other, more difficult ones.
As one advances in the practice of Tonglen, it takes on a powerful characteristic of no longer seeing the person as other, but now as same. In our minds we exchange our sense of self with whatever the other person is suffering. Her pain becomes your pain. And you can do something about it. You can actually learn to dissolve the pain or affliction within your own heart space. One way to do that is to see it as a ring of heavy, dark clouds encircling your mind, swirling around you. Know that beyond the denseness of the clouds, which represent suffering, lies love, compassion, freedom, transformation and light. Then visualize the great love within you as so enormously powerful that you can easily with the simple sweep of your hand brush those heavy clouds aside. As you do so, the light that lies beyond them begins to dissipate the clouds into vapor and then into nothingness. You now realize, through the Tonglen practice, that you can move completely through the illusion of suffering. It can produce outstanding results benefiting both the one suffering and you.
Exchanging yourself for others is extremely powerful and is not to be undertaken by spiritual lightweights. The energy is simply too powerful and too demanding.
Another way of evoking compassion to practice Tonglen is to call upon an illumined being, be it Jesus, the Buddha, the Divine Mother, Tara or a bodhisattva. Then feel the boundless love that being has for you. Sink deeply into that love and absolutely know that it is real. Now channel that great reservoir of love to the focus of your Tonglen practice. Hold him in the love and for as long as you can maintain the intensity of that profound love.
An essential component of all phases of Tonglen, as taught to me by Lama Chonam, is to take the other’s suffering into your heart space. In most Western healing practices the heart energy is sent out to the recipient. In this Buddhist practice the recipient is brought into your own heart. Herein lies the contrast between the Western and Eastern mind.
This one aspect is what makes Tonglen so powerful and not for the immature on the spiritual path. One has to be quite clear to be engaged in such a high level of spiritual work and actually take pain and suffering, which we normally try to avoid, into our very hearts.
Practicing Tonglen and core mindfulness meditations is never enough. We must rise up from the meditations and live our lives mindfully with our family in our homes, with our friends, in our work environment with our coworkers, on our highways, in society, with our consumption of resources, with our own thoughts and minds. Then our entire lives can be transformed and we become mindful beings. We become the noble ones, the ones lost in the wonder of compassion and delight. Like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we start to giggle at the overwhelming delight of living an awakened life.
Mindfulness opens our eyes and ears to the beauty and wonder of life. Here we can love and be compassionate in the present moment . . . and it is a wonderful moment.
The following is a Tonglen practice that I was given after 9/11. I do not know where it came from or who assembled it. With that in mind, I respectfully share it with you:
TONGLEN—A TIBETAN PRAYER PRACTICE
Breathe light in and out of our hearts. Just breathe ever so deeply, as deeply as you can, and release.
We breathe in and focus the totality of our attention to our heart center.
We breathe out, seeing your heart now as a vast orb of intense love moving to your heart chakra, that has remained undisturbed,
And expanding consciously, mindfully, dynamically your heart energy with every breath.
Pushing the energy out a bit further and allowing it to contract only to expand with the next breath
Holding only love.
Being ever so still, perfectly still.
In the depths of your heart, love is awakening.
Levels of love, levels of being that perhaps have been resting for a very long
As one advances in the practice of Tonglen, it takes on a powerful characteristic of no longer seeing the person as other, but now as same. In our minds we exchange our sense of self with whatever the other person is suffering. Her pain becomes your pain. And you can do something about it. You can actually learn to dissolve the pain or affliction within your own heart space. One way to do that is to see it as a ring of heavy, dark clouds encircling your mind, swirling around you. Know that beyond the denseness of the clouds, which represent suffering, lies love, compassion, freedom, transformation and light. Then visualize the great love within you as so enormously powerful that you can easily with the simple sweep of your hand brush those heavy clouds aside. As you do so, the light that lies beyond them begins to dissipate the clouds into vapor and then into nothingness. You now realize, through the Tonglen practice, that you can move completely through the illusion of suffering. It can produce outstanding results benefiting both the one suffering and you.
Exchanging yourself for others is extremely powerful and is not to be undertaken by spiritual lightweights. The energy is simply too powerful and too demanding.
Another way of evoking compassion to practice Tonglen is to call upon an illumined being, be it Jesus, the Buddha, the Divine Mother, Tara or a bodhisattva. Then feel the boundless love that being has for you. Sink deeply into that love and absolutely know that it is real. Now channel that great reservoir of love to the focus of your Tonglen practice. Hold him in the love and for as long as you can maintain the intensity of that profound love.
An essential component of all phases of Tonglen, as taught to me by Lama Chonam, is to take the other’s suffering into your heart space. In most Western healing practices the heart energy is sent out to the recipient. In this Buddhist practice the recipient is brought into your own heart. Herein lies the contrast between the Western and Eastern mind.
This one aspect is what makes Tonglen so powerful and not for the immature on the spiritual path. One has to be quite clear to be engaged in such a high level of spiritual work and actually take pain and suffering, which we normally try to avoid, into our very hearts.
Practicing Tonglen and core mindfulness meditations is never enough. We must rise up from the meditations and live our lives mindfully with our family in our homes, with our friends, in our work environment with our coworkers, on our highways, in society, with our consumption of resources, with our own thoughts and minds. Then our entire lives can be transformed and we become mindful beings. We become the noble ones, the ones lost in the wonder of compassion and delight. Like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we start to giggle at the overwhelming delight of living an awakened life.
Mindfulness opens our eyes and ears to the beauty and wonder of life. Here we can love and be compassionate in the present moment . . . and it is a wonderful moment.
The following is a Tonglen practice that I was given after 9/11. I do not know where it came from or who assembled it. With that in mind, I respectfully share it with you:
TONGLEN—A TIBETAN PRAYER PRACTICE
Breathe light in and out of our hearts. Just breathe ever so deeply, as deeply as you can, and release.
We breathe in and focus the totality of our attention to our heart center.
We breathe out, seeing your heart now as a vast orb of intense love moving to your heart chakra, that has remained undisturbed,
And expanding consciously, mindfully, dynamically your heart energy with every breath.
Pushing the energy out a bit further and allowing it to contract only to expand with the next breath
Holding only love.
Being ever so still, perfectly still.
In the depths of your heart, love is awakening.
Levels of love, levels of being that perhaps have been resting for a very long
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