Seven Points of Mind Training

Point 2 : Training in Bodhichitta

10: Begin the sequence of sending and taking with yourself.

Point Two, Relative Bodhichitta Slogans : Begin the sequence of sending and taking with yourself.

Commentary :

The way we often express this idea is. " First thought, best thought." Usually we have the feeling that this happens first, before other, or that. So whenever anything happens, the first thing to do is to take on the pain yourself. Afterward, you give away anything which is left beyond that, anything pleasurable. We are not necessarily talking about pleasurable in the sense of feeling extraordinarily good - but anything other than pain is given away. So you do not hold on to any possible way of entertaining yourself or giving yourself good treatment.

This slogan is connected with giving up passion, as it is passion which makes you demand pleasure for yourself. Therefore, this slogan is also connected very vividly and closely with the paramita of discipline. We are not talking about masochism, or about killing or destroying yourself. But you begin to realize that anything connected with the demands of wanting and not wanting is constantly involved with the desire to possess and not to give out. So the whole approach here is to open your territory completely, to let go of everything. If you suddenly discover that a hundred hippies want to camp in your living room, let them do so! But then those hippies also have to practice.

The basic idea of this practice is actually very joyful. It is wonderful that human beings can do such a fantastic exchange and that they are willing to invite such undesirable situations into their world. It is wonderful that they are willing to let go of even their smallest corners of secrecy and privacy, so that their holding on to anything is gone completely. That is very brave. We could certainly say that this is the world of the warrior, from the bodhisattva's point of view.