Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute teaching, Lama Lhundup explains the practice of giving and taking, one of the core techniques within the seven-fold mind training. Building on prior work with equanimity and compassion, he guides practitioners through visualization: imagining the suffering of all sentient beings across six realms—humans, gods, demigods, hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals—and drawing that suffering into the heart as black light, where it dissolves the self-cherishing ego. He offers adaptations for beginners: starting with one’s own future suffering, then progressing to mother, father, loved ones, enemies, and finally all beings. He emphasizes bringing this practice into daily life: when hearing of suffering, falling ill, or experiencing anger, practitioners link the experience to others enduring the same, transforming difficulty into compassion. In the second half, he introduces the complementary practice of giving, where one’s body becomes a wish-fulfilling gem that manifests whatever each being needs—medicine and shelter for humans, cooling rains for hell beings, spiritual teachers for all realms—bringing joy and eventually liberation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 7FMT.mp3
UUID: c5e10cea-8ce5-4c09-96b4-4f3194a98d68
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Seven-fold mind training (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~3,051
So last time we discussed the faults of self-cherishing and the advantage of cherishing others and the exchange of self with others. Now we’re going to explain the practice of giving and taking. So in order having developed the equanimity between self and others in order to generate the mind of enlightenment, we have to meditate on giving and taking. So in the beginning, we thought about how all sentient beings have been our mother. And we sought to develop compassion for all our mothers in the sense of not being able to bear their suffering.
We developed this on the basis of remembering the great kindness that sentient beings have been when they were our mothers. But not only those times when they were our mothers, but in fact, when they aren’t our mothers, sentient beings are extremely kind. They’re kind to us all the time. And remembering their great kindness, thinking about how they’re constantly undergoing suffering, then we develop the compassion which wants to separate them from their suffering. If we don’t remember the kindness of sentient beings and thereby develop compassion, seeking to release them from their suffering, then their practice of giving and taking will not develop.
So we develop the we imagine all sentient beings and consider that all our mother sentient beings are suffering, and we develop the wish to separate them from their suffering. On top of this, then we meditate on giving and taking. So we begin by thinking about all mother sentient beings and how they’re tortured by the three types of suffering within cyclic existence the three types of suffering of pain, suffering of change, and the composition of pervasive suffering. And we imagine that we develop this great compassion, wanting to release them from their suffering. And imagine all the sentient beings and their suffering, we take on this suffering in the form of a black light.
And this black light comes into us and into our heart, and it completely destroys this self-cherishing which is at our heart and makes it completely disappear. I’ll imagine it dissolves into the self-cherishing at your heart. So, amongst the six types of migrators within the desire realm, first we take we imagine human beings and think of all their various sufferings that human beings experience. And we take this in the form of black light and this dissolves comes into our heart and dissolves into our self-cherishing. And then we also think about the sources of suffering, the afflictive emotions, the causes of suffering, and we take these in the form of black light from the human beings and these come into our heart and dissolves into our self-cherishing in the form of black light.
So likewise, we take the object the various gods and we imagine all their various sufferings. And they experience, for example, the suffering of change because at some time they have to separate from all pleasures that they’ve experienced and they see what is going to take place after their death. And during this period they experience unimaginable types of suffering, seeing what migration they’re going to fall into. So we take this type of suffering from these gods in the form of this black light, and this again comes into our heart and dissolves into our self-cherishing. Likewise, we then imagine the demigods.
And the demigods, you know, also have the same sufferings of change and pervasive compositional suffering. They suffer from also suffering from fighting and from jealousy. And so we imagine we take on all this suffering in the form of this black light, it comes into our heart and dissolves into our self-cherishing. Also the cause of their suffering, the afflictive emotions, we take those in the form of a black light, enters into our heart and dissolves into our self-cherishing. So likewise, we imagine the various beings in bad migrations such as the hell beings, the hungry ghosts, the animals.
And first we imagine the sufferings of the hell beings, the various types of cold hells and hot hells. For example, there are eight types of hot hells that and here they experience unimaginable types of suffering. And we imagine this unimaginable suffering that they’re experiencing, and we take on the suffering of these hell beings in the form of black light, which dissolves into our heart. And we think of the causes for this type of suffering, the various negative actions that they’ve created in the past, and also the causes such as the afflictive emotions such as desire, hatred, and delusion. And we also take these upon ourselves in the form of black light, which dissolves into the self-cherishing at our heart.
