The Buddha said:
There are twenty difficult things to attain or accomplish in this world:
1. It is difficult for the poor to practice charity.
2. It is difficult for the strong and rich to observe the way.
3. It is difficult to disregard life and go to certain death.
4. It is only a favored few that get acquainted with a Buddhist sutra.
5. It is by rare opportunity that a person is born in the age of a buddha.
6. It is difficult to conquer the passions, to suppress selfish desires.
7. It is difficult not to hanker after that which is agreeable.
8. It is difficult not to get into a passion when slighted.
9. It is difficult not to abuse one’s authority.
10. It is difficult to be even-minded and simple-hearted in all one’s dealings with others.
11. It is difficult to be thorough in learning and exhaustive in investigation.
12. It is difficult to subdue selfish pride.
13. It is difficult not to feel contempt toward the unlearned.
14. It is difficult to be one in knowledge and practice.
15. It is difficult not to express an opinion about others.
16. It is by rare opportunity that one is introduced to a true spiritual teacher.
17. It is difficult to gain an insight into the nature of being, and to practice the way.
18. It is difficult to follow the steps of a savior.
19. It is difficult to be always the master of oneself.
20. It is difficult to understand thoroughly the ways of Buddha.
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It is only a favored few that get acquainted with a Buddhist sutra.
Buddha says it is very few, a very favored few, a fortunate few, a chosen few, a blessed few, who become acquainted with the wisdom of a buddha.
To be in contact with a buddha, you have to pass through a few experiences that life is illusory, that death is certain. Unless your illusion about life is shattered completely, you will not listen to a buddha. He is irrelevant, he does not exist for you.
Buddha exists for you only if you have become alert that this life is fleeting, slipping by; that this life is just a shadow, not a reality – a reflection in the mirror. When all your dreams about life are shattered, then you become interested in a buddha. And when you become interested, only then is there a possibility to understand Buddhist wisdom, the wisdom of an awakened man.
Who is an awakened man? One who has come to know what is dream, one who has come to know what is not dream. When you are asleep, dream looks real. In the morning when you awake, then you know that it was unreal. A buddha is one who has awakened – awakened out of this so-called life and has come to realize that it is a dream.
If you are also feeling the pain, the frustration, the misery of this dream life, this futile life, only then you start moving toward a source of light; otherwise not. Buddha says those are the few favored ones.
Fifth:
It is by rare opportunity that a person is born in the age of a buddha.
It is by rare opportunity… Yes, it is so because a buddha is rarely there. Thousands of years pass, then a person becomes a buddha, and even then it is not necessary that he will start teaching. He may not teach at all. He may simply disappear into the unknown. There is no necessity that he should become a master. So, buddhas are few, and then buddhas who become masters and help people on the way are even fewer.
It is by rare opportunity that a person is born in the age of a buddha.
So if you can find a person who is awakened, if you can find a person who is a little different from you, if you can find a person in whose eyes you don’t see the clouds of sleep and around whom you can feel the aura of awakening, then don’t miss the opportunity because it may not be for many lives that you will come across such a man again.
-Osho, "The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 2, #2"