Cultivate Your Compassion with Tonglen Meditation

 

01.27.2023 CULTIVATE YOUR COMPASSION WITH TONGLEN MEDITATION Being that you’re a reader of this newsletter, I’m willing to bet that you’re somehow interested in, maybe even fascinated by, compassion: what it is, why it matters, and how to cultivate more experiences of it for others and yourself. One great way is via Tonglen meditation. In practicing Tonglen, Pema Chödrön has written, “we come to realize that other people’s welfare is just as important as our own.” This classic Buddhist meditation was, naturally, part of our Wisdom of Pema Chödrön online event last year, taught in tandem with the practice of Lojong, or training the mind, by Tonglen and Lojong specialist Judy Lief. Now, thanks to our readers’ strong interest in these compassion-building practices, we’ve released Judy’s excellent teachings as a standalone online workshop, fleshed out with bonus video and a lovely set of 59 Lojong cards complete with Pema Chödrön’s commentary. It’s a perfect way to begin or deepen your practice of Tonglen and Lojong. And anyone can, and should, try it. As His Holiness’s principal translator, Thupten Jinpa, recently told Lion’s Roar, “If you care about your well-being, being compassionate is the wise way to go about it. And you don’t need to follow any specific religion or philosophy. What you need is to allow your mind to have the space for your natural capacity for compassion. Then nurture it, care for it.” The practice of Tonglen, and its partner practice of Lojong, gives us that space. It is worth making time for. You can get started this weekend, by experimenting with the two sets of instructions for Tonglen included here, from both Pema Chödrön and Judy Lief, and by reading Carla Beharry’s personal account of how the practice helped her personally after an accident. Then, if you want to practice more and begin to experiment with Lojong too, Judy’s workshop is a perfect next step. May these teachings help you, as the Lojong slogan goes, to “train enthusiastically in strengthening your natural capacity for compassion and loving-kindness.” —Rod Meade Sperry, Lion’s Roar Online Learning

How to Practice Tonglen Pema Chödrön teaches us “sending and taking,” an ancient Buddhist practice to awaken compassion. With each in-breath, we take in others’ pain. With each out-breath, we send them relief. Tonglen practice, also known as “taking and sending,” reverses our usual logic of avoiding suffering and seeking pleasure. In tonglen practice, we visualize taking in the pain of others with every in-breath and sending out whatever will benefit them on the out-breath. In the process, we become liberated from age- old patterns of selfishness. We begin to feel love for both ourselves and others; we begin to take care of ourselves and others.

Tonglen: A Prayer That Rides the Breath On the inbreath, says Judy Lief, take in what is bad, freeing others from it. On the outbreath, offer what is good. Tonglen is like a prayer that rides the breath, similar to how Tibetan prayer flags ride the wind. It enhances our trust in our ability to be kind and, at the same time, it enhances our understanding of the selfish and negative energies that are also a part of us. Tonglen is rooted in our natural tendency to love and connect with one another.

Three Practices That Healed My Heart After A Traumatic Injury When a car drove over her foot, Carla Beharry felt like her anger would never end. Her journey of healing taught her that the only way out of suffering is through it. Buddhist practice teaches that our continued suffering is directly related to our rejection of the present moment. Our resistance to settle into life creates a world of suffering. As I laid in the hospital, I knew that if I wanted to find true freedom, I had to focus intently on my experience of the present moment. These three practices would help me move through the emotional experience of my physical trauma.

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