The Very Venerable Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

The Seven Points Of Mind Training

Birmingham Karma Ling, December 2002

II. The Main Practice of Bodhicitta Training

Relative Bodhichitta: 6-7

6. Sending and taking should be practiced alternately. These two should ride the breath.

If you have this idea in the mind to practise for all sentient beings it will give birth in your mind to Bodhicitta. The important method for training in the generation of compassion is what we call sending and taking.

The attitude you have when you do this practise of sending and taking is that whatever positive you have in your stream of consciousness, and that you have generated from Dharma practise or any virtue that you have, you give this away and dedicate it. You dedicate it to all sentient beings as vast as space, thinking may all sentient beings have this positiveness and joy. Then you also think whatever unhappiness that sentient beings have and whatever sickness or suffering that they have you say may that ripen in me.

When we say sending, what is meant is that you send out all of your joy and positive virtue and merit to all sentient beings and the taking means you take all the negative suffering and non-virtue from all the sentient beings. When it says these two should ride the breath it means when you are breathing you practise the sending and the taking based on the in and out breaths. If you use the breath as the basis for sending and taking that is the best method to have as a support.

How do you do this practise? You start off by breathing naturally through the nose and then along with this breathing in a natural way you visualise that all negativity from sentient beings, all of their suffering, all of their impurities and obscurations comes to your nostrils in the form of smoke which is like incense smoke.

It is dark and heavy and it comes into the nostrils and dissolves into one's heart. Then you think that all of the sentient beings' suffering, obscurations and defilements have been completely dissolved into yourself and they have become free of them. Then you breathe out. On the out breath you visualises a white light which embodies all of your positiveness brought about by your Dharma practice. In meditation all of your virtuous karma, all of your happiness and joy and this very bright shining white light come out and dissolves into all sentient beings. Then you think that sentient beings have obtained all of your happiness, joy and good karma, everything good. You think all the sentient beings have obtained this. You think all sentient beings have obtained the level of Buddhahood, do you think you could do it? Do you think it is difficult?

If you think purely of your own happiness, wanting only yourself to be happy and free of suffering, you won't achieve the supreme happiness because you are being selfish. But if you think "may all sentient beings have happiness and joy in their minds", then in your own mind you will achieve the supreme happiness and joy. Because of that attitude our own defilements and obscurations are purified.

When you are sending out all of your positiveness and good karma and joy and taking in all the negativity, illness, obscurations and defilements from all sentient beings, you might think that you may become a very evil person, a very sick person and have a lot of problems but you shouldn't think like that. The reason it doesn't happen like that is, for example, if our desire is to cause harm to beings and cause suffering towards them then our own suffering and negativity will increase but if we have the opposite mind state and think may all of our positiveness go to all sentient beings and all their positive mind states increase then all our own mind poisons and defilements will immediately be purified and we will obtain real happiness and joy.

The main point of this practise of sending and taking is the mind. Generally speaking we are unable to give our positiveness and good karma to others and we can't take the suffering and bad karma from sentient beings. The reason for that is that one's karma is that, its one's own personal karma and you have to experience the effects and results of the causes you have created. Nobody else can experience that but yourself. Other beings they experience the causes and results of the karma they have created.

So what is the benefit of sending and taking?

The reason for doing this practise is that your own defilements, impurities and obscurations will be purified. Your bad karma will be purified and you will become positive and have joy in the mind and your sickness will be pacified. Eventually because of purifying your defilements you will obtain realisation and then you can really achieve benefit for all sentient beings. At this present time when we are practising this sending and taking technique we are not really able to benefit sentient beings. But eventually through having this wish to benefit beings by this practice of sending and taking when you reache the Bodhisattva levels or the level of Buddhahood then you are really able to be of benefit to limitless beings.

Whether we can reach the level of Buddhahood and really help limitless beings depends on our practise of sending and taking that we do now. Also the practise of generating compassion and making great aspiration prayers to do that in the future.

This practise of generating compassion and having loving kindness is said to be the best protection against demons. Milarepa was meditating in a cave in Tibet. In the sky before him he saw a cloud coming and from this cloud came the appearance of his teacher Lord Marpa and on seeing the appearance of his teacher Lord Marpa he became very happy and supplicated to Marpa for his blessing.

After this vision of Marpa he went off to collect some wood and generally, when he was collecting wood, he would put it in the bottom of his robes. Because of having done this over a long period of time a lot of tears had appeared in his clothes. Whilst walking along with the wood all of a sudden a big wind came up and almost blew the wood out of his hand, so he held on tightly to the wood. The wind blew again and almost blew the cloth away, so he held more tightly to the cloth.

Milarepa thought I have been meditating in a cave on ego-clinging and I still have a little bit of clinging and right at this moment I'm clinging to the wood and so he just let it all drop down. As Milarepa climbed up to his cave the wind became less. When he entered the cave to his surprise there were seven beings there and their bodies were the size of a thumb and they had very big heads, and their eyes were half the size of their heads and they had very long beards and large noses and they were sitting in the cave.

