Question: I don't understand taking others' suffering.

First you have to know the benefits of the Bodhicitta practice, you have to have a big goal in mind. The purpose of life is to free all sentient beings from all the sufferings and to cause them to have happiness, especially to bring them to enlightenment, to free them of all defilements and sufferings.

The next thing, to perfectly do that, you need the path to enlightenment. The door to enlightenment is Bodhicitta. Bodhicitta is the most important thing for life, not only for your own benefit but to cease all defilements of numberless other sentient beings, for everyone.

You need to know what Bodhicitta is, it is renouncing oneself and cherishing other sentient beings. You need to understand this to be able to enjoy and accept the practice (tong len). That depends on how much you see self-cherishing as the enemy. The more you see it as the enemy, the more you are able to do tong len practice sincerely.

Because you are not only taking the suffering of others but you are taking all the undesirable things on the ego and destroying the ego. The ego is the enemy of Bodhicitta. If there is ego, there is no space in the mind for Bodhicitta, Bodhicitta that is the wish fulfilling holy thought that brings all happiness for oneself and for every sentient being.

The more you understand this, the more you will enjoy taking the suffering of others and giving them all your happiness and merit. How this benefits other sentient beings is the more you renounce the ego, the more you are able to practice Bodhicitta. It makes it possible to enter the Mahayana path that ceases both defilements, gross and subtle, and to attain omniscience so you are able to become enlightened and do perfect works for sentient beings. You collect merit like sky in each time you do the taking of others' sufferings or giving to others your happiness, with each different suffering and each different giving. For example, each time you give your body you collect numberless merit, each time you give possessions you collect numberless merit, each time you give your happiness you collect numberless merit and each time you give your merit you collect numberless merit. Giving all these are the cause to achieve ultimate happiness. Each time when we do extensive taking of others' sufferings, we purify many eons of negative karma, so you are able to achieve enlightenment soon even in this life.

The actual benefit of taking others' suffering is this one. The long run benefit is, even though other sentient beings who have AIDS, cancer, etc., their suffering and the hell beings' sufferings don't stop, but even if that doesn't happen, the long term benefit, the ultimate benefit is that you become enlightened for all sentient beings. This benefit is like the limitless sky, what you can offer to each sentient being is like the limitless sky.

This is the main benefit of this practice. Then it becomes a more powerful purification than doing a three-month Vajrasattva retreat, doing the retreat with comforts and ego. You are doing the Vajrasattva retreat so you will not be born in the lower realms. This is not a very powerful purification or sacrifice for others.

Sincerely taking others' suffering and causes with strong compassion just once purifies more than doing a one-year Vajrasattva retreat.