That you talk about the preciousness of human life makes you wonder about the preciousness of the time you have with your guru. A couple of years ago I received a very precious teaching about the 50 stanzas of guru devotion. It was about our body, speech and mind in front of our gurus and one thing stuck out. It was that I only get to see my guru what, once or twice a year? Seriously, if in that short time I cant control my body and speech to show (at the very least) outward respect to my guru, what chance to do I have with my mind?
That's right. The 50 verses of Guru devotion are steps on how we can train our mind in a very systematic manner. However, a lot of people tend to see it as cultish because they are either too afraid to commit or that they lack understanding on this subject matter. To be able to control ourselves in front of the Guru means we can also do it when he is not around. If we can control our minds, it surely means we are ready to receive the higher teachings.
So speaking of guru devotion then, in relation to our precious human life... we always talk about how precious our human life is to practice Dharma but consider this. Your lama is omniscient and if you dont believe that, then at the very least hes extremely highly intelligent. With this type of mind, he CHOOSES Dharma over samsara. So its daft to think that youve any semblance of guru devotion if you choose samsara over Dharma, because then your indirectly saying your guru is wrong because he made the wrong choice too.
But nobody can overcome many lifetimes of habituation with only a few months with the Guru, but in his students you will see that they will have let go of samsara more and more, eventually. Nobody can change overnight, but with the Guru's influence and kindness, they will all progress to be better eventually.
Its actually harder and more tiring to keep straddling between samsara and Dharma. What purpose has being attached to samsara served us so far? I know Ive gained nowt from it. To be honest, its just dumb you banging your head against the same wall thinking youll get a different result because you wont. Staying in samsara will never bring you happiness, otherwise Shakyamuni wouldnt have bovvered to get under the bodhi tree.
There's really nothing worth thinking about or considering in Samsara because they are all temporary anyway. The Dharma has more long lasting effects, and as a nice side effect, it helps improve our samsaric life at the same time because its principles transcend samsara and modifies the underpinnings of it, giving us what we want in samsara as well if we are truly sincere.
At the end of the day, it all depends on how sincere one is in their Dharma practice and how much effort is placed in the Dharma. If we understand the Dharma, then we understand the value of our Guru. If we understand the value of our Guru, we will put into practice the Dharma and realize that Samsara is nothing but an empty pursuit. This is what I feel, anyway.