Likewise, we take on the unimaginable sufferings of the hell beings and the cold hells. There are also eight cold hells where the beings become almost like ice and they spend hundreds of thousands of years in this condition and undergo tremendous suffering. And we take this suffering upon in the form of black light, which comes into our heart and dissolves into our self-cherishing. Likewise, the causes which have created this suffering, the negative emotions, the negative actions which are brought up and we take these on along with the afflictive emotions which cause these negative actions. We take these on in the form of this black light dissolving into the self-cherishing in our heart, and then we think that now these beings having taken on this suffering in the form of black light, we now think now the beings are separated from their suffering.
They no longer have this suffering. Likewise, the hell realm there are each of the eight hot hells and each of the eight cold hells have neighboring hells, which each of these neighboring hells also have unimaginable types of suffering corresponding to the hell which they are nearest to, such as the river of poison, etc. We should think about the beings in each of these all these various types of neighboring hells and the suffering that they’re experiencing and take on their various sufferings that they’re experiencing in the form of this black light which dissolves into the self-cherishing in our heart. Also the causes which created this type of suffering, such as the negative actions which are the causes, we take these on in the form of black light. Also, the causes for these negative actions, that is, the afflictive emotions which cause them to create these negative actions, We take those in the form of black light, which comes and dissolves into the self-cherishing in our heart, and then we imagine that now these beings are separated from that suffering.
Likewise, now we imagine the hungry ghost realm where the beings there are unimaginable sufferings of hunger and thirst. You know, when they find some food it turns into fire, for example, in their stomach. We imagine their sufferings that they’re undergoing and we take these on in the form of the black light dissolving into the self-cherishing at our heart. Likewise, the causes of this suffering which created it, that is the negative actions, and we take on those negative actions. Then we take on the causes of negative actions, which are the various afflictive emotions such as miserliness and desire.
We take those on in the form of black light which dissolves in the self-cherishing of our heart, and then we imagine how they’re separated from their suffering. Then we imagine the animal realm, the various sufferings that they experience, such as the suffering of being eaten by one another, the suffering of stupidity, suffering such as this type. We imagine thinking about these sufferings, we take on these sufferings in the form of black light, which dissolves into the self-cherishing center of our heart, and we take upon the causes which brought about this type of sufferings, which are the negative actions created, they have created in the past. We take these on the form of a black light. And then the causes for having created these negative actions, which are the delusions primarily delusion or ignorance.
And we take on these very afflictive emotions in the form of black light, dissolves into the self-cherishing of our heart. Having taken on these sufferings, we now imagine that now these beings are separated from their suffering. Some people find such a way of meditating they’re not able to meditate in this way. They just can’t can’t bear to take on the sufferings of others in this way, even to imagine it. Therefore, for such people, then they should imagine that they’re taking on their own sufferings in the sense that first they imagine whatever sufferings that possibly could happen to them later on in the day, just thinking about what could happen, the difficulties, then they take on those sufferings upon themselves.
And the possible sufferings that could happen tomorrow and maybe next month, next year, whatever possible sufferings that they might they could experience such as hunger, etc. thinking about their sufferings and just take those sufferings onto themselves now. So we should meditate thinking that we’re taking all the sufferings all our future sufferings upon ourselves in this life and future lives upon our self. So we’re taking all our own future sufferings upon ourselves now in the same way. But also, some people wouldn’t they don’t even like to take upon their own suffering upon themselves.
So, they will also dislike taking upon all their future sufferings. So, when we get some experience of taking our own suffering our own future suffering upon ourselves and that we don’t we’re able to do this without developing a dislike, then we should think about, for example, our mother and take upon the sufferings of our own mother upon ourselves. May we imagine that we’re taking all the sufferings of our mother upon us, not only the sufferings, but then we imagine we’re taking the various causes of the suffering and the negative actions and then the afflictive emotions, which cause the negative actions. We take these all upon ourselves and then think that now I’ve liberated my mother from all the sufferings. Once we get some experience of this, then we can move on and we imagine our father.
We take upon all the sufferings of our father along with the causes of his suffering. Then we move on to, you know, those we care about, their loved ones, friends, and we take upon the sufferings of these people. Once we gain some experience in that, then we take on the suffering of we imagine the people we don’t like, that is, enemies. And we imagine that we usually develop anger toward, We think about their suffering and we take upon their suffering and we also take upon ourselves the causes of their suffering in the form of this black light which dissolves into the self-cherishing in our heart. So, in this way we keep, you know, we’re starting with our mother and our mother and then the father and the friend and enemy.
We keep taking each type of sentient beings, spreading out further and further, taking on their various sufferings. Beginning with each of these individuals, we take on the suffering of all the people in this state. And then we move spread this out and take on all the sufferings of all the people in the country. And finally, and then we go all the people in the world take on their suffering and the causes of their suffering. And then finally, the suffering and the causes of suffering of all sentient beings equal to space, all the living beings in existence.
