Tibetan Healing Meditation - Tonglen

This meditation is over 1000 years old and was taught by Lama Atisha, an Indian master. The practice spread to Tibet and is now the most famous Tibetan meditation, possibly the Dalai Lama's favourite. Tonglen means 'giving' and 'taking'. It works at a very deep level as it purifies our karmic seeds from pain and negativity. It is said to belong to the Buddha of Compassion.

Transcript

Out of all the meditations that there are,

And there are so many,

This one is probably my most profound,

And it's called Tonglen,

And that is Tibetan for giving and taking.

This practice is about a thousand,

More than a thousand years old,

And it can be traced back to a teacher in India by the name of Atisha,

And it was revived by Geshe Chikawa,

So it's really,

Really old.

Who knows,

It might be older than that.

It is the Dalai Lama's favorite meditation,

And probably mine too.

So let's get into it.

Choosing a comfortable seat,

Whether you're cross-legged or just sitting on a chair with two feet on the ground,

Making sure your back is straight,

Your hands in your lap or on your knees,

And just dropping your chin slightly,

And if you like,

You can lower your gaze or close your eyes.

This is a visualization,

And you can imagine that at your heart center inside of you is a beautiful red rose.

It is the most exquisite rose that you have ever seen,

And it is fragrant.

This rose represents your loving kindness,

Your compassion,

Your altruism,

Your wish to help others,

And inside of this rose,

This red rose,

Is a sparkling diamond,

The most magnificent you've ever seen.

It is nestled in the middle of this rose,

Perfect,

Flawless.

It is also the hardest thing in the universe,

And this diamond represents wisdom,

Your wisdom,

The wisdom knowing that things come from causes,

Cause and effect,

What goes around comes around,

And if we really understand this,

We can design the life that we want.

So it's the union of wisdom and compassion at your heart,

And feel that the light rays of the diamond are shining within you,

Dancing,

Mixed with the fragrance of the red rose,

Permeating your being,

Making you feel joyful,

Peaceful,

And loving.

Now,

Imagine that you are a spirit being,

That you are actually sitting now in front of yourself,

So you move out of your body,

And you turn around,

And you're facing yourself as if you were some sort of angel,

And you're looking at yourself,

Your human self,

And you gaze lovingly at yourself,

And you think,

This wonderful person sitting in front of me,

Such a mix of happiness,

And sadness,

And pain,

And joy,

And think how wonderful it would be if your higher self could remove all the suffering and pain,

Because now you have the ability to do so,

You're an angelic being,

And you're not made up of flesh,

Bone,

And blood,

You're made up of light,

And you still have the diamond and the rose at your heart center,

So as you gaze lovingly at your human self,

You notice a thick black smoke like tar substance inside of the human self,

And this is the suffering,

Your suffering,

Your pain,

Your grief,

Your illness,

And as you gaze at this thick tarry like smoke,

It starts to move to the center of the heart of your human self,

You get in touch with your breathing as an angelic being,

And slowly breathing through the nostrils,

And as you do,

You see your human self,

The suffering starts to move from their heart center up towards their face,

In a long stream,

It's almost as if with every in-breath,

You're slowly pulling this darkness out of your human self,

This dark substance leaves your human self at the nostrils and makes its way towards the angelic self,

In a long thin stream,

With every inhalation,

You pull it towards you,

Until it collects in a space in front of your angelic face,

Removing all the darkness,

All the pain,

All the worry,

All the panic,

Whatever it is that you are suffering from,

You pull it out of the human self,

And now it's a ball,

A swirling mass in front of you,

The angelic self realizes that we can destroy the suffering through the power of the diamond in the rose,

So what we're going to do is,

When I say now,

We are going to breathe in that darkness,

Imagine it going in through the left nostril,

And as it hits the diamond in the rose,

There will be a bright white flash,

Like a mini atomic explosion,

And you will destroy that suffering,

So let's prepare for that now,

Taking a long deep breath in,

And then exhale it out,

And as I say now,

We're going to breathe in that darkness straight to the heart center,

Now,

It moves through us,

Hits the diamond in the rose,

And there's a bright white flash,

And that darkness is destroyed,

If you have to take another breath,

To just make sure it's all gone,

Do it again,

And it's gone,

None of that suffering remains,

And you've given your human self freedom,

Freedom from pain,

Freedom from problems,

How wonderful,

Your human self is so happy,

Dissolve that image of your human self now,

Remain within the angelic body,

A light body,

With the diamond in the rose at your heart,

And now think of someone you love very much,

And they are going through some trouble,

Some pain,

Whether it's physical or mental,

Emotional,

Circumstantial,

Imagine where they are right now,

And it's almost as if you could appear or manifest in their space,

Without them really seeing you,

There they are,

You gaze lovingly at them,

And the feeling of compassion arises in your heart,

As you wish to remove their pain,

The feeling of love is that you want them to be happy,

Again as you gaze at them,

You see their darkness inside of them,

As a thick form of tarry black smoke,

You connect with your breathing once again,

And as you do it starts to move up towards their nostrils,

With every in-breath you are pulling the darkness out of them,

Pulling it out until it releases from them and makes its way in a long thin stream towards your angelic face,

Collects there in a swirling mass of their pain,

We're going to do the same,

We're going to destroy the darkness at our heart,

Exhale out,

And when I say now,

We're gonna breathe it in,

Now inhaling,

That darkness moving through us,

Hitting the diamond in the rose,

Until there's a bright white flash and explosion,

And it is destroyed,

And there's nothing left but light,

Radiant light,

Fragrance from the rose,

Sparkling diamond,

You have removed the suffering from your friend,

And they are free,

And they are happy,

How wonderful would that be,

Dissolving the image of your friend now,

And this practice if you like you can push pause or end it here,

But you can extend this as well to someone that you don't know,

And do it for them,

And you can extend it to someone that you are also having a problem with,

So that it may soften your heart,

Let us take in a slow deep breath in through the nose,

Breathing it out,

And gently dissolving yourself into the rose,

And then into the diamond,

And then into clear space,

When you are ready you can blink your eyes open,

May all beings of happiness and the causes of happiness,

May they be free of suffering and the causes of suffering,

May they never be separated from the highest bliss which is without suffering,

And may they come to rest in the great equanimity which is free of grasping and aversion,

Thank you for practicing with me dear friends.

Reviews

Very powerful. I experienced an opening and release that is very nourishing to me right now. I will def be returning to this meditation on the regular.🙏🏻💕🙏🏻

This was a very beautiful meditation with lovely music. Thank you