Make it bigger than just that one person. If you are doing tonglen for someone you see on television or on the street, do it for all the others in the same boat. If you are doing tonglen for someone you love, extend it out to all those who are in the same situation. For instance, if you are feeling inadequate, breathe that in for yourself and all the others in the same boat and send out confidence, adequacy, and relief in any form you wish.įinally, make the taking in and sending out bigger. However, if you are stuck, you can do the practice for the pain you are feeling yourself, and simultaneously for all those who feel the same kind of suffering. Traditionally you begin by doing tonglen for someone you care about and wish to help. Do this until your visualization is synchronized with your in- and out-breaths.įocus on any painful situation that’s real to you. When you breathe out, radiate positive energy completely, through all the pores of your body. Breathe in completely, taking in negative energy through all the pores of your body. Breathe in feelings of heat, darkness, and heaviness-a sense of claustrophobia-and breathe out feelings of coolness, brightness, and light-a sense of freshness. This stage is traditionally called flashing on absolute bodhichitta, awakened heart-mind, or opening to basic spaciousness and clarity. Rest your mind for a second or two in a state of openness or stillness. When you do tonglen as a formal meditation practice, it has four stages: 1. We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings. Breathe in for all of us and breathe out for all of us. Rather than beating ourselves up, we can use our personal stuckness as a stepping stone to understanding what people are up against all over the world. So we can also do tonglen for all the people just like ourselves-all those who wish to be compassionate but instead are afraid, who wish to be brave but instead are cowardly. Their pain brings up our fear or anger it brings up our resistance and confusion. Usually, we look away when we see someone suffering. If we are out walking and we see someone in pain, we can breathe in that person’s pain and send out relief to them. It can be done as a formal meditation practice or right on the spot at any time. Tonglen can be done for those who are ill, those who are dying or have died, or those who are in pain of any kind. By doing the practice, we begin to connect with the open dimension of our being. It introduces us to the unlimited spaciousness of shunyata (emptiness). Tonglen awakens our compassion and introduces us to a far bigger view of reality. We begin to feel love for both ourselves and others we begin to take care of ourselves and others. In the process, we become liberated from age- old patterns of selfishness. In tonglen practice, we visualize taking in the pain of others with every in-breath and sending out whatever will benefit them on the out-breath. Tonglen practice, also known as “taking and sending,” reverses our usual logic of avoiding suffering and seeking pleasure.
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