Taking & Giving Meditation

Venerable Thubten Chonyi guides the steps of the taking-and-giving meditation from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, where we visualize breathing in the suffering of others, using that to destroy our self-centered thought, and giving our merit and happiness to free them from suffering. This is a powerful method to strengthen our compassion for all beings.

Transcript

So bring your attention to the space.

Bring your attention to your body.

And then bring your attention to your breath.

Take a little time to focus our attention on breathing.

So we do the taking and giving meditation based on having cultivated love and compassion for living beings.

So we're going to spend a little time on the four measurables to prepare our minds before we do our analytic meditation.

So we think in the first line,

May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes.

So this comes from having a love for sentient beings.

So reflect a little bit on the kindness we've received in our lives,

People we know,

Teachers,

Family,

Or if you'd rather,

Focus on the ones we don't know,

The people who grow our food or provide services for us.

Spend a moment reflecting on the kindness of others to generate a love for sentient beings.

And think that since we have been taking rebirth,

Since beginningless time,

Countless,

Countless,

Countless times,

Then surely every living being has been our mother,

Our father,

Our teacher,

Our brother,

Our friend,

Our teacher.

We've benefited immeasurably from every being throughout all time.

And so again,

We think may all sentient beings have happiness,

And causes of happiness,

Just virtuous actions.

And we think may all sentient beings be free of suffering and causes of suffering.

So if we look at all the beings who have been so kind to us,

We also recognize how much every being experiences,

Every ordinary being under the control of afflictions and karma.

The three kinds of sufferings,

The suffering of out now pain,

The dukkha or unsatisfactoriness of change,

So that even our happiness is so short-lived and really only brings more suffering if we keep it up,

Or the pervasive conditioned dukkha of being under the control solely of our afflictions and karma propelled to birth,

Aging,

Sickness and death again,

Again,

Again,

Again and again.

May all sentient beings be free of that.

But done it for a moment.

And may they be free of the causes of that suffering,

Our afflictions,

Our afflictions,

Beginning with our ignorance,

Anger and attachment,

And the actions that we do based on these or propelled by these motivations.

May they be free.

May all sentient beings never be separated from sorrowless bliss.

That means may they never be separated from liberation entirely.

Imagine a world where every being has realized the ultimate nature,

No longer grasping at the true existence self,

No longer propelled by a self-centered mind.

May all living beings have this condition.

May all living beings,

All sentient beings abide in equanimity,

Free of bias,

Free of bias,

Attachment and anger.

Free of these afflictions they will see no enemy,

No stranger,

No cling to the friend.

But abide in equanimity,

Equally regarding every living being with warm and friendly regard.

Our motivation very clear that we want to engage in this practice of taking and giving in order to increase our capacity to become like the Buddha,

To help liberate all beings from suffering and bring them lasting happiness.

We'll start with ourselves as the object of our meditation.

Visualize first in the space in front of you,

Seated in a chair or whatever support is appropriate for your image of a far future version of yourself,

Elderly and firm,

Perhaps approaching death.

The future version of yourself that will inevitably,

Unmistakably experience sickness,

Aging and death.

Get a clear picture of that future self in your mind.

See if you can imagine that face,

That body and get a sense of the very direct,

Gross suffering that comes from advanced age.

No matter how fit you expect yourself to be,

Be aware that there are moments when the body is out of our control.

And whatever feelings arise or emotions arise in the mind,

Fear,

Hesitation,

Whatever might come up.

Try to move your mind towards a sense of compassion for that being in the space in front of you,

Your own future self.

And as you let compassion arise,

Get a sense in the space in your heart,

And the sense of self-centered grasping.

It is so often an obstacle to your compassion for self and just be aware of it.

And think to yourself with a wish to free my future self from suffering and to train and the skill to be able to relieve all beings from suffering.

I will willingly take on the future suffering myself and give all my happiness.

As soon as you make that determination,

Smoke begins to pour from the body in the space in front of you.

The dark smoke that represents all the gross and subtle sufferings in that future older self.

And you begin to breathe that smoke in.

It doesn't affect your allergies.

It doesn't make you choke up.

But take that smoke directly into that hard lump of self-centeredness at your heart.

Willingly take it in.

Breathe it in.

And this next step will come in your own time.

It will be different for everyone else.

But when you reach a point where there is as much as that hard lump can take,

Smoke turns into a lightning bolt,

Blows open that self-centeredness and leaves the lack of it.

The vast,

Empty,

Open space,

The lack of self-centeredness.

Take some time to breathe in that smoke until it explodes,

Leaving this vast,

Open space of light.

Spend some time basking in that space,

Really focusing your attention on it.

What does the absence of self-centeredness feel like?

How expensive,

Light-filled,

Loving,

Compassionate.

That space may be a limitless resource.

And when you're ready,

You can begin to do the giving part of the meditation,

Breathing out all the light,

All the love.

Imagining your body becomes like a wish-fulfilling jewel or a gem where you're able to give to that future self everything they need,

Anything.

Comes out of your nostrils in the form of light and transforms into every possible relief of the suffering of the being in the space in front of you.

Giving,

Giving endlessly.

There's no bottom to the resource that you can give.

And then imagine that the person sitting in that chair,

That future old you is relieved.

And pain dissolves.

Worry and fear dissolve.

Whatever people they need appear.

Whatever physical resources they need appear.

Imagine them filled with happiness,

Joy.

Even the resources to remove their most subtle dukkha,

Afflictions,

Karma,

Purified,

Transformed.

All conditions for being able to practice also appear.

We can take great delight in having given all of our body,

Our possessions,

Our resources and our merit to bring about the happiness and the well-being on every level,

The real person that we will become.

Take a moment then to change the person that's in the chair.

You decide the object,

The person or a group of people that you're concerned about or whose suffering particularly touches you.

We'll do that process one more time.

First of all,

Really seeing their suffering.

Grossness of their suffering,

The real manifest physical mental pain,

More subtle grasping at things to try to be happy that can't actually do that for them.

And even the fact of being in samsara overwhelmed by karma afflictions.

See all of that in that person.

Really let a feeling of compassion arise.

Then in your own timing,

Again,

Bring your attention to that lump of self-centeredness which has reappeared at the heart.

Make a determination,

I will gladly take on the suffering of this living being or these beings.

Imagine that it leaves this person in the form of black smoke.

You breathe it in until it explodes the self-centeredness at your heart.

Experience the open expanded space from that place of light.

Give your body possessions and virtue.

Everything that person or people need,

Imagine them being in bliss.

We'll take a few minutes in silence to do this.

As you give them whatever they need for their happiness,

Imagine that they become completely blissful,

Calm,

At ease.

Give them not just the material things that they need,

But also all the conducive conditions to practice,

To meet the Dharma,

To understand,

To aspire for liberation,

The mental,

The internal and external conditions to help them move along the path to full awakening.

As you come to the end of that cycle,

As you do,

Imagine then making the determination to take on the suffering of all living beings.

Take it on to give them all our virtue,

All our resources.

Thank you.

Reviews

🙏🙏🙏

Such an important practise for me. Perhaps the most important there is especially at this time. Thank you 🙏

Best guidance through tonglen I have experienced