Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute teaching on The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, Ven Margaret McAndrew focuses on Tonglen—a meditation of taking and giving—as the path to transform self-cherishing into cherishing others. The core practice involves breathing in others’ suffering as black smoke, directing it to the hard lump of self-cherishing in your heart to dissolve it, then breathing out white light—your happiness, health, and Dharma understanding—to all beings. She applies this specifically to physical suffering: sickness and pain as karmic results of having harmed others. When such suffering arises, accept it as using up past karma while relieving countless others’ identical suffering. The teaching includes practical Q&A on meditation technique and whether to seek medical treatment alongside practice, concluding with a guided Tonglen meditation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 SW 1999 02 18.mp3
UUID: 904e9747-ba18-47d2-8284-f588126602a5
Teacher: Ven Margaret McAndrew
Collection: The Wheel of Sharp Weapons (Ven Margaret McAndrew)
Date: 1999-02-18
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.4 minutes
Words: ~4,062
Like, Wheel of Sharp Weapons to help us bring that practice about. So, Geshe Ngawang Dakpa says in his commentary that it was pointed out that self-cherishing is like a demon. And ego grasping is like a servant or a messenger of the demon which is self-cherishing. self-cherishing gives the orders and ego grasping does the dirty work by hurting us. That wasn’t what Geshe Ngawang Dakpa said, but that’s a nice summary of what he said.
Anyway, between the two of them, they’ve been hurting us and causing us to suffer again and again in all our lives. And so we have to recognize that self-cherishing is the real enemy, it’s the great enemy that we have to get rid of. The way to get rid of it is through changing self-cherishing for cherishing others. And in order to bring that about, we first of all have to cultivate the wish to take on the sufferings of others. So this is the practice of Tonglen, which is also one of the meditations set out in the Graduated Path.
And most of you have probably encountered this meditation of giving and taking before. Is there anybody who’s new to this meditation on giving and taking? Yes, well I will. Well I just wondered if there’s anybody who’s totally new to the concept. Okay.
Basically it’s an imaginative practice. So we’re not really able to take on others sufferings, but we have to do this in our imagination. We have to be willing to do it, and in our imagination we actually think that we do it. There’s a lot of Tonglen in the verses that are coming up. The way that it’s explained in The Graduated Path is that we visualise ourselves as being surrounded by all sentient beings and we visualise their sufferings are like black smoke, black pollution, or black rays, sort of black light, if you can use such a term.
And that we actually breathe in and draw this suffering and cause of suffering away from them. So we’re drawing sufferings and also their negative karmas and their deluded mental states and taking it on ourselves. And then rather than taking it on ourselves, we put it on our self-cherishing. Rather than putting it on our general self, put it on our self-cherishing, which is the enemy. So we think that our self-cherishing is like a hard lump in the centre of the chest, which is the way we actually do experience it.
And we feel that when this suffering in the form of black pollution hits it, then it gets dispersed, it gets blown up. Lama Yeshe used to say that it’s like as if the self-cherishing had been blown up with an atom bomb. Lama Yeshe always used to like really dramatic examples. So he would say like an atom bomb. So the idea is that you just feel that the self-cherishing has been eliminated and that it’s no longer there.
It’s just dissolved or exploded. And then you practice giving out your good things, all the good things you have, your good karma, your happiness, your enjoyments and so on, which is a term that Tibetans use for all your possessions and perhaps your family, your job, everything that’s good, and your good karma and your Dharma practice. All of these things you visualize going out through in the form of white light to all the others, to all these beings. And giving them what they need to be happy and in particular giving them the path to enlightenment and taking them to enlightenment. We’re also taught how to combine it with the breathing.
You can breathe in through the right nostril, drawing in the suffering, blow up the self-cherishing and immediately send out all the good things through the left nostril in the form of white light. So it might take a little bit of practice before you really get coordinated with your breathing, but if you continue practicing then eventually you can actually get into the habit of doing it like that. Yes? Oh yes, if we got it in the Right, okay. The easy way to do it then instead of having to read a book you can just put on a tape.
Good. So We will do a little bit of a meditation on that. Would you like to do the meditation now? No, I think we’ll go through the next verse anyway, because that’s where it really comes into the text. So that would be verse stanza ten, and maybe the oldest person can read it next time.
We’ve just done nine, haven’t we? We did eight, okay, nine. Okay, yes, you’re right. Actually, I haven’t quite finished eight yet. So Yes.
