Tonglen is made up of two words,
My friends,
And tong means letting go and giving in a way,
And len is receiving.
And so it's a practice that uses the breath to take something in from the world or a place,
A location,
Geographical location,
Or from another person,
Or from,
It could be an issue.
And as you take,
And we're going to practice this together in a moment,
So for now please just listen to these words of guidance.
As you inhale,
You imagine taking on that issue or that person's pain or whatever,
The problem,
Or the perceived problem,
And as you hold it,
It transforms into something much more positive and helpful,
And as you exhale,
That is what you send out into the world,
Something healing,
Something constructive,
Something helpful,
Something good.
So you inhale the bad,
So to speak,
And you are a catalyst,
You're a filter,
And you exhale the good,
The positive.
Now if,
Like me,
You identify as an empath,
You might think,
Chris,
Are you sure that's a good thing,
Because I already take on a lot of stuff from the world around me and the people in it.
So I've been practicing this for a while,
And especially this week,
Knowing that I wanted to teach it to you tonight,
What I love about this is that nothing,
And I can say this with confidence,
Nothing sticks when we practice tonglen,
Because what it does is it brings empowerment to the empath or to whoever is practicing tonglen,
Because you make a deliberate choice to take something on,
To inhale it,
To change it,
And to exhale something better.
It is your positive contribution to a more positive world,
And it's a very ancient practice,
And I thought in view of the world situation,
The state of the world,
Why not practice that tonight?
So we're going to start with a person,
So I would like you to bring to mind a person who is suffering somewhat.
It doesn't have to be a life or death situation,
It could be an exam stress,
It could be anything,
And when you have that person's pain in mind,
Please inhale,
Change it to what you feel would be a much better option instead,
And exhale it out to that person,
Sending it across time and space.
Do that as often as you need,
And in between two people,
Or however many,
Just breathe normally.
See if you can find either another person,
Or if you want to do it again for that same person,
You decide on the intensity of the support you wish to give.
Use your intuition to guide you in this.
That's beautiful.
Now you can decide,
You can choose either a situation,
An issue,
Or a geographical location,
And then see which ones you wish to practice tonglen with.
Deep breath in,
A better version,
And that's what you send out into the world.
Use as many as you wish.
Now we're going to move on to the final part of the tonglen meditation,
My friends,
And that is you.
We're going to send tonglen energy to ourselves.
This week I have met people who have told me they have felt more judgmental than usual because of coronavirus lockdown,
The whole shebang.
I sometimes find it weird to see some businesses opening,
Whereas others are still in the dark.
That is something that I find myself struggling with this week.
So I'm going to breathe that in and change it into something that I want to be telling myself instead,
And I would like to invite you to do the same.
Choose something that doesn't quite sit right with you,
Maybe that you find yourself beating yourself up over.
Change it into something more positive and then give that to yourself.
I'll give you a few moments to practice.
Now I would like us to take one deep breath in together and just exhale,
Let go.
And let's also set an intention for how we wish to show up in today's world from this moment onwards.
In what is a helpful,
Better way,
A more effective way,
Perhaps a more loving way to show up and make an empowered positive difference in the world,
Which includes,
Of course,
Ourselves.
And before we ring the bells to close the meditation,
I'm going to invite you to let the following words deeply absorb into your being.
May you all be happy.
May you all be healthy.
May you all ride the waves of your life.
May you live in peace,
No matter what you are given.
In your own time,
Bring your awareness back to the room and open your eyes.
From the bottom of my heart,
Thank you for looking after yourself.
I love you and I hope to see you again next week.
Thank you for your beautiful energy.
Much love.
Namaste.
