From Chez Piñata,
I'm Colleen Thomas.
This is Daily Magic for Peace.
Today we will ask for well-being to replace suffering.
Welcome to the circle.
Welcome friends,
Welcome.
I invite you to begin our meditation today by noticing how is your heart.
Maybe take a breath into your heart.
And if you'd like,
You can join me in getting present by looking around the space you're in.
Really,
Just taking a moment to notice,
What is this place I'm in?
Who are these people around me,
If there are any?
What faces do I see?
What colors do I see?
And if you experience the world through touch or through sound,
Listen deeply to what sounds you hear and what textures you feel.
We can do the old 5,
4,
3,
2,
1 if you like.
5 things I see.
What are 5 things I can see?
What are 4 things I can hear?
What are 3 things I can touch?
What are 2 things I can smell?
And what is 1 thing I can taste?
And if you'd like,
Join me in taking a breath.
So today we're going to continue our Tonglen series.
We started this last week,
Doing Tonglen for ourselves.
Today we will be doing Tonglen for a friend.
So this could be a best friend,
This could be a good friend,
This could just be somebody that you like.
Somebody that brings good feelings to your heart when you think of them.
So if you'd like,
Join me in taking a moment to think of someone.
This doesn't necessarily need to be a friend who's having a hard time right now,
Just any friend.
Whoever drops into your heart first might be the right person.
So again,
The practice of Tonglen,
It's kind of counterintuitive,
But we're going to be breathing in hardship,
Hardness,
Hard times,
Suffering,
Uncomfortableness,
Uncomfortability,
And breathing out calm and peace and flow.
So to start this practice,
I invite you to join me in just imagining you are sitting in front of a beautiful,
Clear lake.
We're sitting on the shores of this clear lake.
Remember that when we're here,
We're together in circle,
We transcend space and time,
So we're all here at this beautiful lake,
Just observing it in silence,
Allowing that stillness and that quiet,
That calm to kind of permeate our beings and help us calm,
Help us settle.
Almost like if somebody dropped a stone in that pond,
In that pool of water,
We would watch it slowly float down.
We could see it go all the way to the bottom,
And we could see the ripples go out on the surface.
And now from this place of calm,
Of centeredness,
Bring best friend to mind.
Let them come into your consciousness,
Into your heart.
See their face.
Now just with your intuition,
Begin a gentle process of breathing in from them anything that might be difficult and breathing out peace.
So see your friend and breathe in anything that's hard that they might be experiencing and then breathe out peace.
And again,
Breathing in and breathing out peace.
And again,
Breathing in anything that might be hard for them,
Anything they might be sad about or lonely about and breathing out peace.
And in and out.
Breathe in hardship,
Sadness,
Lack,
Disconnection,
Breathe out.
Connection,
Comfort,
Warmth.
And just on your own now,
In your own time,
Keep breathing in anything that might be hard for this person and breathing out calm,
Groundedness,
Calm,
Love.
We're just really honoring whatever is there for this person.
And of course,
We're not necessarily going to know really what they're going through unless we maybe just spoke to them.
But just kind of intuiting what's going on for them and we don't even need to know.
It's just wishing them peace by breathing in anything that's hard and returning peace to them.
This practice both of transforming their pain and also just allowing room for it.
Allowing it to coexist with peace,
Allowing hardship to coexist and kind of sharing that burden with them.
So continuing to breathe in anything hard for your friend and breathe out peace and love,
Balance.
You might notice if you see your friend,
The image of your friend changing.
You might or might not notice it.
You might see them smiling at you.
You might see them resting comfortably.
Whatever comes to mind,
Whatever you intuitively see.
And let's just do three more breaths together for this person,
This beautiful person,
Your beautiful friend.
Breathing in anything hard for them and giving them back peace.
Breathing in anything you might have missed and returning warmth and love to them.
And last time,
One final breath.
Just really honoring whatever might have been hard for them today.
Honoring that by doing some Tonglen for them and breathing back out.
Final breath out.
And now I just invite you to notice how you feel.
You can let your friend go now and see them floating away,
Going off to whatever is nice and good in their life.
And just notice you,
Notice yourself,
Your space,
Your body,
Your heart.
And notice if this practice,
Today's practice of doing Tonglen for a good friend,
If that made you feel different than before we started it.
Do you feel different now than you did five,
Ten minutes ago?
Just noticing.
And I invite you to return with us to that lake,
That pool,
That beautiful still pool.
Find that place again in yourself.
Find that stillness in your heart.
And remember that this is a place you can come to anytime,
This place of stillness.
You can come here when you need a break.
You can come here if you can't sleep.
You can come here during an argument if you can create space for your heart.
And slowly,
Slowly,
As you're ready,
I invite you to begin to return to the space you're sitting,
Standing,
Or lying in.
And just allow your eyes to open gently.
You don't have to have any strong focus on anything.
Just allow yourself to return gently.
I'm so glad you're here with us today.
May we all remember how blessed we are to have good friends and how wonderful it can be to love them up any way that's possible.
May it be so.
Thank you so much for being with us today.
Your presence,
Your energy,
And your heart make all the difference in healing our world.
