Tonglen

Tonglen meditation is an ancient practice introduced by Atisha over 1,000 years ago. Atisha was an extraordinary Indian buddhist/yogi who reordered and rejuvenated Buddhism in Tibet. This practice is an exercise in opening your heart, allowing negativities to run through the heart, experience the heart transforming them into their energetic pure form of love, truth, light, etc, and releasing that expanding love and light into the world.

Transcript

Okay, So this now is a Tonglen meditation, Or otherwise known as like a giving and taking meditation. And this, Like all other meditations, Should not be performed while operating machinery or driving a car. You should be in a place where you can let go of the external world, You're not responsible for anyone else's safety or your own. You can just sit down, Close your eyes, Let go of what is going around you, And go within to your meditation space and experience. I'd like to begin with maybe suggesting you find yourself a comfortable seat with an upright spine. You can think of maybe the seven point meditation posture. The seven points are one, Your feet, Your legs, You might sit in a cross legged position on a cushion on the floor, Maybe in a chair with your feet on the ground, And your knees maybe slightly lower than your hips. Some place that you have a very stable pelvic floor, Which is the base of the spine that their spine is resting on so that the rest of the body can be super comfortable and you can set it and forget it. Something so you don't have to go, Like get all squirmy, You can sit very comfortably and stably. You're not leaning or fighting to stay upright. Your hands can be in your lap, Maybe one hand on top of the other, Often the right hand on top of the left, Or maybe your hands on your knees. You can also put your hands at your chest in some sort of prayer position. Think about your back being nice and straight, Not too upright, Not too like soldierly, And like with lots of tension, But straight and alert, Yet relaxed. Your shoulders come over your hips, You're not really leaning forward, You're leaning back, You're not leaning to the right, You're not leaning to the back, You're not leaning in any direction. You're not curved at the spine forward or arched with the spine back. You can picture a little string, Like a little marionette string, And pulling that spine up and high, Rolling your shoulders back and then relaxing and letting go muscularly. Your eyes can be closed or they can be open, And if they're open with a gentle gaze, Like very softly open, Not super wide, But gazing maybe eight fingers past the tip of your nose. Your jaw is relaxed, With your teeth slightly apart, And your tongue is on the roof of your mouth slightly behind the teeth, Or just touching the teeth, And your head centered over your body, Centered between your shoulders, With your chin slightly tucked in. Then bring your attention to your breath. Feel the air as it brushes the tip of your nose. Feel that sensation of the air on the inhale, And on the inhale, Feel yourself breathing all the way into your belly. So you expand your belly on the inhale, And on the exhale, Release the air, Release the oxygen, Release muscular tension. Let it go. Every inhale through the nose, Feel that stream of air coming through your nose. Feel your belly expanding nice and full into your belly. And every exhale, Let it go energetically and muscularly. Maybe something has stayed with you from earlier, From the past. Maybe there's something in the future that's sort of present here with you, And either way, Let them go on the exhale, And come back to the present with the inhale. This breath, This now, This stream of air, This moment, And every exhale, Let it go. The inhale, Come back to this moment, This new moment, This new breath, Not that last breath, This breath, This belly expansion, This energetic release, This muscular relaxation. And now in the center of your heart, There's a little spark that grows into a heart light, A growing little heart light growing and growing in the center of your chest, Glowing radiant like a little sun, Full of pure love. It's going to be a rainbow colored golden joyful light. It can be a brilliant green light radiating in your entire chest. It can be a color blue. It can be the color yellow. The color, If there's a color that really appeals to you right here in your heart, Go ahead and let it be that color. Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, White, Rainbow. Feel this little light in your heart expanding and growing, Expanding and growing. And next, While this light stays there, Don't let that fall away, But now in your body, In your aura or your awareness and emotions, Go ahead and scan for and locate any anger, Any stress, Any pain, Negative emotions, Negative memories, Angry words, Injuries, Abuses, Neglects, Fears, Anxieties, Depressions, Arguments, Issues, Nightmares, Et cetera. Anything negative, Any of these disturbing experiences or emotions or feelings and having located them, Go ahead and inhale, Pull them closer into that heart sun, Closer, Feel them coming closer. It might be feel really comfortable, Uncomfortable, Like a little bit uneasy to have that so close, Really feel that come closer to your awareness in the center of your being. And you can sit with that for a moment. Then from the earth, Go ahead and ask for the earth, For the grounding energy of the earth to come up from the center of the earth into your body. Ask the mother earth Gaia to support you energetically with some super grounding transformative energy. I like to visualize and feel and experience like some molten, Like muddy sort of like rolling muddy, Goopy mud sort of really grounding, Super earthy energy, Like coming up through your feet, Into your legs, Traveling up your legs, Into your pelvis, Then rooting into your pelvis and traveling all the way up your spine into the center of your