Tonglen Meditation: Transforming Suffering With Compassion

So what I want to do for this session is a Tonglen meditation which is a compassion visualization from the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and I'll do it as I learned it from Michael Taft who is my meditation teacher and I do want to include a kind of trigger warning for people with a maybe higher sensitivity or maybe some trauma that is not healed quite yet.

So in this meditation you will be asked to vividly imagine deep suffering.

So the point is not to actually suffer but to imagine people suffering.

That's part of the visualization.

So if that is not for you today,

Then please err on the side of caution and opt out.

And again,

With that said,

The instruction is to imagine the Buddha nature in your heart to do the transformation of suffering,

Not your ego self.

So if it goes well,

You're not suffering at all.

It's actually quite beautiful.

But I just want to give you that extra consideration to check with yourself right now.

Do I want that?

Do I feel safe with that?

And you're free to not participate.

So with that in place,

I invite you to again take your position and make sure you you really check in with yourself,

Not just sort of on autopilot go into the position,

But make it a mindful kind of subtle adjustment.

How are your shoulders?

How is your neck?

How are your hands and feet?

How are your legs?

Just check that you're sort of there with your body in the present moment.

And you can do this with your eyes open or closed.

And just take a moment to sort of default into doing nothing.

And make a connection with your breathing,

Meaning feel where you can feel the body sensations of your breath moving in and out of your body.

And allow yourself also to enjoy that.

Enjoy this moment of silence,

Hopefully silent for you.

Maybe you can connect with some gratitude for being able to meditate right now and having this moment.

And the next two or three exhalations allow yourself to relax your face more,

Your shoulders down,

Really sort of sink in for the practice ahead.

And again the idea for this practice,

So first off it's a visualization.

It's not necessary at all to be really good at it or have like a very high definition video.

It's more important that you feel the instruction.

And secondly,

This is supposed to be quite easy.

So if you're noticing yourself suffering or straining then take your foot off the pedal and just chill a bit,

Relax.

There's of course an instruction but don't think too hard about doing it right.

So with that in mind,

With a relaxed body,

Relaxed face,

I want you to visualize a brightly shining sun about where your heart is.

And don't try to make it happen but more like allow the sun to appear in your mind's eye.

You can imagine a bright yellow,

Orange or red radiating sun that is warm.

You can maybe even feel or imagine the warmth of that sun shining in your chest.

And if you want to have a size,

It can be the size of a grapefruit.

Just allow that image and that kind of sense of the sun to appear in your heart area.

Now this sun is shining in all directions.

Beautiful radiant sunlight and it's in your heart center but it's not kind of your personal heart.

I want you to see this more as the deeper heart,

The heart of buddha nature which is shining bright with complete clarity and cosmic compassion.

So you're with that heart but you're not owning that heart.

And just a reminder to make it effortless.

Don't make it but just allow the sun to be there in your heart.

If you're having difficulty to imagine anything,

You can sort of trick yourself and you can say well what if I could see it?

What would it look like?

And sometimes that does the trick and there is some visualization and again don't train too much on it.

You can also just feel the sun feel the energy of love and clarity and compassion and stillness and wisdom.

