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134 Twelve Facets of Reality opening, from inner experience. Bodhi has many more meanings. From this word is derived Buddha, meaning one who knows.
The eleventh bhavana is called bodhidurlabha, which means the rarity and difficulty of achieving such a deep knowledge. The path to Enlightenment takes time and energy to discover. In this reflection, the student marvels and rejoices at the fact that he or she has been able to seek out and walk this path. In fact, bodhi is such a rare and precious treasure that it has been compared to a unique radiant diamond. The lustrous diamond which Indian monarchs used to wear in their crowns was called the Koh-i-nur diamond. Such a diamond was not available to everyone; it was reserved only for special persons. In the same way, when we think of bodhidurlabha, we observe that inner awareness is a rare treasure that “common" people cannot afford. What is meant by “common”? It has nothing to do with post, position, wealth, or status. The common person is he or she who is living without inner richness.
How can you describe this inner treasure? Let us say that there comes a moment in your life, in your experience, when you realize that what dies is every body, not every soul. It may come from meditation, from hearing the words of the right teacher, from remaining in the company of the right person. Slowly it unfolds in you. You realize, “I am not a body. I am living in a body. I am unborn.” So though you are born, you are unborn. It appears a little paradoxical. You might think, “How can I say I am unborn? I was born. I have a birth date.” You know that that which has a birth certificate will have a death certificate. That is a fact. And it is horrifying to think that all of our efforts end in a graveyard. It is such a sad, tasteless thought.
So we go deeper. We go beyond intellectualization.
