Precious human body

precious human body (T. མི་ལུས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ / མི་ལུས་རིན་ཆེན་). Aka "precious human existence," "precious human life." A human existence that possesses the appropriate freedoms and advantages that enable one to follow the Buddhist path and practice the dharma.

According to several versions of the ngondro, a precious human body is comprised of eighteen freedoms and advantages.

Dudjom Rinpoche states:

The precious human body is the indispensable support for accomplishing enlightenment, and it has to have the following perfect features: the essence of the support, namely freedom, which is the opposite of the eight states of lack of opportunity; and its particular features, namely the five individual advantages, which are like ornaments, and the five circumstantial advantages which, as it were, illuminate and enhance those ornaments.

Sources

• Dudjom Rinpoche (2011), A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom: Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practices, translated by Padmakara Translation Group, Shambhala