Day 18: Tonglen Meditation | 21-Day Meditation Challenge

Tonglen meditation technique is an ancient practice that is all about cultivating compassion. It is a Buddhist practice that involves contemplation, meditation, and compassion. Tong means “giving or sending” and Len means “receiving or taking”. You visualize taking in the suffering and breathing out positive outcomes that will relieve this suffering. this method trains the mind to become less self-centred and more caring.

Transcript

Let's start by finding a place where you feel comfortable,

Where your body is completely relaxed,

With less tension as possible,

Where you feel safe and where you won't be disturbed.

And rest your hands on your lap,

On your legs or wherever it feels comfortable.

And you can close your eyes.

Now bring your attention to your breath and notice how you are breathing at this very moment.

With the air coming in and out of your body.

And if your mind starts to wander,

Just notice that you are having thoughts and let them go and focus on your breathing again.

And I invite you to visualize a dark and heavy cloud.

This cloud represents the darkness,

Fears,

Concerns,

Discomfort,

Lack of love,

Selfishness,

All the possible emotions and pains and feelings that human beings can experience.

And when the cloud is heavy and dark enough,

Breathe it in through all the pores of your body and breathe out an orb of pure radiant white light that dissolves the heaviness and the darkness.

And this white light represents love,

Compassion,

Peace and healing.

And breathe in the cloud and breathe out compassion.

Breathe in the cloud and breathe out compassion.

Now visualize the person that you would like to help,

Someone that you care about.

And you breathe in the suffering you observe in this person and you breathe out compassion,

Happiness,

Pure bliss and healing towards this person.

And the more compassion you send,

The more you can see a recovering smile on the person's face.

And you breathe out compassion.

And this is for you when you feel the desire to breathe out wisdom.

Finally,

Extend your awareness to the whole world now.

Extend it out to those who are in the same situation as the person that you previously helped.

You breathe in the suffering and you breathe out compassion for all those people having the same experience in the world.

At first,

This type of meditation can be difficult.

We are not used to breathing people's suffering.

But the more you practice,

The easier it is to expand your compassion,

To breathe in their pain and to send them relief.

So keep practicing,

Practicing,

Practicing.

Now let's take a deep breath in and breathe out.

Deep breath in and breathe out.

And now let your breath be natural and easy.

And you can open your eyes and reconnect with your surroundings.

Reviews

Maybe I didn't understand why it is important to breath in the dark cloud, pain and suffering into me
Of course compassion out
From my understanding I would breath in compassion and darkness out
I accept what is coming and breathe out giving my best in your profile you have a very good description of what is the reason to feel with all sentinent human beings, and why we practice this form of compassion
Do you really think it is necessary to feel the "dark cloud" again and again? Metta is also practice
To feel and forgive to bless 🙌 and to feel 🙏
We are only human and I always give the best I can
Every day is a bew chance