Breathing Compassion In and Out

This MSC (Mindful Self-Compassion) meditation is derived from the Tibetan practice of "tonglen."

Transcript

This meditation is breathing compassion in and out.

It's derived from the Tibetan practice of Tang Len,

Or giving and taking meditation.

And in that meditation,

The practitioner inhales the pain and suffering of another individual and exhales kindness and compassion.

This process subtly reverses the instinctive tendency to resist or avoid emotional discomfort,

Which usually leads to more suffering.

In this meditation,

Breathing compassion in and out,

We add the medicine of compassion to each inhalation.

This meditation can be practiced formally or informally throughout the day for any length of time.

And the recording is about 20 minutes.

So we begin as usual by finding a comfortable place to sit and gently close your eyes,

Partially or fully.

And take a few deep,

Relaxing breaths.

And just drop into your physical body,

Allowing yourself to feel.

.

.

Feel any vibration or pulsation.

Just allow yourself to sense what it's like to be alive in a physical body.

Just feel it.

And now scan your body for any physical stress.

Just allow yourself to notice if there's stress in your body anywhere.

Even if you find physical stress somewhere,

Just make a note of the location,

Perhaps in your neck or your abdomen or jaw.

Just be aware of the location.

And also perhaps the quality of the stress.

Maybe you feel tension or maybe some queasiness or kind of jitteriness.

Just be aware of the quality of it as well as where it's located.

So we're just making a mental note of any location in the body where there's physical stress.

And then allow yourself to become aware of any stressful emotions that you might be holding in your field of awareness.

One helpful way to do that is to bring your attention to the heart region and maybe even put a hand over your heart.

And see if you can't open your awareness to any emotions that you might be feeling at this time that might be a little stressful.

Perhaps you're concerned about something that happened before or you're worried about something that will happen.

So we're allowing ourselves to be aware of physical stress,

Any emotional stress,

Because compassion practice requires some discomfort.

It's the occasion for compassion.

And as you open to stressful emotions,

If a challenging person comes to mind,

Let yourself be aware of the stress associated with that person.

Perhaps you're experiencing the suffering of another person through your care and concern,

Through empathy.

If that's so,

Let yourself be aware of that discomfort,

Some discomfort you're feeling through empathy.

So just be in your physical body,

Aware of any physical or emotional stress that you might be holding.

And now,

Being aware of the stress that you're carrying in your body as we all carry stress in our bodies from morning till night.

And also recognizing that any living being who suffers is worthy of at least a little compassion,

Including yourself.

Being aware of the stress and the naturalness of a compassionate response.

Inhale fully and deeply,

Drawing compassion inside your body.

Take a nice deep breath because of the stress you're holding in your body.

Feel free to exhale.

Take another nice deep breath,

Filling every cell in your body with compassion.

As you inhale,

Just draw in loving kindness,

Compassion,

Goodwill,

A lot of compassion inside your body.

Take a nice deep breath.

As you inhale,

Inhale compassion for yourself.

And then exhale.

So let yourself be soothed by inhaling deeply,

A deep diaphragmatic breath,

Perhaps allowing your abdomen to extend as you inhale.

It's profoundly soothing.

Let yourself be soothed as you inhale deeply.

And by giving yourself the compassion you deserve when you notice that you're feeling discomfort.

Take a few nice deep breaths,

Inhaling compassion for yourself.

Slow deep breaths.

Now,

I'd like you to take some more breaths.

But as you exhale,

Send out compassion to another living being,

Perhaps the person who might be associated with your discomfort.

Or if you prefer,

Just exhale compassion to the world,

To the world in general,

Or to all living beings in general.

So inhale deeply,

Bringing compassion for yourself.

And then exhale compassion for others,

Perhaps even the person who might be challenging in your life.

Take a few gentle breaths in this way.

And then exhale.

Allow yourself to sense and savor the goodwill that you're drawing into your body.

Inhale in compassion and also the goodwill that you're sending out,

Out to the world at large or out to some person,

Maybe even a difficult person.

So when we start this practice,

We take nice,

Deep diaphragmatic breaths in order to find our breath and in order to be soothed by deep belly breaths.

But then after a while,

Just allow your breathing to find a natural,

Relaxed rhythm.

And as you do that,

Continue breathing compassion in for yourself and exhale compassion for others.

So just feel your breath inhaling compassion for yourself and exhaling compassion for others.

Find a nice,

Gentle breathing rhythm.

Inhale gently,

Compassion for yourself.

Exhale compassion for others.

Now the mind will naturally wander,

Often even before one breath is completed.

And when that happens,

If you'd like to strengthen your practice,

Just once again do a body scan and detect any physical tension that might be in your body.

Or perhaps some emotional tension or some worry or concern that you're carrying with you.

And when you feel that discomfort,

Then inhale compassion for yourself because of the discomfort.

Just soothe yourself with a nice,

Gentle in-breath and exhale compassion for others.

Stay aware of your physical body.

Feeling your physical body,

Even subtle tension that might still be there,

Gently inhale compassion for yourself and exhale for others.

Inhale compassion for others.

Inhale compassion for others.

Other words for compassion are caring,

Soothing,

Comforting.

So when you detect any stress in your body,

By inhaling you are caring for yourself.

You're soothing your own body just as you would soothe someone whom you dearly love.

And an exhale follows quite naturally and see if you can send some of that goodwill and kindness and care and comfort out to others.

Perhaps somebody who's suffering,

Perhaps somebody who has hurt you in some way due to their own suffering.

Aware of the physical sensations in the body,

Drop into a natural breathing rhythm,

Kindness and compassion for yourself on the in-breath,

Kindness and compassion for others on the out-breath.

Inhaling love,

Exhaling love.

Inhaling kindness,

Exhaling kindness.

Inhaling soothing,

Exhaling soothing.

Inhaling care,

Exhaling care.

And then slowly,

Slowly open your eyes.

And know that you can always return to your breath.

Inhale in compassion for yourself,

Exhale in compassion for others,

Anytime you find yourself under any form of stress during the day.

Reviews

🙏🙏

Excellent effective practice. Beautiful gentle and soothing voice guidance.

Hervorragend! Die einfühlsame, langsame Sprachweise lässt viel viel Spielraum für besseres Verstehen.
Danke 👌

Wonderful meditation to help settle and ease into a stressful situation. Thankyou🙏😊❤️

Thank you, Chris! Your wonderful, soothing voice added ease to my meditation. This meditation has me continually, tenderly checking in with body, heart, and mind, which helps to create the spaciousness to offer love and compassion to myself and to others! Deep gratitude 🙏 ❤️

Very soothing, thank you.

Deeply conforting practice

Thank you for sharing this simple yet profound offering of compassion with great gratitude I appreciate the time and sensitivity given to your words from you to us Thank you so much

What a beautiful practice. Thank you!

So precious meditation. Thank you so much.

Very soothing. Thank you!

I’m entering a stressful season at work, this meditation helped me to both care for myself and those I work with. Healing.

I am making an everyday commitment for two weeks. There is suffering to heal

❤️so soothing! Thank you 🙏

Wonderful meditation.very conforting thanks!!!

Excellent grounding compassion practice. Thank you.

Excellent metta practice with breath.

This is amazing for the days of self loathing love it x x

A good meditation for when you need to be reminded to love yourself. And that there is a well of love to support we can call on any time, especially when we're feeling low or tough to love the world.
Shame about the poor sound quality. Perhaps it could be recorded again?

Thank you for this and your valuable teachings this week at esalen. ✨🙏🏼✨