heart. Feeling super grounded and totally connected to that earth energy. Really connected to solid earth and matter in your body. And now feel from the heavens beyond like a billion miles away, The center of the universe, Uncountable distance, Brilliant, Pure, Divine, Golden, Radiant, Sparkly, Glittery, Divine light comes and beams down streaming through your crown into your skull, Filling your skull radiating and brilliant, So bright and in pure filling your head, Filling your neck and your shoulders, Expanding through your entire chest. And that meets that meets the grounding energy at the sun in your heart centers, The divine light, This grounding energy both come into your center of your being into that heart center with that radiating sun is pulsing and growing and growing. And now that sun and that heart center is super connected to this earth and this divine, Pure universal light and love energy in the center of your heart. Now, Go ahead and inhale. These grounding and divine energies meet at the radiating sun in your heart center and they collect and they attract with inescapable magnetism. All those negativities that you were just experiencing and observing and feeling known and known unknown, Conscious and unconscious, Every disturbing experience and emotion and feeling that is in your presence and your aura and your energy collects into that brilliant heart. Every inhale brings in grounding and divine energies. They carry those disharmonies to your central heart sun. Now that heart light is so brilliant and so fiery and so powerful it dissolves, It disintegrates, It transmutes, It transforms these energies into pure, Crystalline, Harmonious, Radiating love and light. Go ahead and exhale. In this light age, Your heart center has grown even more radiant with the fuel of those impurities. Inhale. Negativities travel to that heart along with the divine and grounding energy, Magnetizing and pulling them into that heart. That heart feeds off of, Grows, Transforms, Transmutes these negativities and grows on the exhale even bigger, Even more radiant, Even more full, Even more immense and powerful. Good and exhale in the brilliant dome of love and light surrounds you, This heart light has grown outside of your body beyond the limits of your physical corporeal form. It surrounds you all directions like a little sun glowing and growing. Your heart can convert this energy at any scale. On the inhale, Your heart light attracts any negativities in the room, House or space immediately surrounding you. You have become a transmutation alchemic magnetic factory. Exhaling your heart collects, Transforms fully and completely, Purifies all negativity, All suffering and pain it can find. To pure love and light exhaling your heart light and dome expand again with a new fuel and an immense ball of love and light surrounds you even more powerful and increasing in size. Inhale suffering, Exhale bigger, Bigger expanding larger light, Larger light growing, Growing, Growing more powerful. Follow this love factory to the neighbors around you, The buildings next door absorbing and resolving, Purifying and transforming all their issues into pure love and light. Inhale exhale. The heart light grows even more massive to your entire neighborhood, The blocks in every direction. Feeling the discord and disturbances and pains, Purifying and converting them into great peace and growing further. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhaling again even more immense, The sufferings of your entire city. The light on an inhale becomes exponentially more enormous as the area of sufferings that are purified grows exponentially on the exhale. Inhale. Exhale the entire city, All of the sufferings of the entire city, A massive amount that you cannot even quantify or justify in your mind, Transformed by your heart. The heart is so much more powerful than the mind, Flows, It's expansive, Bigger, Bigger, More immense. This heart sun is unstoppably transformative. It expands beyond to your entire state, Collecting, Transforming, Increasing to the size of your region, Even to your country. Transform, Convert, Love, Light, Pure exhale, Expand, Grow. You can feel and see the suffering dissolve, Hearts aglow, The joy of all beings is boosted, Hearts are lightened. Your love bubble and heart sun expand to dissolve absolutely everything discordant in its path, Breathing it out and expanding and radiating the converted love, Peace and light even further into the entire world. Exploring every suffering of the entire planet, Blasting them into fuel that becomes pure bliss in all directions, Absolute joy and freedom in all directions at all times. The entire world filled with a massive, Enormous light surrounds the entire planet radiating from your heart. Your heart is indestructible as a diamond, Clear and pure, A radiating love generator. The sun, More brilliant than the sun, You have taken the responsibility to accept all that comes your way, Welcoming everything that arises, All that arrives and transform it entirely into endless love and light. At the center of your being is a precious life-giving tool. Inhale, Exhale, Brilliant, Pure dome of light. May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. May all beings not be separated from joy and always be free from the causes of suffering. May all beings rest in the equanimity that is without attachment or aversion to good or bad, The near or far, Likable or dislikeable, Friendly or unfriendly. They never be separated from the causes of happiness. May all beings rest in the equanimity that is without attachment or aversion to good or bad, The near or far, Likable or dislikeable, Friendly or unfriendly. May all beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.

Reviews

I love this approach to Tonglen and plan to practice with it often. Thank you!

Thank you. Can you share a resource where tonglen is practiced in this style? ❤