Suffering Into Compassion Meditation - Tonglen

Rich Maule will help you transmute suffering from others and your suffering into love, light, and compassion.

Move heavy, dark, and heat into light, bright, and cool.

This beautiful visualization meditation will teach you a powerful technique called Tonglen.

Transcript

Hi and welcome to today's meditation.

My name is Rich Moore and thanks for being here today.

Today we'll be looking at a meditation called Tonglen and it's a meditation that we can use to transform,

To transmute suffering,

Pain into something more positive,

Into love,

Into compassion.

So it's a way if you ever struggle with one,

Either connecting with the world's suffering and you kind of ignore it,

Turned your eyes away from it,

This could be very useful for you if it's something you want to explore and you actually want to be with it more but you've often found it too painful.

Also it can be a very useful meditation if you have a lot of suffering and pain in your life or people around you are suffering a lot and also if you're just someone that wants to really help people,

Really wants to reach out to the community,

You know,

Not just the closest people to you but beyond that and create wider change and if you do that it can be challenging at times so this meditation can help you to regulate how you feel about that and see it as a more positive thing rather than something that weighs you down and makes you feel heavy.

So take a moment just to close your eyes,

Sitting with your legs crossed or feet on the floor,

Sitting up straight and just become aware of your breath now.

Inhale,

Exhale.

Just resting your mind in a state of openness and stillness,

Creating some spaciousness and clarity.

Awakening the heart and the mind.

Being the observer,

Creating some space from thought so that instead you can direct the thought yourself.

You can direct the mind with your attention and your intention.

And so first I want us to work with any feelings of discomfort you may have or may have had.

So imagining anything that's heavy,

Darkness,

Hot,

Sense of claustrophobia,

Something uncomfortable and imagine visualizing you sitting there in that uncomfortable space and place.

And breathing it in,

Letting it move through your skin,

Through your nose,

Through your mouth and breath,

Absorbing that discomfort,

That heat,

That darkness,

That heaviness.

Accepting it in and then as you exhale,

Breathing out coolness,

Lightness,

Brightness,

A sense of freshness.

So transforming the heavy,

The hot,

The dark into coolness,

Brightness and light.

Transforming,

Transmuting,

You being the vehicle for change,

Not avoiding heaviness,

Heat,

Darkness,

But allowing it to come in willingly as a choice and then transmuting,

Transforming and breathing it out.

Breathing out coolness,

Brightness and light or whatever words come to mind for you.

And now just doing this for a while as you inhale darkness,

Heaviness,

Heat and as you exhale coolness,

Brightness and light until it becomes synchronized.

Darkness,

Heaviness,

In,

Exhale coolness,

Freshness,

Light,

Brightness.

Not changing your breath in any way.

Becoming accustomed to that process of transmuting,

Transforming.

And now I want you to imagine focusing on maybe someone who's going through something challenging,

Someone you know,

Someone you care about and you want to help.

So think about that person now,

Whether it's your mother,

Father,

Siblings,

Work colleague,

Even a pet.

Imagine them going through that suffering and as you see them going through that suffering,

Imagine breathing in their suffering,

Seeing their suffering come out and accepting it in willingly,

Not being burdened upon you,

You're accepting it willingly,

You're inviting it in because you know you have the strength to transmute,

To transform it,

To contribute.

And so that darkness,

The heat,

The heaviness coming from them and all their mental angst and emotion and feeling of the situation or just who they feel they are,

Breathing it in.

You don't have to breathe it all in,

Just an amount you're able to take.

And then as you breathe out and what comes out of your skin yourself is that coolness,

That light,

That brightness.

And so repeating that process,

Inhale,

Taking any of their suffering,

Heat,

Darkness,

Heaviness,

Seeing it transmute and change in your body,

Transform.

In exhaling out light and brightness and coolness,

Maybe even see yourself with a smile or you feel yourself smiling.

As you're transforming,

Transmuting,

Knowing that we're all the same,

Their suffering is your suffering if you so choose and by helping them you help yourself,

You help all of us.

A rising tide lifts all boats.

And so continuing this process as it becomes more natural,

More fluid,

Inhale,

Exhale,

In your own pace,

Your own time,

Really seeing it.

Darkness to light.

And maybe see the person you love changing,

Becoming lighter,

Brighter,

Cooler.

And now you can even do this for yourself.

So imagining something that you're going through and I want you to see that you out there,

Another version of you that's suffering about a situation,

Something that's happened in the past or something you're worried about that's going to happen in the future and just visualize that you out there,

Just like you did with your friend or loved one.

And then do the same process,

Start to take in,

Breathe in,

Absorb through the skin,

Through the nose,

The mouth,

However you wish.

Take in that suffering,

That heat,

That heaviness,

That darkness and take it into your higher self,

Your greater self.

It's accepting and understanding that pain that you over there has and transmuting it within your essence,

Your true self-awareness.

Heat into coolness,

Darkness to light,

Heaviness,

Brightness,

Freshness.

Freshness.

And notice how that you over there is changing.

Breathing in that you suffering over there,

Transmuting it into coolness,

Brightness and light.

Transmuting,

Transforming effortlessly,

No effort required,

Just accepting.

And now I want you to take it even further,

So not just a loved one and not just you who you love,

But move the tonglen practice to everybody further afield.

You can do this in your own way slowly,

One by one or everybody.

You can start to think of other people,

People close to you,

People not so close to you,

People you don't even know.

Maybe you imagine lots of different images of people dotted around or colors and lights representing people.

And just start to do the same thing,

Start to breathe in their heaviness,

Their darkness,

Their heat,

Willingly,

Only if you wish to.

And then transmuting it,

Transforming it inside of your greater self,

Your awareness,

Your pure consciousness and breathing out coolness,

Brightness and light.

Effortlessly,

Easily,

From a place of accepting and really feeling connected to them,

Noticing that all the suffering they're going through,

You share in common,

You're all human.

And by allowing this suffering in,

You realize that you're one in the same.

We all go through the same experiences.

And so suffering can be a doorway into connection.

That's often when great relationships of depth are created,

When we allow others' suffering to touch us,

But not bring us down,

But to expand us into lightness,

Into understanding.

And so allowing all the different people of the world,

You decide how many,

Maybe the world,

Maybe just the community,

Maybe a bunch of people you know.

Letting that heaviness,

Darkness,

Heat come in through the skin,

Through the mouth,

The nose,

Maybe represented as a color.

And then transmuting,

Seeing it change inside of you and breathing it out again.

Transmuting,

Transforming into coolness,

Light,

Brightness.

And then when you're ready,

In a moment,

Just thanking all the people,

Taking with you that you're all connected,

That you're all one,

That you all suffer,

That you're all human.

So if ever you have a hard time,

You can really just connect with that.

You're not alone.

And if someone else is suffering,

And if ever there's a slight bit of judgment,

Or you want to avoid them,

Just realize that you suffer too,

Just like them,

And they're the same as you.

It connects you.

We can't go through life without suffering.

We don't invite suffering in,

But when it's there,

We work with it.

And it's what often expands us,

Creates greater love,

Paradoxically.

So in a moment,

When you're ready,

Taking all these lessons with you,

As you open your eyes,

Bringing yourself back to this moment now.

And I want to say thank you so much for meditating with me.

What a beautiful meditation this is.

I want to celebrate that you chose to do this meditation,

And I hope it brings you lots of connection and joy with others.

My name's Rich Moore,

And I look forward to seeing you in another meditation soon.

Have a great day.

Reviews

This one really helps me to feel more compassionate