| The descriptions below
are intended as review for practitioners who have been studying this
meditation technique at KSC and KDSC. For more information about taking
and sending, either of the books mentioned below is recommended. Before
undertaking this practice, it is best to receive instruction directly from
a qualified practitioner, if possible. At
Kagyu Dak Shang Choling in Portsmouth, NH, we studied taking
and sending meditation (tong len) along with its associated
slogans from the Seven Points of Mind Training
during spring and summer of 2003 and 2004, and again during the summer of
2006.
The method of taking and sending we are using is
based on the method described by Pema Chodron in her book Start Where
You Are. The last step is from the technique taught by Jamgon Kongtrul
in The Great Path of Awakening. When practicing at home, one may spend as much time as needed on each step.
 | Flash on openness (absolute bodhicitta). (You
could simply begin with a period of shinay meditation.) |
| Visualize breathing in through your nostrils a
tarry, black, hot, heavy substance, which dissolves in your heart
center; and breathing out refreshing, cool, white moonlight. |
| Visualize the tarry black substance as the
suffering of a particular person, and the cool white light as your own
happiness and virtue. When you breathe in, you take in that person's
suffering and dissolve it, and when you breathe out, you relieve their
suffering and send them your happiness and virtue. |
| Extend the visualization to include all beings
who are experiencing the same kind of suffering as the person you
originally visualized. |
| Extend the visualization to include all
beings. |
| (from Jamgon Kongtrul) "With great joy, think
that all of them immediately attain Buddhahood." |
At Kagyu Samten Choling in Barrington, NH, we
studied taking and sending in 2002. We used the method described by Jamgon
Kongtrul in The Great Path of Awakening (translated by Ken McLeod):
| First, do the preliminary practice of Guru
Yoga as described in the text. |
| Imagine your own mother [or another person who
has been especially kind to you] present in front of you, and think
about the kindness she has shown you and the suffering she nevertheless
experiences. |
| Think that all beings have been your mother
throughout an infinite number of lifetimes. |
| Develop compassion toward those for whom it is
easy to feel compassion, such as friends, relatives, beings in the hell
realms, etc.; then extend it to enemies and people who hurt you; then to
all beings impartially, and generate the determination to clear away their suffering
and make them happy. "Train in this way until the feeling of compassion
is intolerably intense." |
| Meditate joyfully that all the negativity of
all beings comes to you, and that they receive all your virtuous
activity, happiness, wealth, etc. |
| As you breathe in, imagine a black, tarry
substance collecting all the suffering and negative actions of all
beings, entering through your nostrils, and being absorbed into your
heart, freeing all beings of suffering. As you breathe out, imagine all
your happiness and virtue flowing out through your nostrils as cool,
white moonlight and being absorbed by all beings. |
| "With great joy, think that all of them
immediately attain Buddhahood." |
|