And we take on all that suffering and the causes of suffering in the form of black light, which dissolves into the self-cherishing at our heart. So we have to adjust our meditation, you know. Sometimes it’s necessary to think of specific people such as, you know, your mother, your father, etc, and take on their sufferings. Sometimes we should think about general populations such as country. Sometimes we should think about all, you know, the very common general types of beings, you know, like people in a country, people in a various realm.
You know, If we develop, we should develop a linking. You know, we imagine that we’ve taken on this suffering. When we hear about or see some type of suffering, you know, it’s going on around us all the time, such as people suffering from death, people from diseases, illness, people being imprisoned, all these various difficulties. Immediately when we hear about it or when we see it, then we imagine that we’re taking upon this specific suffering and it’s a great deal of benefit to be derived from this practice. Likewise, when we experience some type of sickness, when we have a headache or a stomachache, and at that time we can imagine the other sentient beings who are also experiencing a similar type of suffering and we can develop compassion for them and wish that whoever is experiencing the same type of illness, the same type of suffering that I’m experiencing, may I take that suffering upon myself and our imagination take on that suffering, a similar type of suffering.
Likewise, whenever any type of afflictive emotions such as desire or hatred arises in our own mind whenever it manifests, And we understand and develop compassion for those who are experiencing similar states of mind and see how this is going to lead them to suffering. Imagine that develop compassion for them and take on these various afflicted emotions that they’re as you’re experiencing now. And may I take on this anger or this attachment that all sentient beings are experiencing now upon myself. Practicing in this way is extremely good, very beneficial. So at the moment, this practice of taking upon the sufferings of others, we actually don’t take upon the sufferings of others.
At present, we don’t have that ability. By cultivating this practice, we can actually develop the power whereby we can take upon ourselves the sufferings of others. So the You know, when later, having practiced, if we when the practice has gone well, when we see someone in danger, their life is in danger, So if this practice is going well in the future, it’s on such occasions when our life is in danger or when someone has stolen our possessions, stolen our valuables, that we in such situations that Yes. Whenever somebody experiences something very bad, some difficulty, rather than experiencing suffering, rather than getting angry, we actually think we become very happy because we realize that our practice of giving and taking has gone well. So at this time we don’t become unhappy.
So if we haven’t practiced the Dharma, if we haven’t, for example, engaged in this practice of giving and taking at those times when we’re having difficulty, when we’re experiencing sickness, then not only do we have the suffering of, for example, physical suffering, but on top of the physical suffering, also have mental suffering. So there are the two practices of giving and taking. In the taking, we develop the view of the sufferings of sentient beings and develop the compassion and wishing to separate them from them. In the second, having taken upon their sufferings, we actually give over. The second part is giving, in which we develop love toward them.
So, we meditate on giving. We imagine the sentient beings and that they don’t have the happiness. And we think and we develop the thought, I will bring them the happiness. So, we give over our happiness. We give them our body.
We give them our possessions and the roots of our positive actions over the three times, our merit. So in the way we give over our body, we send our body, it’s as if our body were a wish fulfilling gem. We transform our body into a wish fulfilling gem. We don’t think of it as being a particular shape or color, but it’s transformed into whatever each of the sentient beings wants. Whatever they want, our body transforms into that.
So we can imagine all sentient beings are mother and father included, and all sentient beings have a great variety of wants. And we imagine that So we should We can meditate, for example, on the human needs, and we imagine that all beings are around us in the form of humans, and that whatever they want, whatever they need, whether they want a house or they need food or whether they need medicine or they need helpers, whatever it is that we transform our body into this need and then we imagine that all their various needs and wants are fulfilled. Then we can imagine the beings of the gods and whatever they want, you know, all the complete marvels of the world. And so we imagine that we fulfill their needs, their wants, and that they experience unimaginable joy. Likewise, we can imagine the demigods.
One of the things they need most is armor. So we imagine that we transform our body into armor and that they experience great happiness. And then we I can imagine the various beings in the hot hells and that we transform our body into cooling rains which fall and completely, you know, bring them they experience great pleasure from this cooling rain. So this is completely all the suffering from heat is completely eliminated.
So, having sent this cooling rain eliminating all the sufferings of heat, then we imagine that we send forth our body and transforming it into beautiful bodies. All these hell beings have beautiful bodies and they have wonderful houses to live in. And then we transform our body into helpers and friends. And also, we send them spiritual teachers to show them what is to be cultivated and what is to be abandoned. And then we send them all the various conditions necessary to practice and all the and through all the realizations until they finally actually attain Buddhahood.
Likewise, imagine the beings in the cold hells, we send in sunlight warming, which warms up the entire realm of the cold hell.