The Practice of Giving and Taking

In Buddhist meditation, there is an exceptional instruction called “the practice of Giving and Taking.” This training takes place during meditation. A person using visualization would take on all the hurt pain, negativity, and unfortunate experiences of human beings. They would visualize taking this pain upon them self and then sharing with others their own positive qualities, such as positive states of mind, their virtuous energy, their wealth, their pleasure. This practice psychologically brings about a great transformation in their mind so effectively that their sense of love and compassion is much more enhanced. One thing we need to remember is that mental transformation of any form does not happen overnight. They take time and are not easy.  One point about the western way of life is we learn to expect things extremely fast with the advanced technology we have. We should not expect a spiritual change to take place within a short time frame. We have to keep in mind and make a constant effort, then after one year, five years, ten years, twenty years, we will eventually get change. There is an excerpt from Shantideva’s book I appreciate that I found in The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Wisdom, which says, “As long as space endures, as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world.”