Thong Len - The Practice Of Transforming Pain & Suffering

Thong Len is a Tibetan meditative practice of transformation, essentially "giving and taking". We breathe in any tension, tightness, darkness, and tension from the body, mind, and heart. We transform the suffering into compassion, warmth and light.

This practice can be used to heal ailments of the body, limbs, heart pain, emotional pain, and mental and neural patterns that no longer serve us. Meditation also assists us in healing aspects of self in relationships. It assists us in mastering our relationships.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Celia Roberts and I'm the founder of the Biomedical Institute of Yoga and Meditation.

Today,

We're looking at the practice of Tonglin.

We'll use Tonglin in a few different ways,

Firstly to heal any ailments in our own body,

Our mind and our hearts,

Any afflictions of mind and heart,

And then also to transform suffering in our relationships,

To transform suffering in another,

To transform suffering in our world.

Now when we come to the practice of Tonglin,

We have to understand that it is from Tibetan Buddhism and it is the practice of giving and taking.

You become like a human air conditioner,

To quote Tenzin Palmo,

Who stayed in a cave for 10 years in silence.

You can read about this practice in her book,

Cave in the Snow.

You become like a human air conditioner because you're breathing in your suffering and you're transforming it into light and healing.

I am also familiar with this particular practice from my neuroscience lecture in 2003,

Dr.

Jack Pettigrew,

Who used this to heal limbs.

Anyone who is very interested in the neuroscience behind the practice,

He has now passed away.

And so we begin.

Choose an ailment in your body,

Perhaps it's knee pain,

Belly pain,

Discomfort in the chest,

Back pain,

A headache,

And I want you to really target in just to this particular ailment at this time.

Perhaps you have pain in the limb.

Breathe in,

You want to breathe this suffering,

This tension or this tightness,

This pain into your heart and on your out-breath,

Breathe out compassion,

Healing,

Light,

If you wish.

Breathe in any tension,

Darkness,

Suffering from this particular part in your body.

Breathe it into the heart,

Transform,

Breathe out healing,

Compassion,

Light.

Be very particular about following your breath.

Your breath is everything.

Your breath is taking you into an altered state of consciousness.

We can see this through the research of Dr.

Andrew Newberg.

Blood flow with the breath is moving to the prefrontal cortex.

This takes you into a state of altered consciousness.

And this transforms your experience of your brain and your body,

Your body in this moment.

Breathe in any tension,

Darkness,

Tightness in the body to the dark pearl of the heart.

This is another visualization used in the Tibetan Buddhist technique.

Breathe out light,

Healing,

Compassion.

Breathe in any darkness,

Tightness,

Pain,

Discomfort.

Breathe it into the dark pearl in the heart,

Transform it as you roll it around the pearl and breathe out light,

Compassion,

Warmth,

Healing,

Continue,

Use your breath,

Make the breath as long as possible.

Stay deeply concentrated,

The practice is deeply transformative and you're working with the cortical maps,

The neurocortical maps above in the somatosensory cortex and the homunculus as you remap your experience of your body below,

Up above in the brain.

The brain is in the body and the body is in the brain.

Try this visualization if you wish or this feeling if visualization is difficult.

You breathe in any dark smoke from the body,

Any darkness,

Dark smoke,

Breathe it into the heart and transform it with the light of fire,

Breathing warmth and healing down to that region of the body.

Any darkness in the auric field,

The light body,

The chakra system,

The physical form,

Breathe that into the heart space and transform using the fire element,

Breathe out light,

Warmth,

Healing,

Good.

This time bring your hand to an area in the body where you might feel that you're emotionally holding or mentally holding.

So perhaps you have a recurring thought that causes you angst or grief or memory and I want you to really identify where do I feel that thought in my body?

Where do I feel that thought in my body?

Is it in my head,

My heart,

My belly,

My legs,

My arms,

My back body?

Where do I feel this cycle of thought?

Where do I feel that mental or emotional affliction in my body?

So begin now breathing that mental affliction,

That darkness,

That tension,

That suffering into your heart and transform it with healing,

Compassion and light.

Perhaps there's angst or sadness,

Be really aware,

Grief or loss or anger,

Breathe that into the heart space and really have great conviction in your ability to transform suffering,

To understand suffering and to cease suffering.

This really sums up the Buddhist teachings in its entirety.

You understand suffering,

The cause of it and your job is to cease suffering.

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Good.

Use long breaths so you elicit the relaxation response,

Helping the nervous system,

Your heart rate and its variability,

The embodied brain and your ability to create function back in your heart,

Your body,

Your mind,

Even recreate function.

Once we start to see that the practice works for us in whatever small ways,

We develop shraddha,

Great conviction and faith that the practice works and that we are able to transform our suffering through the practice of tonglin,

Which we might also refer to as spiritual surgery.

