..续本文上一页t is to have pure motivation. Once we have the genuine wish to help other beings, we will really be able to help them. We find that if we try to help others when we”re not ready, we will regret it afterwards. For example, when Shariputra took the resolution to reach enlightenment for the sake of all beings, he decided to give anything that was asked of him. One day a demon wanted to make trouble so he came along and said, "Give me your hand." Because Shariputra didn”t want to refuse, with much courage he cut off his right hand and gave it to the demon. The demon just laughed at him and said, "I didn”t want your right hand. I wanted your left hand." Then, of course, Shariputra thought it was a bit too much and regretted it.

　　When doing Sending and Taking practice, we shouldn”t fear that we will receive the difficulties of others, because we are imagining that we are taking the troubles of everyone. But we shouldn”t think that there is no point in doing the meditation because we are not really taking on any real suffering or sending any real happiness. This practice is important because while we are doing sending and taking meditation, we are training our mind to gradually change our very selfish attitude to a more open and loving relationship to others so we can develop the true disposition of enlightenment.

　　Inner Meditation

　　We begin meditation by stabilizing our mind with the help of an external support. When we become more proficient, we can concentrate the mind inwards. One practice of inner meditation is using breathing. The Buddha taught six different points of shamatha meditation. (fn 13) There are three main meditations based on breathing, such as counting the breath, following the breath, and so on.

　　In the beginning our mind is not stable and this is why we can fall under the influence of our emotions so easily. With meditation we try to refocus the mind by focusing on something that is fairly small, but not too small. So we learn how to focus using a statue of the Buddha. Little by little our concentration improves, and we can then focus on a letter representing the Buddha”s speech.(fn 14) Later on we concentrate on a symbol of the Buddha”s mind which is a small dot. In the beginning our attention is scattered over hundreds of objects, then gradually it becomes centered on something much smaller such as a statue of the Buddha. The statue has a face, arms and hands, etc., and when we have developed more concentration, we focus on a single letter and still later a single dot. In all cases, the technique is the same with the object of our concentration becoming more and more focused producing a finer and finer type of concentration.

　　The first method is counting the breath. We should, first of all, breathe quite naturally. When exhaling, we think, "Now the air is coming out, now I”m exhaling." When inhaling, we are aware of this air entering our body. Each time we are aware of the air going in and going out, we count this as one. We count it mentally. This becomes easier when we develop the habit of this meditation. Just keep a very clear count of how many times one is breathing.

　　The second method of meditation is called "following the breath." We breathe normally, but when we are inhaling, we imagine the air that is being taken in fills up our whole body. When we are exhaling, we imagine all this air inside us goes out through the nose and dissolves in space. As we are doing this, we are following this movement with our mind so our mind and the air are connected continually during the meditation. This is a very good way to develop mental tranquility.

　　The third method is to combine the counting of the breath and following the breath, so first we count our breath up to 21 with each inhalation and exhalation being counted …

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