We want to avoid taking rebirth in one of the lower realms in the future. The suffering in the animal, hungry ghost and hell realms is far worse than what we endure in this human life. We also have no chance to make spiritual progress in those rebirths, as our suffering will be too great to bear. Negative karma causes us to take rebirth in the animal realm, heavier negative karma will cause us to end up in the hungry ghost realm and the heaviest negative karma we engage in will cause us to be born in hell.
It is very easy for us to gain negative karma in this very lifetime. Simply squatting a mosquito in anger can create the cause to be reborn in hell. In this life and all our previous lives we have done many bad actions. We know this is true because of the difficulties we go through in our lives now. We need to do our best to change our impulses to behave badly, so we do not give ourselves even more negative karma. We can meditate to make our mind familiar with the danger of doing negative actions that will cause us to take lower rebirth.
We need to get into our meditation posture. Sitting in a chair, we place our feet flat on the ground and sit with our backs as straight as possible, without being uncomfortable. We want to place our left hand palm up in our lap and then put our right hand palm up on top of the left hand. We gently place our thumbs together and point them towards our navel or belly button. We tuck our chin down slightly and close our eyes to reduce distractions.
(Pause where needed.)
Starting with relaxation we can think to ourselves, my forehead is relaxed and feel the muscles of our forehead becoming relaxed. Now we can think, my eyes are relaxed and feel the tension float away. My face is relaxed. Allow yourself to become relaxed. My jaw is relaxed. My entire head is completely relaxed. My throat is warm and comfortable. My neck is relaxed. My shoulders are relaxed and free of all tension and stress. Just let it go. My upper arms are relaxed. My lower arms and hands are relaxed. My chest is open, warm and relaxed. My stomach is relaxed and free of all stress and worry. Just release it. My abdomen is relaxed and feel yourself becoming more deeply relaxed. My pelvis is relaxed. My upper back is relaxed and free of all tension and stress. My lower back is relaxed and free of all stress and worry. My entire spine is completely relaxed. Feel yourself becoming even more tranquil. My hips are relaxed. My upper legs are relaxed. My lower legs and feet are relaxed. My entire body is completely relaxed.
Now we can scan through our bodies to see if we find any illness, pain or discomfort. When we find any we turn it into thick black smoke and exhale it on our breath so it leaves our body. As we exhale the smoke disintegrates and disappears. Go ahead and do this.
Now we can think to ourselves, I am doing this meditation so that I may imprint the danger of lower rebirth into my mental continuum, to avoid doing negative actions to others in the future.
We can contemplate how animals do not have the ability to engage in a spiritual practice and how many animals lives are riddled with danger. We can realize how we do not want to take an animal rebirth. We can also think about all the suffering the hungry ghosts endure, their never ending hunger and thirst driving them into anguish. We can think how horrible it would be to have a life like that. We can contemplate all the horrors of taking rebirth in hell. The sheer terror of any of the hot, cold or other hells. The agonizing pain and suffering that is thrust upon anyone born in those places, can scare us into understanding that we never want to do anything that would cause us to go there.
We can contemplate the torments of having a rebirth in any of those lower realms, and we can generate a strong feeling of fear within us. We meditate on this feeling of fear, holding on to it for as long as possible.
If you find your mind has wandered or you have lost the feeling of fear you were holding on to, you can think over the terrible misery of taking lower rebirth until you generate the strong fear again. Hold on to the feeling for as long as possible.
And now, before we come out of our meditation we can dedicate, so we can think to ourselves, I wish to dedicate this virtuous act of meditating to everyone I love that none of us will ever have to take a lower rebirth ever again.
And now, slowly and gently open your eyes, taking as much time as you need to return.
You can listen to this guided meditation here: https://youtu.be/v6shDAmp2Ek
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