Welcome to day 21 of mindfulness with the moon.
Today we are talking about tonglen,
A practice that a teacher of mine,
Pema Chodron,
Has shared with me.
And this is tonglen for any time,
But particularly for a time where the world is hurting and people are suffering and people ask,
What do we do?
You know,
How do we support?
Because sometimes prayer doesn't seem like enough,
Right?
And this teaching,
Tonglen,
Is something that we can do.
It's something that we can share in this time where we've blossomed and we have flowered.
And now we're in this waning gibbous where we're turning into fruit.
So we can actually let go of the dead ends,
The parts of the fruit that are a little rotten,
So to speak,
And make space for new and continued growth.
This is what the moon is doing during this phase.
And this is also something that we can practice as well.
So tonglen was a technique taught by Trongpa Rinpoche to his students,
Like Pema Chodron,
The Tibetan Buddhist nun who I have learned so much from.
So I'm sharing these stages of tonglen with you so we can practice.
We're going to have a longer meditation today,
And it's going to be a meditation that's connected with our breath.
So how tonglen works is typically it's taught in four stages.
So we'll breathe in the fear,
The sadness,
The confusion,
And then we'll breathe out clear light,
Freshness.
And then we breathe in the fear and the sadness for all beings everywhere.
And then we exhale out loving kindness and openness and space.
So it's breathing in the pain that we're feeling in our bodies,
And it's exhaling space for the pain to be there.
And we're inhaling the pain for all beings everywhere who are experiencing this pain right now.
And then exhaling space for them to feel it and to also let it go.
So to try to make this as real as possible,
Sit with what's arising,
Sit with what's coming up.
So what this could look like is maybe we want to work with a country who's hurting,
Or a parent who's hurting,
Or a human who is going through cancer treatment,
Or you'd like to send some relief to someone who has lost a loved one suddenly.
Right,
There are all these different scenarios that can come up where we can actually send out tonglen,
T-o-n-g-l-e-n,
For the hurting world,
For those who are hurting.
And we open ourselves,
We broaden our hearts to make space,
Keeping the inhale and the exhale the same length as we're breathing,
As we're working with what's arising.
So again,
We breathe in the texture of thick,
Dark heaviness,
And we breathe that into our heart with this kind of widening of the heart into the darkness.
And then we exhale clear light,
Freshness going out,
Sending it out from our body.
And then we breathe in compassion for this feeling for all beings everywhere who are feeling this kind of distress and sadness and grief.
And then we breathe out loving kindness,
Metta,
Maitri,
Of happiness and contentment or anything that will relieve the suffering.
Let's practice.
Start with your heart in a still and open place where you surrender into the moment,
Relaxing and releasing the mind and listening to the bells as they start and close the meditation today.
Taking some deep breaths,
Centering yourself,
Noticing yourself here and now.
Notice any gripping or any tension that you might feel,
Just allowing for the exhale to soften.
And we'll start tonglen,
Breathing in and breathing out space,
Breathing in compassion for all beings and exhaling loving kindness.
Breathing in the thick,
Dark and exhaling clear light,
Inhaling the darkness for all beings everywhere and exhaling space for this darkness to be turned to light.
Keep going like this,
Following your breath,
Noticing what comes to mind,
Noticing what feels present for you.
Maybe it's chronic pain that you breathe in and then you breathe out space for it to be.
And then you breathe in that pain for all beings everywhere.
And then you exhale a wish of happiness,
Of peace,
Of love.
Maybe you breathe in the suffering of war.
You exhale fresh energy,
Fresh light coming out of all of the pores of your body.
And then you breathe that pain of war in fully for all beings everywhere.
And then you exhale loving compassion,
Metta.
Breathing,
Noticing,
Watching what arises with compassion.
We're practicing moving towards what we typically run away from.
To create more openness,
To create more compassion,
Pruning the parts of us that no longer need to be holding on so tightly.
Perhaps you're experiencing a heartbreak of some sort.
Maybe you'd like to breathe in the heartbreak and exhale freshness,
Space.
And then you breathe in this heartbreak for all beings everywhere,
Compassionately.
And then you exhale contentment and peace for all those experiencing this pain.
Tune into what's arising for you in your life.
Breathing in the troubled feeling.
Exhaling space.
Inhaling this troubled feeling for all beings everywhere.
And exhale loving kindness to them,
Including yourself.
Maybe you stay with the same topic for many,
Many,
Many rounds of breath.
Seeing what happens and what opens and what changes as you breathe and make space.
Can you breathe into your whole body or even into your heart?
Widening the heart to feel the darkness.
And then exhaling clarity.
Sending it out from all of your pores to be felt energetically in the world.
And then breathing this darkness,
This heaviness for all beings everywhere.
And exhaling anything you wish for them.
Anything you wish for yourself in this darkness.
Wellbeing,
Contentment,
Peace.
This is the practice of tonglen.
I will observe silence for the rest of the meditation.
Allowing for what's true for you to arise.
Exhale of loving kindness.
And allowing yourself to release tonglen.
Release the energy that you've pulled in and that you've let go.
And carrying this practice with you in these moments throughout your life,
Where you can say this too is welcome here.
And by our presence,
We can actually transmute the pain,
Transmute the sorrow,
The suffering,
The darkness.
And on the exhale,
Make room for metta.
Loving kindness.
Thank you,
My friend so much.
See you tomorrow.
