorance, they do not recognize it as negative karma. The value of a human lies in self-awareness. Without studying the Buddha's teachings and understanding cause and effect, one remains in ignorance. Or, even after studying the Dharma, if one still does not understand cause and effect and remains unaware that all one's physical, verbal, and mental actions bear karmic consequences, one will act recklessly without the slightest regard for the results. One's own judgment of right and wrong is unreliable; one must rely on the principles taught by the Buddha to discern. Sentient beings have created vast negative karma since beginningless kalpas, ceaselessly transmigrating among the six realms. The chance of obtaining a human body is exceedingly rare. Therefore, most do not know how to be a proper human, understand the principles of human conduct, or reflect on their own afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion.

The Buddha used an analogy to describe the rarity of sentient beings obtaining a human body over countless kalpas: Imagine a vast, turbulent ocean where a blind turtle surfaces once every hundred years. In this ocean floats a piece of wood with a single hole. The chance that the turtle, rising with the waves, would place its head through that hole is extremely small. The Buddha said the chance of obtaining a human body is just that small. On another occasion, the Buddha scooped up a handful of soil and then let it fall. He asked the assembly, "Is there more soil on my fingernail or more soil on the great earth?" The disciples replied, "The soil on the great earth is far greater." The Buddha said the chance of sentient beings obtaining a human body is as rare as the soil on his fingernail, while the chance of not obtaining a human body is as vast as the soil of the great earth.

The Buddha stated in the Agama Sutras that sentient beings spend the vast majority of their time in the three evil realms. Only after a portion of the karma leading to the three evil realms is exhausted, leaving a small residue of merit, can they regain a human body and be reborn as a human. However, during their human life, they often fail to act virtuously, creating much negative karma, and after death, they fall back into the evil realms. Within the three evil realms, time spent in hell is measured in kalpas; time spent as a hungry ghost is also measured in kalpas; and as an animal, each type of animal life lasts for at least five hundred lifetimes. Only after the negative karma is exhausted can they return to the human realm. Therefore, we see that the vast majority of people do not know how to be proper humans; their virtue is poor precisely because they have spent too long in the three evil realms, with no opportunity to engage in human affairs, so they lack the knowledge of how to be human. Having obtained a human body in this life and encountered the Buddha Dharma, we truly ought to practice diligently to avoid those long kalpas of suffering. Why should we commit unwholesome deeds merely to satisfy the afflictions of our own greed, hatred, and delusion? Those with wisdom should calm their minds, contemplate, compare, consider how to spend this present life, ponder how to avoid future suffering, and resolve the paramount issue of the suffering of birth and death.