Tonglen Meditation To Deepen Your Compassion

This meditation provides a short meditation exploring the practice of Tonglen. Tonglen is an ancient Buddhist tradition of meditation that is sometimes called taking and giving. It's one of the best ways to deepen our compassion. After you've listened to the introduction once, feel free to jump directly to the meditation at timestamp :38.

Transcript

Welcome to today's meditation, Which is going to be a practice of Tonglin. Tonglin is an ancient Buddhist tradition of meditation. And it's also sometimes called taking and giving. It's one of the best ways to take our compassion to an even higher level. So it's really, It's a loving kindness brought up a notch or two. So to get started, Coming into your meditative posture, Be it even sitting or lying on the ground. Allow your eyes to close and starting to tune in with your breath, Your natural breath cycle moving in and out of your body. If you notice your thoughts wandering, Know that that's normal. And just bringing the awareness back to your natural breath, To your inhale and your exhale. Still focusing on your breath, But now with each inhale, Visualize yourself taking in any darkness or heaviness in the room or the atmosphere around you. Letting it go all the way to your heart. And once that negativity enters your heart, It's instantly transformed into brightness and light and to positivity that with your exhale, You share with the world. So again, Inhale, Bringing in negativity, Pressure, Darkness, Bringing it in until it's transformed in your heart to lightness, Bright positivity that you share with your exhale. Feeling like this, Inhale the negativity, Exhale the positivity. Feeling that exchange extend even beyond your breath. So with the inhale, Feel yourself taking in that negative energy, Not just through your nose, But through all the pores of your body. It's coming, It's entering you. Once again, Once it hits your heart center, It's instantly transformed into this bright light of positivity that is then released back into the world with your exhale, Leaving your body not just through the breath, But through all your pores as well. Continue like this. Feeling the negativity, The darkness, Exhaling that golden positivity, That bright light. Bringing to mind now somebody that is suffering, Somebody in your life, Somebody that is suffering, Somebody in your life that's in some pain. This might be a family member, Someone that you love. It might be an acquaintance, A neighbor or coworker. It can even be yourself. So bringing to mind someone that is in pain. And with your inhale, What you're going to do is you're going to breathe in their suffering, Their pain. And with the exhale, Breathing out to them whatever they need for relief. So breathing in their pain, Their suffering. And with the exhale, Breathing out relief, Light, Whatever they need to make their path smoother and their suffering completely disappear. We get health, Money, A change in circumstance, An easement of pain. We inhale, We bring all of their suffering in. It is instantly transformed in our heart, Made pure. And we breathe out that positivity, That relief of their suffering. Continue here, Keeping them in your mind. Inhale, Breathing in their pain and suffering. Exhale, Sharing and giving all that you have to alleviate their pain and their suffering. Four more seconds. If you notice your mind wandering, That's alright. Just bringing your awareness back to that person, That person that's in pain, That person that's suffering, And returning to your breath. Inhale, Taking in their suffering and pain. Exhale, Giving all that they need to end their suffering, To end their pain. Exhale, Giving all that they need to end their suffering, To end their pain. And finally, We're going to extend our taking and giving. So thinking of all the people, All the people in the world that have the same pain, The same suffering as the person you were just thinking of. And with your inhale now, Thinking of all those people, Bringing in their pain, Their suffering, Feeling it fill up your body until it reaches your heart where it's instantly transformed into the solution to their pain, To their suffering. With that exhale, Breathing out all the relief, All the lightness and the brightness, Feeling it go to each of these people across the globe, Instantly alleviating their suffering and pain. Continuing here, Inhale, Breathing in all the pain, All the suffering, Having it instantly transformed at the heart center and breathing out all that joy, All that relief. Take a few moments to relax. . . Having it instantly transform at the heart center into whatever the solution to their pain and suffering is and with the exhale breathing it out giving it to them freely to help each person find a state of peace, A state of happiness. Inhale breathing in their suffering, Their pain. Exhale giving and sending that peace, That health, That happiness. With your next exhale sending out one more wave of relief, Of joy, Of bright light and with your inhale going ahead and bringing your hands into prayer or onto your heart taking a moment to connect to your heart center and to notice how it is that you're feeling now after this practice. Do you feel energized, Tired, Peaceful, Happy, Sad? There's no right answer but take a moment here to notice how you're feeling to connect with the emotions and the feeling in your heart. Take a moment to thank yourself for practicing, For meditating today and for taking your compassion into practice.