Okay, yes. Yes, anyway, yes, lot going on with the thought that even if we want our own welfare, still have practice cherishing others. Then if we do this practice Once we start to cherish others, then even ordinary actions that we have to do to take care of ourselves that we might be doing for our own welfare such as eating and sleeping and cleaning our house and so on, we can turn these into actions for others if we have the motivation in our minds of cherishing others and making our whole life Dharma practice for the thought of attaining enlightenment for the sake of others. If we’re doing our Dharma practice with this thought of benefiting others, attaining enlightenment, using our lives for the attainment of enlightenment, if our life is dedicated for this, then every action we do, even if it’s just an action done to look after our own physical welfare or to relax or whatever, it becomes something that’s done on the path for the sake of others. So it becomes really powerful Dharma practice, whereas otherwise it would have just been a mundane worldly activity with no good in it at all.
And of course our Dharma study and meditation There’s no doubt that these things become cause for benefiting others. Yes. Good. Yes. Yes, can Yes, yes, yes that’s very good.
I think it’s very good to do that. I haven’t got time perhaps to explain all the details, but there’s many different ways. You can do it room by room. You can do it starting with the new ones and going out. We’re going to go through But anyway, I suggest that maybe people might like to actually use the tape.
So we’ll be going through some verses that bring in some sort of detailed ways of doing this Tonglen practice. So anyway, stanza nine. It’s a short one. Yes. I think you’re in the hot seat.
So, we’re aspiring to be bodhisattvas, so we have to learn how to practice to deal with the delusions. Not just avoid them like the crow, but to learn how to deal with them like the peacocks. Not by avoiding them, but by confronting them and turning them into the path. So this is usually talked about in the context of Tantric practice, but here we’re not talking about Tantric practice as such. But it’s a sūtra method that does give us a way of using our sufferings to help us.
These lojong teachings are about using our present situation, using our sufferings difficulties, transforming them from what would have been detrimental circumstances to our practice, what would have been hindrances, into actually helping circumstances. And these lojong teachings or thought training teachings are very powerful and we need to have them in this age where it’s very difficult to go off and meditate by yourself. We need to have these powerful methods for dealing with our current circumstances. The whole thing has to be based on cherishing others. We have to want to cherish others.
And so then we have to go on and understand its disadvantages. I actually went through all that. So I’m up to verse I’m actually up to this ten, stand the ten. Maybe the Venerable I might read this one. Yes?
Just try to give it ten Sorry. You were asking a question? Mhmm. Yes. Yes, if our loved ones rise against us, to feel it’s Yes.
I don’t think it’s saying that. It might be It might be If they’re doing you wrong, if they’re behaving wrongly Say for example, I don’t know whether you have children, but if you have children and they’re treating you disrespectfully, as if you’re their father, then it wouldn’t necessarily be good for them to let them do that, to sit back and let them do it, would it? If you think about their welfare, would have to insist on them treating you respectfully for their sake. But it’s talking about how you react to that. If people, if our family, if our friends turn on us and give us a hard time, then we don’t necessarily just have to sit there.
If somebody comes along and starts to beat us, we don’t have to sit there and let them beat us, do we? But the point is that when these things happen, rather than blaming the person, rather than getting angry, and retaliating on that person out of your anger, then we understand that it’s actually our karmic result. Yes, yeah, really helps a lot. But yes, well, Right, yes. Yes, anyway, understanding karma shouldn’t make us feel guilty.
It doesn’t work that way. The more you karma, the more you tend to see things in terms of karma, the more I think you feel less guilty. Because you just know that it’s just some sort of karmic result from something you did maybe many lives ago. It’s not something you’d be hum up about. Whereas I think quite often when people blame us and so on we feel there is some sort of terrible inadequacy in us or that we must have made some awful mistake or something that we are to blame for.
Whereas if we simply see it And that’s why sometimes we react with anger and retaliate, because we either have to blame it back on the other person or we have to accept that thought ourselves. What this gives us is another way of understanding the situation so that we don’t have to go into that mechanical response. Like all of these things, it doesn’t work if we wait until the situation arises to try to have these thoughts. It’s really important to reflect on these things frequently and be ready when it does arise. So, this verse, stanza ten, it brings in the idea of how to transform the mind in relation to specific problems, and it actually brings in the mention of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons.
This is where the Wheel of Sharp Weapons comes into the picture. So this is dealing with physical suffering and it’s really one of the big sufferings generally when we think of suffering which is the worst kind of suffering, mostly we think of physical suffering, sickness, pain, injury and that kind of thing as being the worst kind. In actual fact, it’s not necessarily the worst kind, but it is the most obvious kind of suffering. If you know the story of Buddha, know that Buddha left home because of seeing three suffering sights when he went out on three excursions from the palace. And the first sight that he saw was sickness.
