Tonglen Meditation For Transforming Pain

Tonglen meditation helps us to take our perceived suffering & turn it into collective healing. It helps us remember that we're not alone, and that giving to others does not mean that we have less. I would recommend starting this meditation with your journal close by. That way after you're finished you can write down what you've experienced, and how it made you feel.

Transcript

Hello, Hello. I'm here today to lead you in a Tonglen meditation. So Tonglen we know is this practice for sending and receiving. It's designed to awaken this enlightened heart, What we call a bodhicitta in yoga. It's all about taking in pain and sending out pleasure. Kind of a really different idea than what we're used to, Right? But it's about contacting whatever pain or blockage you're facing, Breathing it in, Taking it in for the good of the collective and sending out relief to everyone. So this can be a pretty powerful practice. It can also stir up maybe some unfavorable feelings. So give yourself time and space to fully dedicate to this practice and give yourself time to emotionally connect and give yourself the space to feel and to heal. So whenever you feel ready, Go ahead and bring yourself into your seated comfortable position. Give yourself some time to fidget, Get comfy. And then when you feel ready, You can close your eyes. Take a moment to take a few deep breaths here. Letting a full inhale fill up your belly. Sigh it out with an open mouth. Gently connecting to your breath, To your body, To where you are right in this very moment. Notice any tenderness or tension in the body. Notice the energy behind your thoughts. Notice if you are tensing the muscles of your face at all. And then just take a moment, Bringing all of this awareness and energy to your body. So you can center yourself fully in this exact moment. Gently reminding yourself that you are about to begin a sacred ritual of healing, Not only for yourself, But for the collective. As a whole. Since your breath begins to deepen here, We're going to start adding some textures, Some sensations to your breath. Firstly, Imagining that you are breathing in and out completely through all corners of your body. Bring your toes into your breath, Bring the tips of your fingers. And then just take a moment to take a deep breath in and out. Bring your toes into your breath, Bring the tips of your fingers. Breathing in and out through all the pores of your body. Breathing with the whole body. Let this be a light awareness. Don't feel the need to really stress or struggle to make this feeling happen. Just let it be natural. Now with your breaths in, Imagine that you are breathing in hot. Imagine you're breathing in dark and heavy. Feel those sensations of dense, Hot, Heavy, Dark. Let that breath come in through all pores of your body and radiate into your heart. Now continuing, Imagine that you could breathe out cool, Bright, Fresh, Vibrant. When you breathe out, You can breathe in. Let that breath come in through all pores of your body and radiate into your heart. Continuing with these two sensations of breathing in hot, Heavy, Dense, Dark. These two sensations of breathing in hot, Heavy, Dense, Breathing out cool, Fresh, And light. In, Hot, Dark, Heavy, Out, Cool, Fresh, And light. Finding the center point of all this breath right in your heart. Now we're going to add the personal touch to it. So call to mind any struggle, Any shadow, Any blockages that you've been facing in your life recently. It could be a feeling of inadequacy, Feelings of stress, Confusion, Or whatever it is, Just call it into your heart to be compassionate. Don't fall down into the story of the feeling. Don't fall into any blame or trying to fix anything. Just let yourself open up to feeling the struggle wholeheartedly. Open yourself up to feeling this grief for the collective. Feeling the grief of everyone who feels inadequate, Everyone who feels stressed, Everyone who feels confused. Breathing in that hot, Heavy, Dark, Bring in all of this collective suffering that we all go through together and let it melt into your heart. Now breathing out cool, Bright, Fresh, Loving, Confident, Peaceful, Aligned, Whatever the energetic antidote is to your feeling of grief, To your struggle. Breathe it out and offer it up to everyone who's facing that same struggle right now. Breathing in the pain, Breathing out the love, Breathing in the stress, Breathing out the peace. Continue just like so with your breath. Now seeing yourself as part of this collective that you are healing, See yourself on the other side. See yourself in everyone else's grief, Sending that confidence, That worthiness, That peace, That alignment back to yourself. And know that you always have this ability to transform within your heart. And gently begin to release the breathing in of hot and dark, The breathing out of cool and light, Just release all of those attachments and just come back to a neutral breath. Taking a big belly breath in, Fill up with air, Open your mouth, Let it go. Notice the sensations in your heart and in your mind now. Gently bring one hand up to your heart, Place your palm against your chest and breathe nice, Full and deep, Compassionate air into yourself. Taking all the time you need to gently return into your body and softly open up your eyes. I want to thank you so much for sharing this practice of Tonglen with me today. I think it is such a beautiful practice for transforming our pain into collective healing and a way to take us out of this feeling that we're all alone, Right? And opening ourselves, Our hearts up to others. So thank you, Namaste, Have a wonderful day.