We need to contemplate our fortunate circumstances.
It is hard for that to have impact in America, where there is so much material comfort, particularly if you have never gone to a country that is very poor. But it is shocking if we travel to India, for example, where so many people will never have even the most basic things that we take for granted — all of a sudden we realize how precious our situation is. We realize that on our worst day, our worst, bad day when we do not get what we want, we are a hundred times better off than so many human beings. When you sit here, contemplating your precious human birth sounds almost like a joke, but when you go there it hits you so hard, you realize, "I'm really very fortunate, I should stop complaining."
— Sakyong Mipham, In the Presence of Masters by Reginald A. Ray