Faithful devotees and children,

There are lots of people in this world. Even in our country, there is a large number of people. But only few among them have taken the refuge of the Gautama Supreme Buddha or think to take the refuge of the Dispensation of the Gautama Supreme Buddha. Moreover, there is not much who think to get births among divine beings when they pass away or to attain the Nibbāna in the Dispensation of the Gautama Supreme Buddha. If they could not remember the Supreme Buddha when they are impressed by false views, there is a danger that even this small amount of people could embrace those views deflecting from the path that the Supreme Buddha showed us.

We have met a rare opportunity – the opportunity of meeting the Dhamma of the Supreme Buddha, pleasing your mind about that Dhamma, becoming faithful, protecting the precepts, and getting to know what this Dhamma is – and it is called the Kshanha Sampatti. We might have had this rare opportunity in our past lives as well, but we don’t know about those chances. We may have missed those chances. Sometimes this chance we have in this life may have been given rarely. If we missed this rare opportunity again, it is not sure if we be able to get such a chance again. Therefore, we should understand this opportunity well.

There is not going to be any chance of realizing the Dhamma in this human world in the future. No chance of meeting the Dhamma in the future in this human world – in that future, there will only be a decline in good qualities of humans. All those good qualities of humans will drop rapidly with time vanishing at the end. A world of only joy of eating, drinking, and enjoying will be left, and that newly born world will not talk about the Four Noble Truths… Isn’t speaking about the Four Noble Truths has become a joke to most people already?

Realizing the fact that there is not going to be another chance of getting the protection of the Dhamma in this human world, we should cultivate the Sēkha Bala Dhamma – Saddhā (faith), Sīla (virtue), Sutha (Dhamma knowledge), Thyāga (generosity), and Paññā (wisdom of the Dhamma) – at this present time. If a person gets a chance to be born among divine beings by developing the Sēkha Bala Dhamma in this life, he/she will get another chance to practice the Dhamma. But that chance will be missed if that person gets a birth in the human world instead. That is because we do not know how long this chance of practicing the Dhamma will last in this human world.

Therefore, you should realize the importance of getting a help from this life by wisely cultivating wisdom and mindfulness. If you get a birth in the Thuthisa Divine World by realizing this importance and cultivating the Sēkha Bala Dhamma, then you will definitely get the protection to your life. You can get the chance to complete the rest of the path of the Dhamma even in the Chatummahārājika Divine World. If you get a birth either in Thāvathinsa, Yāma, Thusitha, Nimmānharathi, or Paranimmitha Vasavatthi Divine World, you will still have the protection in the Dhamma since you already have the Sēkha Bala Dhamma developed in you. The teachings of the Supreme Buddha clearly show this protection – it is your duty to secure it to your life.

May this Dhamma discussed here be a support to you all in the realization of the Noble Dhamma!

– Most Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero

An English translation of an article published in Mahamegha Magazine – Esala 2015.