“One remains an ant spanning the eras of seven consecutive Buddhas; another trapped in a pigeon’s body even after 80,000 eons.”

        The Ants: During the construction of  Jetavana Monastery, Śāriputra noticed ants crawling on the ground and used his spiritual vision to examine their past lives. To his shock, he discovered that they had been reborn as ants across the eras of seven successive Buddhas—a span of 91 eons—and would remain trapped in that form for another 91 eons to come.

       The Pigeon: On another occasion, Shakyamuni Buddha asked Śāriputra to use his divine vision to examine a pigeon. Śāriputra discovered that the pigeon had been reborn as a pigeon, life after life, for the past 80,000 eons—and would remain trapped in the body of a pigeon for another 80,000 eons to come.

       What a heartbreaking reality!

       If a being stays trapped as a pigeon for 80,000 eons, when could it ever hope to attain a human birth again?

       The Buddha reminded us that it is exceptionally difficult to escape the three lower realms. As the famous saying goes:

   “Lose human form once, and it may not be regained in ten thousand eons.”

       To lose our human life and remain trapped in animal forms across vast cosmic ages is a terrifying thought. And even if we finally do obtain a human body, when will we ever be fortunate enough to encounter the Dharma again?

       Therefore, since we have already obtained the rare gift of human birth and have had the good fortune to encounter the Buddha Dharma - especially hearing the Pure Land teaching, a blessing that is nearly impossible to chance upon, even in hundreds of thousands of eons - we must seize this precious opportunity. We should resolve, firmly and without wavering, to attain rebirth in the Pure Land in this very lifetime!

       As it is said:

“The human form is difficult to obtain –
yet now we have obtained it.
The Buddhadharma is difficult to encounter–
yet now we have encountered it.
If we do not attain liberation in this very life,
In what future life shall we liberate ourselves?

(Translated by the Pure Land School Translation Team;
edited by Householder Fojin)