Tonglen Loving-Kindness Practice

A Tonglen Meditation to practice and cultivate compassion, coming from the Buddhist loving-kindness tradition. This is a guided mediation with soft piano tones in the background. Learn how to give and receive compassion.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to a Tonglen loving-kindness guided meditation.

This type of meditation comes from the Buddhist practice of loving-kindness,

Sometimes called giving and receiving.

To open up this meditation,

I'll start with a quote from Pema Chodron,

A Buddhist monk and author,

And she says,

When you begin to touch your heart,

Or let your heart be touched,

You begin to discover that it's bottomless,

That it doesn't have any resolution,

That this heart is huge,

Vast,

And limitless.

You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there,

As well as how much space.

So as we begin the meditation,

Take a moment to get comfortable.

You could be seated.

You might be lying down.

Just find a position where you can be still for the next 10 to 15 minutes,

Allowing yourself to be completely still and letting your eyes close.

We'll start with a Buddhist prayer.

Having recognized the futility of my selfishness and the great benefit of loving others,

May I bring all beings to joy.

May I send all my virtues and happiness to others through the strength of my practice,

And may I receive the suffering,

Obstacles,

And defilements of all motherly beings in all realms.

Start to notice the breath,

Breathing in through the nose and out through the nose.

Without changing the breath at all,

Just noticing the inhale and the exhale.

Bringing your awareness to the texture of the breath.

Feeling how it feels when it moves in and out.

So maybe it flows in with ease.

Maybe it flows out with ease.

Or maybe it gets a little stuck here and there.

Notice the temperature of the breath.

Maybe it feels warm when you breathe in and cool when you breathe out.

Spend some time here to really tune into the rhythm of your breathing.

And now imagine when you breathe in,

The air is hot and heavy.

And when you breathe out,

The air is cool and light.

So breathing in this hot,

Heavy air and breathing out this cool,

Light air.

And when you breathe in,

You're not only inhaling through your nose,

But imagine receiving through your whole body.

Breathing in through every pore of your being and breathing out through every pore of your being.

It's a full body breath.

Full body receiving and full body giving.

So spending a few moments with this rhythm of breath.

And now imagine your heart.

Imagine a wall around your heart made of stone or metal.

And this is a fortress.

This is a protection.

It's meant to keep your heart safe from suffering.

But it also prevents you from receiving compassion into your heart.

So imagine when you breathe in,

The wall starts to crumble.

So this process invites you to dissolve the walls around your heart and open your heart to its natural state of non-judgment,

Of warmth,

Kindness,

Spaciousness.

Continue with this visualization until the walls are completely gone from around your heart.

And your heart is completely open and vulnerable.

And now we'll move into the giving and receiving portion of the meditation.

So take a moment to think of a word.

Think of a word that you would like to gift to others.

It could be a word like compassion,

Love,

Patience,

Healing.

But think of a gift that other people would like to receive.

Now imagine the person or people you love most in the world standing in front of you.

See their faces,

Their features,

Their clothing,

Their energy.

Picturing everything that makes them them.

Take a moment to picture them in detail.

It could be your family,

Could be your closest friends,

Your spouse or partner.

Now imagine floating above them is a dark cloud.

And this cloud represents all of their suffering,

Their pain,

Their failures,

Disappointments,

Their illness and whatever else might cause them harm and cause them suffering.

And now when you inhale,

You're breathing in this cloud.

And when you exhale,

You're sending them this gift,

This word from your heart in the form of white healing light.

So you're breathing in this cloud and it feels like hot,

Heavy air.

And you're sending them this cool white light from your heart.

So breathe in the suffering represented by this cloud and send them the white healing light from your heart.

Try to breathe in this cloud and watch it shrink as you send them more of this gift from your heart with each exhale.

Feeling that you have the ability to take away their suffering,

To shrink this cloud just by showing them the compassion,

The love,

The gifts from within your heart.

So for this meditation,

This is your superpower.

Spend the next few moments here with this full body exchange,

This breathing in through every pore of your being and this giving,

This breathing out through every pore of your being.

Spending the next few moments here,

Breathing in and out,

Watching the cloud shrinking and sending them more and more of this healing energy.

Whatever it is that they need,

You can gift them from the love,

From the compassion that's in your heart.

For the last round of this meditation,

Open your heart completely to receive.

Shift the energy towards yourself.

Imagine that you are receiving this word,

This gift into your own heart.

Imagine that you can breathe in your own cloud of suffering and turn it into compassion,

Self-compassion with the powers of your heart.

Notice the shift in energy when you receive this gift into your own heart.

You too are worthy of the same level of compassion and love that you so willingly share with others.

Allow yourself to rest in this space of this white healing light from your heart.

Let it envelop your entire body and spend these last few moments here focused on receiving this white healing light.

With this little patient,

You may be able to feel yourself ready to receive and feel Breathing.

Moving back to the natural rhythm of breathing.

Allowing the visualization meditation to fade away.

Release the meditation with a deep breath in and a deep breath out.

Start to bring some gentle movement back to your body,

Wiggling the fingers and the toes.

Rocking the head from side to side.

I'll share that quote once again from Pema Chodron,

Buddhist monk and author.

She says,

When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched,

You begin to discover that it's bottomless.

That it doesn't have any resolution.

That this heart is huge,

Vast and limitless.

You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there as well as how much space.

So taking a moment to reflect on any insights,

Thoughts or feelings that may have popped up during the meditation.

And realizing that at any point throughout the day you can access this energy.

You can access this level of compassion from your heart.

You may not be able to take away the suffering,

Illness or pain from a loved one.

But you can show them the compassion from within your heart.

By allowing the walls around your heart to come down and allowing your heart to be touched.

You can show them empathy and ease some of their suffering.

And the same goes for yourself.

You can show yourself the same level of compassion that you show others.

So this meditation is part of a compassion practice.

And you can choose to access this at any point throughout the day.

If you haven't yet,

You can open up your eyes.

And thanks so much for joining me today.

I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day.

Reviews

Thank you for this beautiful loving kindness practice; helping me to be compassionate.
🙏🏼

A new kind of tonglen for me, that also works. Thanks for guidance❤

Thank you! It was different than the loving kindness practice I am used to, and still very deep and transforming!

Just what I needed. Thank you very much for this absolutely perfect

Lovely meditation!!

I have done other Tonglin meditations...this has really set a good tone for me the last few days, I have done it in the morning. Love the Pemba Chodron quote.

thank you so much! this is helpful. I've really been struggling to listen to thr negativity coming from my loved ones and this will help me be compassionate... the way I want to be.

Wonderful and vivid practice. Adding to my favorites! Thanks so much. 🙏

Hello Amy ....... I love the whole body breath !
It is just my favorite practice now. And, how beautiful that you say “ thank you “ to me for meditating with you as you end your gentle, inspiring words.

Listening to you made me so happy this
morning 🤍

In kindness, ⭐️
Hope

Really lovely practice. Thank you so much

Very nice. Thanks and Namaste 🙏

Thank you for this loving meditation. 🙏🏻

Thank you for this beautiful practice and much appreciation for your openhearted gentleness. 🙏🏼🦋

What a wonderfully powerful experience.

A brilliant treatment of this practice.
Great clarity of purpose.

Incredible, a beautiful meditation that brings together Tonglen and Metta.

An accessible way to use Tonglen. Important for this time of worldwide suffering. Thank you.

Beautiful meditation and very pleasant voice! Thank you so much! ❤️

Calming and evenly paced. Always meaningful but very prescient right now 🌺