They ran all over the cave and one was sitting in Milarepa 's chair and looking through the pages of the texts, one was in the corner of the cave giving the appearance of teaching the Dharma and one was sitting there listening to him. The other couple were running around making noises, looking at Milarepa and making funny faces at him. Milarepa thought , oh there are a lot of them, and he was a little frightened. he thought he had better do something and he prayed to the Buddha, but as he prayed nothing really happened there wasn't much benefit because they were still there making their clucking noises at Milarepa, making faces at him and frowning.

Then he thought I better try something else so he visualised himself as a wrathful deity and said wrathful mantras, he said Hung Hung Peh Peh and became a wrathful deity, but the demons multiplied and became more. They became so many they were jumping around and the cave became full of these demon creatures.

Milarepa thought, what I can do, what method can I apply here. The idea occurred to him that maybe these creatures were apparitions from the local deity. Maybe I have been here such a long time and haven't made any prayers to the local deity maybe it is upset with me. So he made some nice offerings of wood and sang a song of praise to the local deity saying how nice he was and praising him and what happened was two of the demons disappeared but the others were just as made and crazy as before running around all over the cave.

Then Milarepa thought nothing I do seems to help. Then he generated compassion for these beings who did not know the nature of emptiness; they don't know this truth or how to cause benefit for sentient beings. All they can do is cause harm and because of this continuously causing harm to beings they are sowing the seeds of a rebirth in hell. He had great compassion arise in him and he sang another song. Milarepa said in this song everything is fine, whatever you want you can have it, if you want to eat my flesh you can eat it, if you want to drink my blood you can drink it. Anything you do to me is fine.

He asked them stay in his house and said he would talk to them. Milarepa sang this song from the doorway of the cave whilst the creatures were running around inside. Milarepa then vanished from the doorway and re-appeared inside the cave. One of the creatures was there shaking and making a lot of noise and the other demons were running around but one by one they dissolved into him and he became very large.

Finally the last big remaining demon ran out of the cave.

They were not able to harm Milarepa, what was the reason for this?

It was because he generated this great compassion. Before Milarepa did not have compassion for them and he had gotten a little bit annoyed with them and they multiplied, but when he generated the compassion they all run off.

In the secret Vajrayana practises there are the practises of wrathful deities such as Mahakala Bernachen and so on. These are wrathful yidam deities, but though they appear very wrathful the basis of their appearance is compassion. It is out of great compassion they appear to subdue the beings that can not be subdued by peaceful methods. So to stop these beings from generating negative karma and experiencing the hell realms they manifest a very wrathful form but their nature is that of compassion.

Three Objects, three poisons and the three virtues.

If we have practised in the training of Bodhicitta then we can transform these three mind poisons to virtues, it is very important to know that. It is very important because we are not free from the mind poisons. If you think that you can immediately block these or cut them out, you can't. For example, at the moment when we generate great anger we think because of this anger comes great suffering and because of that we wander in Samsara.

When anger arises we have to know we are giving rise to anger. We have a wish that in this anger that has arisen in mind may the anger of all sentient beings dissolve into and become one with that. May all of the sentient being's anger be removed. Because all of the anger of sentient beings comes into our anger. Then it's like representing the anger of all sentient beings, you have taken it upon yourself.

Then because all of the sentient beings anger has been removed may they reach the level of enlightenment. Based on that wish and aspiration that you have when you have the arising of anger the anger becomes a virtue and the same with desire and pride. Then if you can apply this technique to the mind poisons of anger, jealousy and so on the strength of these mind poisons becomes less and less, isn't that easy?

If, for example, there is one enemy and you kill him it's like getting rid of all the sentient being's anger, that’s ok isn't it? So then you have achieved two things you have killed the enemy and turned the anger into a virtue, one also generates virtue so if you cause harm to others its ok! Just joking!

If, when the anger arises we apply the thought may all of the anger of the sentient beings dissolve into this, may I take on all the anger of all sentient beings there is great benefit in this it is like a practise. If one gives rise to anger but does not perform any action or activity based on the anger or the wish to harm, then that anger can be transformed into a virtue. You wish that the anger of all sentient beings is contained in your own anger, then that anger in itself becomes the basis for virtue. This is the same for the anger desire jealousy etc all are the same.

The Post Meditation Practice

7. In all activities train with these slogans. Begin the sequence of sending and taking with oneself.

Training in these words or slogans means you say "may all of the sentient beings negativity and bad karma ripen in me and may all my positive and good karma and happiness ripen in sentient beings".

Start with yourself in the practice of sending and taking. When I say starting with yourself if you can't immediately take on the suffering of other sentient beings then you think of the suffering its possible you are going to experience in the future. You think that you take that on yourself now and gradually bit by bit you can practise with other sentient beings and have the idea you are taking on the suffering from them. You train your mind in a gradual way.

For example if this cup lid were money then you practise the idea of giving to sentient beings by giving from your right hand to your own left hand, starting with the self. Then the left hand gives it to the right hand. Then this is like an example of ones own virtue and happiness. Then you think I am giving all of this to sentient beings but you are giving it to your left hand. Then if one practises like that with oneself it is very beneficial, so you start with oneself and gradually go on to the others.