Healing Meditation and Stress Reduction

Meditation on Taking is one of the most powerful meditations we can do. It destroys negativity in our mind and develops our compassion and other good qualities. This meditation is also powerful in overcoming stress, anxiety and tension allowing us to change how we see the world.

Sit in a comfortable position and draw your thoughts inwards. Now click on the audio link below to listen to a free guided meditation for inner healing.

One of the three most powerful meditations you can do.

TRAINING IN TAKING IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE PRACTICE OF THE SIX PERFECTIONS

There are four main benefits of the meditations on taking and giving: they are powerful methods (1) to purify the potentialities of non-virtuous actions that cause us to experience incurable diseases such as cancer; (2) to accumulate a great collection of merit; (3) to ripen our potentiality to be able to benefit all living beings; and (4) to purify our mind.

There are two stages to the meditation on taking: 1. Meditation on taking, focusing on all living beings; and 2. Meditation on taking focusing on particular living beings.

MEDITATION ON TAKING, FOCUSING ON ALL LIVING BEINGS

In this first stage we focus on the assembly of all living beings without exception, and then think from the depths of our heart: In their countless future lives these living beings will continually experience without choice the sufferings of humans, animals, hungry ghosts, hell beings, demi-gods and gods. How wonderful it would be if all these living beings were permanently freed from the suffering and fears in this life and countless future lives! May they achieve this. I myself will work for them to achieve this. I must do this. Thinking in this way, we imagine that the sufferings of all living beings gather together in the aspect of smoke. This dissolves into our ignorance of self-grasping and self-cherishing at our heart. We then strongly believe that all living beings are permanently freed from suffering, and that our ignorance of self-grasping and self-cherishing is completely destroyed. We meditate on this belief single-pointedly for as long as possible. With compassion for all living beings we should continually practice this meditation until we experience signs that indicate our mind has been purified. These signs can include the curing of any sickness we may have, the reducing of our delusions, our having a more peaceful and happy mind, the increasing of our faith, correct intention and correct view, and especially the strengthening of our experience of universal compassion.

MEDITATION ON TAKING FOCUSING ON PARTICULAR LIVING BEINGS

In this meditation we can focus, for example, on the assembly of living beings who experience the suffering of sickness. We then think: These living beings experience the suffering of sickness in this life and in their countless future lives without end. How wonderful it would be if these living beings were permanently freed from sickness! May they achieve this. I myself will work for them to achieve this. I must do this. Thinking in this way, we imagine that the suffering of sickness of all living beings gathers together in the aspect of smoke. This dissolves into our ignorance of self-grasping and self-cherishing at our heart. We then strongly believe that all these living beings are permanently freed from sickness, and that our ignorance of self-grasping and self-cherishing is completely destroyed. We meditate on this belief single-pointedly for as long as possible. In the same way, we can practice the meditation on taking while focusing on a particular individual or group of living beings who are experiencing other sufferings such as poverty, fighting and famine.

Meditation on taking is the quick path to enlightenment, and has a similar function to Tantric practice. It is said that Tantric realizations can be achieved simply through relying upon correct belief and imagination. This practice is very simple; all we need to do is to become deeply familiar with meditation on correct belief and imagination as presented in Tantra, by applying continual effort.