Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 44-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen focuses on the giving and taking meditation (tonglen), the sixth verse practice of the Eight Verses of Mind Training. He teaches concrete visualization instructions: mentally take beings’ sufferings as black light or a scorpion, inhale through your left nostril, then exhale white light or coolness to their realms. He walks through practice with beings in different realms, explains how tonglen protects against attachment to worldly concerns, and emphasizes that friends, enemies, gain, and loss are mental constructs lacking fixed existence. He roots the teaching in the Bodhicaryāvatāra and concludes with guidance on dedication and wishing prayers. For practitioners with some Buddhist background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 ToM.mp3
UUID: 5dd21797-0775-4458-a4c8-ce9c83096367
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Training of the Mind (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1996 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.8 minutes
Words: ~1,983
So like the Milarepa Yogi, Milarepa, having only — as food, he has only nettles to eat. Mentally, he is the most happiest one in the world. So in order to be like that, we should do that. So doing Dharma practice means transforming or changing of one’s mind.
So the changing here means changing of our mind or our thoughts, not external things. So those who engage in these practices, who transform their mind or engage in the practice of mind training or thought transformation — they receive no harm. There is no harm from them.
So now the sixth verse explains the meditation which is the giving and taking meditation. So what this line is saying is that directly or indirectly, one gives health and happiness to others and takes directly or indirectly all the suffering of others to oneself.
So here, that is the line which, in short: I shall offer benefit and bliss to all my mother beings — all mothers in this actual life and in the future. And secretly, I should take upon myself all the harms and sufferings of my mothers. So in short, this means the only meaning that which we have covered in all of these six verses.
So plus all those formal teachings and this practice opponent, one should do sincerely from the depth of one’s mind, not only as a mere word. So the meaning of actual life here is: if one can actually give one’s health and happiness to others — actually giving to them — like giving food or medicine to others and voluntarily accepting the suffering of others upon oneself.
So for example, oneself and another person are in a situation, and both are very hungry, and there is food there which is only enough for one person. So in this situation, one gives the food to the other person — that is, how do you say, the actual way of taking the other’s suffering upon yourself. Which is suffering the hunger — the other person’s suffering taken upon yourself actually, directly or actively. So you accept their sufferings like actually directly, which sufferings here means the normal suffering that we go through and also the source of the suffering or the cause of suffering is also taken upon oneself.
So the virtue that one receives from these practices is the cause for our own happiness in the future. So then, taking their suffering indirectly — which is here translated as, in the future context, mentally taking the suffering of others — that is what is meant by indirectly.
So like taking the suffering of the beings of the lower realms and then giving them happiness — that is what is known as mentally practicing giving and taking. So on this topic of giving and taking meditation, there are extensive explanations. So to meditate on this — on the beings of the hell realms — the sufferings of the hell realms, for example, are the sufferings of hot hell and cold hell.
So if you are taking the suffering of the beings of cold hell, then taking all their sufferings in the form of black light — or let’s say, in the shape of a scorpion — and then inhaling it through your left nostril and taking it upon yourself. And similarly, giving them whatever benefit is necessary. Like if they are in the cold hell, then giving them, sending them a white light or the warmth of sunlight, and removing their suffering. And similarly, if you are meditating, taking the suffering of — cold hell, sorry, hot hell — then it is similar: send them coolness.
So in the Bodhicaryāvatāra it says that if one is not to engage in these practices — which is taking the suffering of others and giving others happiness — then one will never achieve the fully enlightened state. Not only that, but even if one does not do these practices, even living in saṃsāra, one will never experience happiness.
So in that same text, the Bodhicaryāvatāra text, it advises one to, from the depth of one’s mind, do the practice of giving and taking. So while one is doing these practices — the practice of tonglen, that is giving and taking — or other Dharma practices, one might see some faults: if one is to do these practices while having attachment to this life, then one will see some faults. So one should engage in these practices without having any attachment to this life. Not only that, but one should see all phenomena as illusion and not have any attachment towards those things.
So like an illusion — for example, a magician with a magic spell could transform a piece of wood into a horse or elephant. After his performance, he views the image. So this magical horse — for us it appears as a horse, but from the side of the object it does not exist as a horse or elephant. So for that — the last verse which is being taught — which is about forces which…
So also, having not defiled all these by the strength of preconceptions of the eight worldly feelings. So this line — these two lines — means that all the former seven verses plus the practice of tonglen should not be stained by the eight worldly concerns or the attachment to this life.
