Tonglen 101

I have been practicing Tonglen meditation which I’ve found to be immensley helpful. I found a basic description on http://integralseeker.blogspot.com/ which I have posted below. For a more comprehensive understanding of Tonglen see the writings of Pema Chodrin here: http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/pema/index.php or you can check out her introduction on my blog.

Peace all
Melisa

Tonglen Meditation
integral seeker

Buddhism that stresses the enlightenment of all beings, among their practices is the practice of tonglen. It is usually practiced after one has developed a strong foundation in Vipassana. Tonglen means “taking and sending.”

The practice is as follows:
“In meditation, picture or visualize someone you know and love who is going through much suffering – an illness, a loss, depression, pain, anxiety, fear. As you breathe in, imagine all of that person’s suffering – in the form of a dark, black, smokelike, tarlike, thick and heavy clouds – entering your nostrils and traveling down into your heart. Hold that suffering in your heart. Then, on the outbreath, take all of you peace, freedom, health, goodness, and virtue, and send it out to the person in the form of healing, liberating light. Imagine they take it all in, and feel completely free, released and happy. Do that for several breaths. Then imagine the town that the person is in, and, on the in breath, take all of the suffering of the town, and send back all of your health and happiness to everyone in it. Then do that for the entire state, then the entire country, the entire planet, the entire universe. You are taking all the suffering of beings everywhere and sending back health and happiness and virtue.”

“But what if I am doing this with someone who is really sicj, and I start to get that sickness myself?”
Without hesitating Kalu Rinpoche said, “You should think, Oh good! It’s working!”
“That is the entire point! Tonglen is designed to cut egoic self-concern, self-promotion and self-defense. It exchanges self for other, and thus it profoundly undercuts the subject-object dualism.”(Wilber – Grace and Grit, pg 244

Re: Tonglen 101

Thank you so much for posting this. I have heard of Tonglen before, but never such specific instructions.  Thank you for the web links also; they are a tremendous resource. 

Re: Tonglen 101

That is true! It is very effective!