He saw a sick person. And it was these three sights that caused him to run away and take up the path to enlightenment. So these sufferings of sickness and physical pain are very powerful, but they can be transformed into the path. So the first step that we have to take is to reflect on the karmic result, what sort of a karmic result it is, from what sort of actions. We can see that it must be a result of similar actions to others in the past.
And that our bodies are suffering now because we’ve caused suffering to the bodies of others. And so if we accept this teaching, then it makes sense of our sufferings. So we don’t have this feeling that life’s been unfair to us or that we could blame God for our troubles. So we just understand where it comes from and it makes it easier to accept the situation. So we can also feel some happiness about this situation by reflecting on the karma, because we’re using up the karma.
It’s being expended and we won’t have to experience its results in the future. And it might have been a karma which could have taken us to the lower realms, to much worse suffering in lower states of rebirth, if we hadn’t been able to get it out of the way now in this human lifetime. So that’s something to really rejoice about. So then we complete this practice by thinking about others and taking on their sufferings mentally on our own. This specific suffering.
We think this suffering of pain, perhaps it’s a headache or a sore arm. We think there are countless beings in this world and in other worlds quite a proportion of them will be experiencing this sort of suffering that I’m experiencing now. And you think you’re You think how good it would be if you could relieve that suffering from these other beings by experiencing this suffering yourself. And you imagine, you do the Tonglen practice imagining that you are relieving the other sentient beings of this specific physical suffering by taking it on yourself, breathing in the black smoke. And then using that to harm the self-cherishing and developing love and compassion, thinking we’ve relieved these beings, given them relief and comfort.
This kind of Tonglen practice, we don’t have to wait until we’re sitting in a meditation session. We can do it all the time as we’re going about in our daily activities, whenever a situation arises, whenever we observe suffering or think of suffering or hear about suffering. For instance, if you’re listening to the news on television, you get plenty of opportunity. It could be anything from a dog that’s been found by the RSPCA from some awful suffering all the way up to a whole nation that’s enduring war or massacres or whatever. So there’s plenty of opportunity that we can find in our daily lives to do these things.
Here we’re talking about taking on sufferings that match our own specific sufferings. You can think that these sufferings are the result of, you could think that, you think that these sufferings are the result of our having committed violence and that you could also think of the future sufferings of the person who has committed the violence. It doesn’t say that here, but I don’t see why you shouldn’t do that. It definitely is something we do in the general Tonglen practice, when we take on all the negative karmas of others. Well, here we’re that’s true.
Certainly it comes into Tonglen practice, I’m not sure whether it comes into this specific verse. Here we’re just focusing on having a positive attitude to our own specific suffering. And I don’t see why you shouldn’t apply that to the future sufferings of others of the same type, as well as to the present suffering of the same type that others are experiencing. It seems like a good idea to me, that’s just my personal view. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Right, yes, think that could be good.
Certainly in general, when we do Tonglen in general, should take on the sufferings that other beings are going to experience in the future by their present negative actions. It’s an important thought to consider. So, anyway, the question might arise then perhaps we should refuse treatment for our illnesses because this is the result of our karma. Should we just let our karmic results happen? Is there any point in seeking treatment of everything we experience as the result of our karma?
Is it going to make any difference if we’re going to get better? Isn’t that our karma anyway, whether we take medicine or not? You might have this thought. Has anybody got any doubts about these points? That’s true.
Okay, but what about this idea that if you’re going to get better, then you’ll get better anyway, because it’s your karma to get better. Right, good. Yes. Right. It’s also like the connection of cause and condition.
As you say, we might have the karma to get better if we take that medicine. That medicine operates as the condition. So, you say, one person might not have the karma to get better and they won’t, whereas the other person takes the same medicine and does get better. But in that case the medicine operated as the condition and maybe they wouldn’t have got better if they hadn’t actually made contact with the condition, which was the medicine. So it is important of course to try to take treatment if we can.
But if we take whatever treatments are available and they aren’t effective, then we don’t have to feel miserable because we have the opportunity to do strong thought training practice. Of course if you go on being sick for a long time, that’s one of the most difficult situations to keep up your positive mind. But it does give you something to work on and if you can manage to cultivate a positive mind in relation to that situation, then it’s going to be really powerful. So Also, we go on to remember that since our karmic result Since our karma is what is bringing about this suffering, we also resolve In addition, the next step of this practice is to resolve never to harm others this way again in future. So in this case not to beat others or to injure others or to do the things that cause us to have to experience this sort of karmic result in the future.
