Tonglen Practice: Alchemizing The Suffering Of The World

Experience the transformative power of Tonglen Meditation, a Tibetan practice with the intention of “receiving and sending". Tonglen teaches us to inhale the suffering of others and to exhale whatever would benefit them. We approach Tonglen as channels, rather than holding the suffering within ourselves, we expand ourselves to alchemize lower-vibration emotions into higher-vibration emotions such as acceptance, ease, abundance, peace, and love. Emotions are energy in motion; since energy can neither be created nor destroyed, we must alchemize it. Tonglen meditation is a tremendous skill of energetic alchemy and is valuable for us all.

The meditation progresses in a crescendo fashion, starting with a light amount of suffering and gradually moving to heavier forms. By alchemizing the world's suffering, we expand the transformative love that our planet and its people need.

This meditation is best done in a seated position.

Transcript

Welcome to this Tonglen practice for compassion and healing.

This is an ancient Tibetan practice that means sending and receiving.

This practice involves breathing in the suffering of others with the wish to take away their pain and breathing out happiness,

Strength,

And wellness,

Sending it to others.

This practice opens us up as alchemists.

We do this practice to alchemize the suffering of the world.

What we transform for others is transformed for us.

We are reminded of our alchemical magic to transform lower vibration emotions,

Such as fear and shame,

Into higher vibration emotions,

Such as joy and love.

We do this as a channel.

We do not hold the suffering within us.

In fact,

We must expand ourselves greatly to be an alchemist,

Fully capable of transforming suffering of our own,

Of our planets,

Into higher level vibrations,

Like acceptance,

Appreciation,

Ease,

Abundance,

Peace,

Love.

This practice moves in a crescendo style so that we can build our muscle as alchemists as we go.

This is a tremendous skill for us all.

So we will begin Tang Len today with the lightest amount of suffering,

And we will alchemize that for three minutes.

Then we will follow with four increasingly heavier forms of suffering,

Each for three minutes.

At the end,

We will be skilled alchemists,

Feeling grounded,

Calm,

Compassionate,

Expanded,

And blessed with a buzzy feeling that comes from love and connection.

Let us begin to embody the body with our breath,

Inhaling through our nose,

Exhaling out the mouth,

Inhaling through the nose,

Really filling the belly with the breath.

Exhale out the mouth,

Inhale through the nose,

And this time exhale with an audible sound if you can,

Releasing whatever you can release.

Once again,

Inhale and exhale audibly,

And on the next breath,

Breathe into your heart center.

Exhale from the heart center,

Bringing in fresh energy into this space,

And now think of something that you are truly grateful for,

And feel how the heart center expands when we think of something that we're grateful for,

And now think of why you're grateful for that.

Mmm,

It just keeps expanding.

Let's think of something else that we're grateful for,

And why.

Wonderful.

We want to truly expand our heart in this Tonglen practice.

So bringing that expanded heart energy down the front of the body,

Through the belly,

The hips,

The thighs,

The shins,

And out the feet chakras down into the earth's core,

Passing the soil,

The rocky sediment,

The underwater channels to the core of the earth here.

Now that you have arrived,

Just trust it.

What does the earth's core feel like to you?

Perhaps it's a feeling of strength,

Support,

Foundation.

Now as if you are a straw,

Draw that earthly energy up through your body,

Through the underwater channels,

The rocks and sediment and crystals,

Through the soil,

The feet chakras,

The shins,

The knees,

The thighs now,

The hips,

Belly,

All bringing this strong foundational energy up to your heart center.

And now alchemize this earthly energy with your soul energy in your heart.

Feel that feeling.

Now taking that energy combined up through your throat chakra,

Your third eye,

Out your crown to the celestial spaces where the planets dance in some magnificent harmony,

Where the dark is so dark and the light is so light.

And what do you feel up here?

This lightness,

This ethereal sense,

Now bringing this heavenly energy down through your crown,

Your third eye,

Your throat into your heart.

And here imagine a little alchemist,

If your stir spoon and you're stirring together your soul energy,

Your heavenly energy and the earthly energy,

Delicious.

