This is Janine,
And welcome into this Tonglen practice.
Tonglen is a compassion practice that awakens our hearts to where we notice our own suffering,
And then importantly connects us to the suffering of so many around this world.
And it uses the breath as this vehicle of expansion.
I'll guide you gently through several steps of this practice,
And we'll begin with ourselves so that we don't leave ourselves out of this important circle of compassion.
So make any adjustments to the posture in which you're in so that you feel supportive,
Grounded,
And can feel a little bit more at ease here.
Gently drawing your attention to the heart space,
And sometimes it can be nice to place one hand over the surface of the heart to feel in here.
You may notice the beating of the heart underneath,
Or even notice the space between the heartbeats,
And how alive and energetic this important domain of our being is,
And that it has the possibility to hold so much all the joys,
The sorrows,
The light,
The dark,
The beginnings and the endings of everyday life.
And as you're allowing the mind to rest here,
We'll lean into as well this quality of giving and receiving,
Receiving and giving that the breath naturally has.
Receiving the breath deeply as you inhale in,
And giving as you exhale out,
And allowing the receiving and the giving of the breath to both feel lengthy so that we're receiving just as much as we're giving.
We'll take about a minute here,
Just noticing these two qualities that are here with us all the time.
Bodies receiving and giving.
When we're receiving the breath and that pause at the top,
We can place our attention more fully in the heart space,
And then allow it to gently go.
Now I'd like you to start to notice where there may have been a moment,
Small or large,
Of suffering in your day,
In your week.
It could be physical pain,
Emotional,
An illness.
There's some other aspect that you've been experiencing that has caused suffering or struggle or discomfort.
And then imagine yourself breathing that and really receiving that as if it was a dark,
Constrictive quality.
Allow that to rest in the heart and then get filtered through it,
Dissolving away as you exhale.
So receiving the suffering,
Visualizing,
If that helps,
This quality of darkness,
Of tightness,
Of heaviness,
Allowing it to be filtered in your heart center.
Dissolving away and you're exhaling out freedom from that struggle,
That suffering.
It will take some time here to do just that.
The breath is this vehicle of taking in the pain,
The difficulty.
The heart space is what awakens and allows us to be with and dissolve away into this feeling of freedom when we let go with the out-breath.
Exchanging each breath with this intention,
Receiving and giving.
And now we're going to widen this circle a little bit more.
Inviting in someone close to you who you know who is going through something difficult.
So again it could be some physical pain or illness,
Any psychological or emotional difficulty,
Financial difficulty,
Whatever is something that you feel you can connect to.
And then we're going to use the quality of the inhale in to take in their suffering,
Their struggle.
All that that is,
The heaviness,
The discomfort,
The darkness.
Filtering it into your heart space,
Dissolving it away and offering up freedom from that suffering to this person.
And the same way you did to yourself.
Drawing in the heaviness,
Filtering it through your wide,
Vast beating heart,
Dissolving it away and offering up freedom from it to this person.
Keeping both the receiving and giving part of the breaths substantial in length.
So we're receiving fully and giving fully of ourselves in this intentionality,
This compassion.
Allow yourself three more cycles of breath,
Utilizing this really personal practice,
Connection to someone you know.
And then we'll widen the circle one more time,
Extending this practice to a larger community.
As there's so much suffering around the world right now and you could either extend it to a community going through the same thing that this person is,
That's close to you,
Or it could be a different situation.
Continuing in this cycle of receiving all that suffering,
That difficulty,
That struggle,
Drawing it into your own system,
Taking it on and allowing it to be filtered and held by your heart.
And then sending out freedom,
This wish that you have for whether it's peace or safety for this community to be well fed or housed,
Whatever it may be,
Offering that up.
Awakening to this more collective suffering.
Receiving the pain,
The more specific qualities of what the suffering may be.
Allowing the heart space to work with it and sending out freedom from this suffering.
Allowing for three more full exchanges of breath,
Utilizing this wider group of people.
And then gently allow that visual to softly drift away and take five deep breaths,
Pausing at the juncture,
That top of the inhale where there's a little bit of space before the exhalation.
And when you do then need to let go of the breath,
Allow it to be an audible sigh out through the mouth.
Five of these.
This pause of fullness when you receive and then a long release of breath grounding into the soles of your feet.
And then slowly invite yourself back into the space in which you're in.
Perhaps lifting the gaze or the eyes taking a couple of moments to reorient here.
Gently noticing the resonance of this practice.
I hope it's been a benefit.
Take care.