So that sun is just there for the rest of the meditation and the idea is that in stages we're going to be inhaling and exhaling and then we're going to be in stages we're going to be inhaling the suffering of other beings and you can imagine that suffering is kind of a black smoke and when you exhale you're exhaling bright white golden beautiful light and the more you make the suffering kind of clear you know maybe so we'll begin first with somebody you know so maybe it's a loved one or a sibling or somebody you can just choose and just feel into what you imagine their suffering might be maybe somebody is sick or has trauma or is going through something rough and really notice all the qualities and details of that suffering and then you imagine that as a black smoke that you inhale and then the sun in your heart the essence of buddha nature has no problem at all it's super easy for that buddha heart to completely in a split second transform all of that and completely evaporate all the suffering so that's what you do on the inhalation and then when you exhale all of that suffering has been transformed into bliss and love and happiness and gratitude and enjoyment and stillness so that's the practice inhaling the black smoke exhaling pure white light and having a sense of ease because your health you're completely supported by this buddha heart in your chest okay so first just take a moment to choose somebody in your direct life again might be a partner or maybe a parent a sibling somebody who it's relatively easy for to kind of love and see their struggle and when you have that person in mind you can sort of imagine them in front of you and then just absorb all that black smoke of the suffering allow the heart the buddha heart the sun to completely evaporate all of it without any trace as you inhale and then exhaling pure bliss love light and don't hold back at all this buddha heart can take everything everything so do that now for a few moments with this person in your life and again if you're noticing you're really starting to suffer or strain take a step back and take it easy inhaling the black smoke of suffering and understanding the details of that maybe somebody's going through a divorce or has a difficult illness and really take in that you know maybe it's shame maybe it's hate maybe it's guilt maybe it's anger deep wounding depression really allow that sun the buddha in your heart to absorb it and completely transform it the more details you can kind of make it the better it will work and make the light enjoy that enjoy that beauty of just complete and utter bliss and gratitude and wholeness and health and and rapture all the time remembering that it's very easy it's no effort at all for that sun in your heart to do this work keep your face completely relaxed keep your body completely relaxed as you do this and you can take a break if you want to that's totally fine and if you can keep going keep going trust that heart allow it to absorb and transform everything and radiate out everything this is a very powerful practice i have quite some fear of flying and when i did this through some turbulence above the atlantic ocean i was very calm so it really works so keep going and feel also during the inhalation and an exhalation the full confidence and the complete equanimity of the buddha nature in your heart let that be reflected in your relaxation and your face okay and then exhale and let that be reflected in your relaxation and your face after your next exhalation keep the sun there but just take a break from the from the giving and receiving tonglen means giving and receiving so just take a break keeping the sun effortlessly shining and just sit for a moment in stillness and notice that that sun in your heart has not changed at all completely unaffected by this work so it could be that for you this is a beautiful place to be and you want to be here for the rest of the practice that is that is beautiful i i hope you do that if you want to and if you like to turn it up a notch then the next round you can do is to do the same but do it for everybody who is now meditating you can sort of imagine that smoke coming from all directions that you kind of feel those people are don't think too much about it and then do the same you can just breathe in all the black smoke and it's not going in your lungs right it's going into that enormously blazing hot beautiful buddha nature sun in your chest and then imagine all the suffering people have you know uh torn relationships difficulties at work um doubt about one's goodness mistakes we all make um worse than that you know just really you can amp it up as much as you feel comfortable and knowing that yeah there's just nothing that the sun in your heart cannot take it can take everything and make it as detailed as you want you know the more you can take that in it will all be transformed by that sun and it will radiate out all the stronger with with kindness and peace and equanimity and love and understanding all the beautiful things in the world like true compassion true warmth for other beings radiate that out to them give it all don't keep anything for yourself that's another part don't keep anything for yourself the buddha heart in your chest is completely selfless so take it all in don't hold back and give it all away don't hold back everybody who was meditating right now all the while being completely calm completely relaxed this sun in your heart loves this work transforming suffering into bliss and understanding transforming suffering into bliss and understanding so do that now for a few moments with everybody who is now meditating if you need a break take a break that's totally fine and if you're in it then go for it allow yourself to completely go for it enjoy doing this transformative work or enjoy witnessing buddha nature the sun in your heart to do this beautiful work with ease if you can keep going keep going not holding back trusting the sun now maybe you want to stay here in this level or maybe you want to go one level back or maybe you want to drop entirely the visualization and you just want to sit and meditate so choose what you want i'm going to invite you to do another layer of increasing compassion and that is to include every single being on the planet including animals insects all beings that live on this planet so you can think about animals in industrial farms you can think about everybody in hospitals everybody in war zones as far as you're willing take on or rather let the heart in your chest take on all the suffering let all those beings taste the transformation of their suffering into bliss so breathing in the black smoke from all the planet and this is still completely easy for the sun in your heart buddha nature is just impervious to crumbling so trust that and breathe it all in from all directions and it doesn't even take a millisecond for everything that you breathe in that black smoke to be completely annihilated evaporated and utterly transformed into just this radiating bliss that you exhale the light of of knowing the light of divinity the light of playfulness of joy of laughter kindness and notice that you don't actually have to suffer yourself while this all this black smoke is being transformed by the heart in your chest there's pure equanimity in that sun so keep going don't hold back anything take in all the suffering and give you give away all the bliss everything the sun in your chest is not even breaking a sweat it's doing exactly what is meant to do imagine the relief from all those beings as you exhale imagine the relief imagine that sigh of relief that all those beings will sigh when their suffering is seen taken transformed into bliss that's what you're doing it for now you may have thought that this was the final level but there's one more level so maybe again check with yourself if you want to stay here go one level down two levels down or drop it all together do it only if you want to and if you want to if you want to imagine the full reach of the buddha nature compassion of that sun shining in your heart this eternal sun then take in the suffering of all beings in all realms so imagine even aliens ghosts hell realms spirits future beings past beings anything you can imagine beings from the past past beings anything you can imagine beings from the entire multiverse in all times and all possible multiverses right so go completely all out and just being completely calm just breathe in all of that suffering all that black smoke and imagine it don't just make it i'm breathing in black smoke but this black smoke has really this disease and agony and terror and trauma you know and not you're not the one suffering but you're seeing all of that suffering clearly taking it in completely into that burning bright sun this furnace of buddha love buddha nature and then as easy as the previous steps it just blazes out with completely transformed love compassion bliss understanding wisdom happiness joy to all of those outreaches of the entire multiverse and notice how you're staying completely calm completely relaxed face while all of this is happening it's just completely effortless for buddha nature so do this now for a few more moments so we're doing this now for the last couple of minutes so go all out hold nothing back take everything in not you but the buddha heart in your chest everything everything imagine it clearly and then the beautiful light that comes out so strong and then wherever you are i invite you to slowly find an end keep the sun there only the sun but stop your tonglen after the next exhalation but complete it completely and just then sit with that silent sun in your chest feel it it notice that your body was utterly unaffected by this the sun in your chest is utterly unaffected by this practice but all those beings have been touched and then you can if you want to thank that visualization and just allow it to slowly evaporate and just sit with no visualization at all for a little moment here normal breathing relaxed face notice the effect this practice has on your state of mind and then i invite you to at your own time come out of the meditation thank you