Welcome to this day with yourself empathy meditation based on the practice of Tonglen or exchanging self for others.
Start by sitting comfortably in a chair with your feet firmly planted on the floor and your hands gently resting in your lap.
Hold your spine upright and strong as you soften the front of your body and allow your heart space to open.
Close your eyes and take three deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.
With each inhale imagine your tummy is an empty balloon being filled with air and with each exhale imagine your tummy softening as you release tension.
We're going to spend several moments practicing our breath.
Breathe deep into your belly.
It can be helpful to imagine a sleeping infant and how their tummy rises and falls with their breath.
Continue breathing like this deep into your abdomen letting it expand.
Breathing life and air into your entire body and exhaling and releasing tension,
Relaxing.
It's important that we focus on the breath.
The practice of empathy of Tonglen is very dependent on the in-breath and the out-breath for we will breathe in pain and we will breathe out relief.
Instead of letting go of your thoughts allow your mind to wander freely on the general theme of suffering.
In particular focus on your suffering.
Let yourself wander and browse and look over your current and chronic suffering.
It could be a small complaint or a big one but find one that stirs up strong emotions,
Strong feelings and allow yourself to dwell on it.
Enter your suffering.
Seek out the details that make you feel bad,
Your frustrations about it,
Your dismay.
Once you touch on the painful qualities of what you're feeling,
Breathe it in.
Let it feel your lungs.
Continue to poke and prod the wound,
Breathing in whatever you feel and as you breathe out,
Let the feeling dissolve.
Take a break from it with your exhale and then find it again when you breathe in.
Spend several breaths focusing on this coordination between breath and pain and taking a break from it.
Breathe in the pain,
Exhale and find relief.
Breathe in the pain,
Exhale and find relief.
Now allow your mind to wander again and seek out mental images of other people who might be suffering in a similar way.
Breathe that in and stay in touch with the pain while allowing your mind to free associate.
Perhaps images of people who suffer with similar things comes to mind.
Stop breathing in that pain,
Finding relief on the exhale,
Finding other people who suffer similarly.
Don't overthink it.
Just let the images come and breathe them in as they do and incorporate your own pain into that as well.
Come back to your pain periodically,
Feeling how it connects you to the pain of others.
Imagine as you breathe that you are relieving them of some of their pain and taking it into yourself and allow the feeling to dissolve when you exhale.
Breathe in their pain,
Exhale and offer relief.
And when you exhale,
Try to let it go completely if you can and come back to it on the in-breath.
Next,
Start to notice other feelings that run alongside your pain.
Maybe you feel empathy and compassion coming over you.
You wish your fellow sufferers well.
You feel some possibility of peace and well-being despite the pain and you would like to offer it to them.
Breathe this feeling out.
Send your out-breath all the way to them.
Breathe in suffering and breathe out relief.
And if you find this exercise becoming vague or abstract,
Shift your attention closer to home,
Connect with your personal vulnerability,
Your personal suffering and breathe it in.
And then let your consciousness expand again to your fellow sufferers and breathe out relief.
And if at any point you are feeling emotionally overwhelmed,
Give more attention to the relief,
To the out-breath and allow the feelings and images to dissolve with the breath to exit your body to find peace.
Continue doing this for as long as feels necessary to you.
This practice takes time,
But the benefits are exponential.
When you're ready,
Bring your awareness back into this room.
Release all feelings of suffering.
Release your fellow sufferers.
Release one more exhale of relief and compassion.
And notice how you feel.
And when you are ready,
You can slowly open your eyes.
Thank you for sharing your meditation practice with me.
May you stay with yourself today and always.
You are welcome to continue sitting in meditation for as long as you would like.
For now,
I will leave you here.
Thank you.