So then the last two lines: and by perceiving all phenomena as illusory, free from attachment, I shall be released from bondage.
So all phenomena — as we see them, we see them as being independent, not dependent on causes and conditions. And it is bound by this thought that they are independent — and that is what we should recognise as bondage — and from that one needs to be free, which is by seeing all those phenomena as illusion. So by knowing or seeing all phenomena as illusion, one can escape from this bondage.
So then, whatever — even if one is a good practitioner, a religious practitioner — if one is engaging in these different practices just with the intention to become better than the other one, or if whatever practice is done with that motivation or concern, then it is like — how do you say — like bringing poison. So all these ordinary appearances that we have, we should see them as illusion. So these present ordinary appearances are non-truly existing.
So if they truly existed — for example, if one receives a hundred dollars, and if that were something which truly exists, one should never lose it. But what happens is one receives a hundred dollars and it happens that one gives or loses it to others. So that is a sign which shows it is non-truly existing.
So similarly with our friends and enemies: if they too existed truly, then they should remain as a friend forever and the enemy as an enemy forever. So what is known as friend and enemy to us is what our mind has created. It is not that from the object’s own side there must be a friend or an enemy. So similarly, one who brings harm to one and one who brings help to one — these two, the harm and the help that one receives — these do not exist from their own side. They do not have existence from their own side, and that too is a conception which is created by our mind.
So for example, we might have a very good friend now — the best friend — but after a month, that person might be the one we hate most and don’t even want to see. All these changes that are happening are a sign showing that it is not truly existing, or inhabiting a fixed status. So all these are what we create in our minds — all these conceptions — and we should see them as illusion. And then train ourselves to see all enemies as our friend.
So after this is the explanation of the Eight Verses of Mind Training which was taught long ago. So the composer at the end made — what do you say — a request and a prayer. And similar to that, I will just follow that. So one should make a mandala offering and a general offering to the Three Jewels and should make a request.
So the request that you make after making the mandala offering is to all the lamas and the buddhas of the three times: please bestow all the blessings upon me to be able to train my mind. Which is saying: if there are blessings in the lamas and all the buddhas of the three times, please open me to be able to do this practice of mind training. And similarly, there are the ten male and female tantric deities. And if they do have power, please bestow that power upon me so that I can understand the meaning of the teachings.
So plus, again, making the following request: may all the sufferings of the sentient beings — because of those sufferings — may they ripen upon me, and may all — may the result of all these practices of bodhicitta and the others ripen upon those other sentient beings. So in this way, you make this request in prayer.
And similarly, all the good merits that we accumulate — that we have accumulated through listening to and explaining this meditation on mind training — may that make it possible for all sentient beings to understand the meaning of these Eight Verses and their mantras.
So as we have begun this practice with a very good motivation, and similarly in the meantime we have put in the actual practice well, and then finally we have dedicated — done a good dedication — then one is able to practice these practices for days, months, and years to come. And if one is to be able to practise these practices in all one’s future lives, then that is what brings happiness to this life and also in our future lives.
So similarly, making other prayers: may I purely practise this advice of mind training in this life, and making prayers again saying that may I again meet with these teachings in the future life, in the next life, and meet with a spiritual master or guru who can give teachings on this.
So if one is to make these good wishing prayers, then the prayers come true, and that is which is good for one. So to meet with good friends in one’s future life — those who have been helpful or who have assisted one in the practice. For example, those who have helped one in his life to practise patience — one of those six perfections — is known as the good spiritual friend. So the good friend is known as the Kalyamitra friend. And similarly, those who lead one to commit negative actions or lead one to form those negative actions — if those are the ones known as negative friends — and even if they are one’s parents or close ones, they are known as negative friends.
So we should make prayers that we meet with good friends. If one is to make good wishing prayers, the prayers come true. And because the Buddha is the one who explained that if one is to commit negative actions, as a result one will experience suffering — and similarly Buddha explained that if one makes wishing prayers, those will come true — so it should be true in that.
So then next month, for the next four weeks, we will be speaking on the four noble truths. And if you can make it, if you can come, I think we’re good.
So in between here, there’s some dedication.