Now let us call in the divine feminine,

The divine feminine as represented by Mother Mary.

Be open to her compassionate presence however she shows up for you.

The divine feminine is here to assist us with healing and Mother Mary specifically is here to assist because she brings forth messages of unity and oneness,

The same heart beats in us all.

We are united by tragedy and we are united by love.

These are our choices,

Love or tragedy.

She shares that there is a possibility for great expansion of humanity if only we should choose it.

Tonglen is a great practice of expansion.

By alchemizing the suffering of the world we are expanding the transformative love that this planet and all its people need.

Let us begin this first level of suffering which should be a small amount of suffering,

Not too great.

We'll begin with self-acceptance.

Sometimes we suffer because we don't accept ourselves and we know other people don't accept themselves sometimes and it causes suffering for others as well.

It kind of has a spillover effect but when we love ourselves we have love to give others and so at this moment we will alchemize the suffering of lack of self-acceptance and we will transform it into self-love.

Inhaling through the crown,

Lack of self-acceptance,

Exhaling out the heart,

Self-love and make this crown chakra even bigger.

Open that up and open up the heart chakra even bigger and the pathway,

That L-shape that travels through your body,

It is very large and very slippery.

Nothing will be stuck to it.

So inhaling lack of self-acceptance and exhaling out your heart,

Self-love.

Inhaling through the crown,

Lack of self-acceptance,

Exhaling self-love,

Self-love,

Self-love,

Self-love.

This is a slippery slide that we bring in lack of self-acceptance and we transmute it into self-love.

We transform suffering into self-love and if you like you can make the inhale shorter than the exhale if you need to but the more you can bring in you can magnify and bring out self-love.

And now the next form of suffering that we'll take on,

Our second form,

Is overwhelmed from caretaking.

So whether you're caretaking for the elderly or you're caretaking for children or caretaking for anyone at all,

It can be very draining and you can feel very depleted and so we will in this second practice transform the burden of suffering into strength and resilience.

It's a restorative energy.

Can you feel how strength and resilience can restore that energy for the caretaker?

Opening up our crown chakra,

Creating a slippery slide down our heart,

Opening our heart wider and now we bring in the suffering of the overwhelmed caretaker.

And now we exhale out strength,

Resilience,

Strength and resilience,

Exhaustion of the overworked caretaker,

The depletion of the overwhelmed caretaker.

Give that person strength and resilience.

The caretaker needs strength and resilience.

Transforming this energy provides an incredible sense of restoration in a cup that is full for our caretaker.

Thinking of this caretaker and the caretakers of the world,

There are so many,

Maybe there are 8 billion,

Everyone is taking care of something.

Breathing in that stress and that exhaustion and exhaling out that strength and that resilience and that extra dose of energy,

That extra hour of sleep perhaps.

Inhale down that slippery slide and exhale.

Restored energy for the overwhelmed caretaker,

Transformed.

And now we bring on the third form of suffering,

Which is financial concerns,

Financial stress.

Everyone has had financial stress.

Bring to mind that financial stress feeling and now we will transform it into abundance and security,

Okay?

So opening the crown chakra very wide now,

Opening the heart chakra very wide,

Envisioning that slippery slope,

Nothing is getting stuck to you.

Think of the suffering of financial concerns,

Financial stress,

And now exhale out abundance.

Oh,

It's so much bigger,

Bringing in those financial concerns,

Which are tight and stressful and constricting and they're so small.

And then you exhale out abundance.

It just booms,

A massive vibe.

Bring in that financial stress,

Let it go down your slippery slide and now exhale out that big abundance.

There is nothing small about abundance,

Whereas financial stress is like a tight ball and it booms out this abundance.

Slippery slide,

Inhaling,

Exhaling,

Freedom,

Exponential potential security.

In comes the small financial stress and out goes security,

Abundance,

Safety.

Yeah,

Keep going,

Inhale in,

Exhale big.