Again,

Breathe any mental afflictions,

Heart afflictions,

Emotional patterns into your heart space and breathe out with loving kindness,

Compassion and light,

The hope of transformation.

This time we'll work with tonglin for our relationships.

Ultimately,

We are still working on ourselves,

But we choose a person who perhaps causes us pain or suffering.

So when you're sitting or standing,

However you've chosen to practice or lie,

You'll bring your hands over to your left knee or your left side and you'll breathe with your hands so the inhale will take their hands up to the heart and the exhale will take the hands out as an offering.

The inhale will take the hands up to the heart on the left side and the hands on the out breath will offer compassion,

Healing and light.

Now on the left side of the body,

According to Ayurvedic yogic tradition,

We work with the feminine principle.

So I want you to now imagine somebody in your life on the feminine side who might cause you suffering.

This could be your mother,

Your sister,

Your girlfriend,

Your friend,

Your child,

Anyone that causes you suffering.

We call this an upaguru.

The upaguru is the teacher.

It shows us where we're not free.

Now the practice of tonglin asks us to breathe in their suffering as if it was our own and then we breathe out compassion,

Healing and light.

So turn to the left side,

Working with the feminine principle,

The shakti principle.

You're breathing in the relationship on the feminine side that causes you suffering or grief and then you exhale,

Breathing out compassion and healing to this person who essentially is an aspect of you.

When you're ready,

Use your breath.

The inhale takes the hands high up to the heart space from the base of the body to the heart space and then we offer the compassion and the healing out.

The hand gesture moves with the breath.

So the inhale takes the hands high up to the heart space and the hands are exhaled from the heart outwards as an offering.

Good.

Breathe in the tension,

The darkness,

The tightness from this human being,

The suffering.

Breathe out compassion,

Healing and light to your upaguru,

Your teacher.

This person is showing us where we're not accepting,

Where we hold anger.

We have not yet found compassion.

We're not seeing the truth.

They're showing us an aspect of ourselves that is not yet healed.

Keep breathing their tension,

Their tightness,

Their suffering,

Their darkness into your body and breathing out,

Offering them compassion and healing and light.

We work to master and heal our relationships because ultimately we're healing the relationship with ourself.

Good.

Let's take one last round,

Breathing in the tension,

The darkness,

The suffering on the feminine side in any one of your feminine relationships and then breathing out loving compassion and kindness.

Lovely.

Let's move to the Shiva side of the body,

The masculine side of the body.

And I want you to now visualize or imagine someone in your life on your masculine side.

So a male friend,

Partner,

Father,

Son,

Boss,

Anyone who you might hold a grievance towards.

This person is your upaguru.

They are showing you where you're not yet free.

And I want you to really recognize what is it that I so dislike about this person and really say,

Can you see that in yourself?

And so we begin the practice of tonglin.

We breathe in their darkness,

Their tension,

Their tightness,

Where we see it,

We feel it,

Bring it into our heart space and we transform it.

We become like a human air conditioner.

This is the practice of giving and taking.

And so we've become very good at taking someone's suffering on and in and transforming it and breathing it out like a bodhisattva,

If possible to relate the breath to the movement.

This is helpful to bring the mind into the state of yoga or union.

So the hands lift up the body on the inhale,

And as the exhale comes,

You offer the hands out.

On the right side,

Taking the hands down in a circular fashion.

And as the inhale comes,

You circle the energy up to the heart space and then outwards to this human being,

This person.

Recognize their suffering in you.

Be steady with the breath.

Good.

Prepare for your last round on the right side,

The shiva,

The masculine side of the body.

And then return back to neutral position.

Again,

Now using your hands to clear up any of the energetic chakra systems,

Shishumna principle,

Kundalini energy,

Using the hands to lift the energy up and then out from the heart space.

Working on physical ailments,

Really sweeping the body,

Sweeping the body clean,

And then offering compassion and healing energy out to the world.

Sweeping up any darkness,

Any dark smoke,

Any tightness,

Any tension that's held in the body,

The heart,

Or the mind,

Lifting it up to the heart space and sending the hands outwards.

Have great conviction and faith in your ability to heal yourself through the practice of tongling and others.

An incredibly old tradition that has validity in science,

Shrinking the amygdala as we work with compassion,

Toning the nervous system,

And working with the breath to really improve our heart rate variability,

Which gives us strong physical and mental health.

When you feel ready to be still,

Place the hands gently in the lap or by the sides and just cleanly watch the breath for a few rounds.

And to finalize,

We'll bring the hands into steeple position at the heart and bring the gaze to the fingertips and just thank yourself very gently for the incredible work of tongling.

Reviews

I am just so grateful for this practice. What a wonderful surprise 🙏

How beautiful...I have no words..just a very warm feeling ❣️ Thank you, Celia ❣️💝🙏

Transformative. Ty. 🙏🏻