So by thinking in this way we’re creating the cause for our future happiness and also by training our minds we’re keeping our minds happy and peaceful through the present difficulties. So in the present we do have to perhaps endure these difficulties, but we can be peaceful in our minds. We don’t have to be miserable. Do you find that with your patients? The ones that don’t feel the pain.
George is a dentist for everybody who doesn’t know. So I thought maybe it’s people who sort of come, sort of feeling a positive attitude of mind, might not feel as much discomfort. I’m not suggesting that you cause any discomfort when you’re, but some people only have to see the dentist or hear the sound of the drill and they immediately start feeling agony. So, yes, all these things prove the value of putting these methods into practice. So, Geshe Ngawang Dakpa said that when we’re sick, and we want to do this Tonglen practice, he said we should visualize our Guru.
So if we have a Guru, we should actually visualize our Guru and pray to him or her that the sufferings of sickness and pain of the sentient beings should ripen on us. So if you don’t actually have a specific Guru, then you could visualize Śākyamūni Buddha. So then you take on the suffering in the form of these black rays onto the self-cherishing in your heart. Then having done that, having got rid of the self-cherishing, then you give away your comfort and happiness to others in the form of rays of light going out from your heart to the sentient beings. It’s nine o’clock already, past.
I thought I was going to have plenty of time for meditation. Perhaps you might like to just do a short one. If you have some particular pain, illness or physical problem, then you could focus on that. And think of how many other beings have a similar problem. human beings, possibly it’s something that animals experience as well, various different physical sufferings.
If you don’t at this stage, if you’re in the fortunate position of not having any illnesses or pains or physical sufferings, then you can just in general think of taking on the sufferings of others. So think that you’re surrounded by all living beings, think of how many of them have a similar suffering to what you’re experiencing yourself. How many of them have cause of suffering? How many of them have the distorted mental states which are the underlying cause to bring about the negative karmas that are the actual cause. We think that if we’re going to have to endure this suffering ourselves, then we can endure it for the sake of others.
And we imagine that we’re taking on this suffering in the form of black smoke, coming in through our right nostril, going down to the centre of our chest, blowing up the self-cherishing, this hard lump of self-cherishing like a black spot around the centre of our chest. It completely vanishes. Instead we feel light and joyful within our body, around our heart centre particularly. And then from our heart centre, white light, which is our happiness, our good physical feelings, our health, our well-being and our good karma, our cause to have these results in the future and our Dharma understanding, it all goes out to the sentient beings and fills them up with these qualities in the form of white light. So we can just concentrate on that, trying to coordinate it with the breathing if you can.
If you can’t then just concentrate on the visualization. If you find it hard to embrace the thought of all sentient beings then think of the sentient beings surrounding you, the ones that you meet, the ones that you encounter. So now we can just conclude the meditation by focusing a little bit on the thought that all these sentient beings have been relieved of their suffering and given happiness, physical comfort and mental happiness. And that we feel ourselves to be happy, free from the weight of self-cherishing. So, does anybody have any questions before we finish?
Well, that’s true. They In the Wish-Fulfilling Golden Sun, Lama Zopa Rinpoche describes himself as Guru Śākyamūni Buddha’s, the most ignorant follower or something like Yeah, they say these things but it’s different. They don’t have this sort of Yeah, they’re quite happy about it. Yeah, it is different, you know. It’s modesty.
Sorry? Yes, that’s it. And basically it’s not coming from ego. They say these things because they just basically don’t feel that they are anything special and they don’t think it matters. Whereas we feel that we’re bad and that we don’t shape up and so we feel that that’s somehow terrible and that we’re somehow to blame for that or that it proves that we’re no good or we somehow take it on.
It becomes very heavy for us. Whereas the Lamas, of course some of them really have these great qualities and they’re just hiding their great qualities too. This is another thing you have to remember. Often they’re quite genuine, they just don’t see themselves as being anything special and that’s fine, know, they’re really happy about that. Yes.
Yes. Yes. But also we can get quite depressive, and even if we don’t say it to somebody else, we’re saying it to ourselves. And then we sort of get into a downward spiral, and think of more and more reasons why we’re so bad, and we end up hating ourselves. Yes, right, next week.
Yes. Okay, so we’ll meet same time, same place next week. Okay, so we’ll dedicate our merits. May I quickly become an awakened spiritual teacher, and lead each and every sentient being to that enlightened realm through these skillful actions. May the supreme jewel of the awakening heart that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more.
And then we go to page ten: In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and good, all powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso. Please remain until cyclic existence is ended.