And if you want to see it in colors,

You can see it coming in a dark color and you can see it going out immensely colorful with gem-like qualities in it,

Just shines.

And if you feel it as an energy,

It feels heavy when it comes in but it blasts off into lightness as you exhale.

And can you start to feel that buzzy feeling?

That's your transformative,

Alchemical,

Alchemist magic.

When you can really feel yourself transforming a negative energy into a positive energy and I know that you can do this as much as often as you like.

And now we move into our fourth form of suffering,

Which is grief.

So consider your own or other people's grief.

Most people have felt one form of grief or another and we begin to inhale that grief through our expanded crown chakra and we exhale peace,

Solace,

Comfort.

Inhale grief,

Exhale peace.

Inhale grief,

Exhale peace.

How does grief feel to you?

How does peace feel to you?

You are transforming grief into peace.

You are an alchemist.

The grief does not stick.

There is a slippery slide.

You inhale with an open large crown chakra grief.

You exhale peace.

Inhale that small grief.

Exhale that warm blanket of peace.

Inhale grief,

Exhale peace.

Can you take it bigger?

Can you take in the grief of your community?

The grief of your state?

And can you exhale a massive blanket of peace?

You lay that blanket of peace over your community,

Over your state.

Bring in that grief and lay that big blanket of peace over your continent.

Bring in the grief of the planet and you effortlessly lay your blanket over the planet,

Covering her in peace,

Covering us all in peace.

And now feel how high your own energetic vibration is buzzing as you give peace to the world.

And now we move on to our fifth and final phase of suffering,

Which of course is the greatest suffering of the world,

War.

With a very large expanded crown chakra and a very large expanded heart chakra,

We inhale war and we exhale love.

And when you inhale war,

You can think of the war that you have in your life or the war that is on the global scale that you read about in the newspapers that you can't avoid hearing as much as you wish you could.

As much as you wish you could make it all peaceful for everyone and for everyone to live in their highest good,

There is an energy of war that must be transformed.

And we join together as alchemists in this moment for three minutes to transform the war into love,

Into peace,

Into safety.

Now inhaling war,

A very slippery slide out our heart.

Love,

Safety.

Inhaling war,

Exhaling love.

Love for our children.

Love for our families.

Love for their children,

Love for their families.

Inhaling war,

Exhaling joy,

Joyful voices.

Inhaling war,

Exhaling serenity.

Inhaling war,

Exhaling hugs and peace and love and safety.

Inhaling war,

Bring back that blanket of peace and shroud them with love in that peaceful blanket.

You are an alchemist.

Exhaling peace,

Exhaling love.

You are a powerful force of love and peace.

You are a powerful force of love and peace.

One last time.

Inhale war.

Exhale peace.

Exhale love.

Beautiful.

Take a moment to notice yourself,

To see yourself as the alchemist that you are,

To know your power.

Feel what it feels like to be that powerful,

To be the alchemist,

To transform the suffering of the world.

And you can do this for a small scale,

Every day for yourself and for others in your family.

Inhale what they're going through and exhale out something much better,

A higher vibration of whatever it is that they're dealing with.

This is how we raise the vibration of the planet.

And now take a moment to just close down your crown chakra and just ask that it be returned to a normal size.

Good.

And now to our heart chakra.

Ask that it be restored to a normal size and give gratitude to your guides and to the Divine Feminine and to Mother Mary for supporting us and leading us and helping us remember that our bodies are channels and that we truly can transform the world.

And we are.

We are lifting the world up into higher vibrations.

And the spirit world is always here to support us to do this.

Thank you so much for your participation and your remembrance as an alchemist.

Namaste.

Reviews

Amazing! I was meditating under my favorite tree and she dropped a seed into my open hand. I feel hopeful and at peace. 😌

So excited that Lindsey has shared this Tonglen meditation with the Insight Timer community. Tonglen changed my life years ago and I'm so excited Lindsey has honored the Tonglen practice with her transformational version. In these times of upheaval and uncertainty, Tonglen can help us heal and find peace on a personal and a global level. Thank you Lindsey!