Today,
We'll be practicing Tonglen,
Which is a Tibetan meditation practice,
Otherwise known as sending and receiving.
In this meditation,
We'll be practicing breathing in a sense of suffering and heaviness and pain for others,
For ourselves,
For the more than human world.
Then practice breathing out and sending out a sense of peace and light and compassion.
So we'll begin just by finding a comfortable seat wherever you are today.
You can either soften the gaze a few feet in front of you,
Or close the eyes if that's more comfortable.
Just beginning to notice where your body makes contact with whatever seat you're in today.
Maybe feeling the backs of the legs,
The lower back,
Resting against the seat.
Seeing if you allow your body to just feel held by the seat you're in for the next few moments,
Feeling gravity pulling your body closer to the earth.
And we'll check in with the breath just naturally at first before we add on the visualization practice.
So just beginning to check in with a couple different sensations of the breath and settling on whichever one feels most accessible.
You might notice the rise and fall of the belly or the chest,
Or maybe noticing air coming in and out of the nostrils.
Selling your awareness on whichever sensation of the breath feels most nourishing today.
And throughout our practice,
If the mind wanders,
Knowing that's natural and just invite you to return your awareness back to the sensation of the breath whenever the mind wanders and just beginning again with the next inhale to begin the Tonglin practice again.
And so we'll begin the next phase of our practice just by visualizing in our mind's eye that with each in breath,
We're breathing in a cloud of heavy,
Dark smoke.
So imagine that heavy,
Dark smoke is coming in through the nostrils,
Going down through the throat,
The density filling your throat into the lungs and the heart space.
And imagining that your heart is like a filter or an air purifier,
Intuitively and completely transforming that dark cloud of smoke into a sense of light and spaciousness and peace.
And on the exhale,
Imagining that light,
That compassion returning through the nostrils out into the air around you.
So practice a few times just with this visualization of breathing in a dark cloud of heavy smoke coming in through the nose,
Down to the throat,
Landing in the heart area,
Imagining your heart filtering,
Purifying the smoke.
On the exhale,
Returning it is a sense of white,
Bright,
Spacious light.
Realizing that a few times on your own.
Once you get a sense of that practice of breathing in the smoke,
Transforming it into light and releasing that light back into your environment,
I'd like to invite you to bring into your mind's eye someone who you care deeply for who is suffering in this moment.
It could be a family member,
A friend,
A pet,
Someone you work with,
Someone who you saw on the street earlier today,
Someone who you know who you've met,
You can vividly picture in your mind's eye,
Feeling the weight of their suffering,
The heaviness of their suffering as you breathe it in,
Imagine as a dark cloud of smoke,
Whatever is going on.
Picturing it going down the throat into the heart space,
Transforming it completely,
Not leaving any remnants in the heart space as you breathe out a sense of light and compassion to this person in your mind's eye,
This person who is suffering deeply.
Realizing that a few times of breathing in,
Picturing their suffering coming in as a dark cloud of smoke going down the throat into the heart space,
Transforming into a sense of compassion,
Of peace,
Of love,
And returning that,
Of offering that on your out breath to this person or this being.
Practicing that a few times at your own pace.
And then we'll begin to expand our practice.
So instead of just imagining this person,
This being who's suffering,
Beginning in your mind's eye to imagine every other person,
Every other being on earth who is suffering from a similar experience,
A similar diagnosis,
A similar loss,
A similar condition that this being finds themselves in.
So you might just imagine everyone in the world who has cancer or who's in prison or is facing death,
Is facing any type of suffering,
So imagining them in your mind's eye.
And again,
Beginning this Tonglen practice of breathing in the suffering of every single being who's experiencing this difficulty right now.
Breathing it in through the nose,
Down through the throat,
Noticing how the heart can just as easily,
Just as intuitively transform the suffering into a sense of compassion,
Of peace,
Of love,
In returning and offering this love,
This boundless compassion to each and every single being in the world with your out breath.
Practicing this a few times on your own,
Breathing in collective suffering,
Transforming it and offering it once more is unconditional love,
Boundless compassion.
We might close the practice just by shifting our visualization to just imagine the breath coming in through the nose of imagining every single pore,
Every single cell of your body,
Breathing in this collective suffering and expanding not just the suffering that we are focused on now,
But the suffering of every being in every place at every time of every dimension.
The suffering of the world,
Our own suffering,
Those of people we love,
Those of people we'll never know,
Breathing it in through every cell in our body is the dark,
Heavy smoke,
Feeling that claustrophobic intensity,
Transforming it in our heart space and offering it back out through every cell in our body is that boundless compassion,
Unconditional love.
Practicing again a few times,
Breathing in through each cell of the body,
It's the suffering of the world,
Of ourselves,
Everyone we know and we'll never know.
Feeling it in the heart space and releasing it back out,
Offering boundless love,
Light,
Compassion.
Finding a way you'd like to close this practice maybe with just a sense of gratitude for yourself and for all the other people in your life who support you.
Maybe flashing a smile across the face as you blink open the eyes if they've been closed and just return to the room,
Just noticing how it feels,
Noticing what looks different as you come back to this space,
Noticing if you can continue to be about your daily life,
Taking these breaths whenever suffering arises,
Of taking it in,
Transforming it without leaving any trace and returning it as a sense of boundless compassion,
Infinite love,
Going about your day with this sense of capacity,
This capacity to transform suffering wherever life may take you.
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