Welcome to your Tonglen practice.
In this practice we will address our internal and external experience of suffering.
Beginning with yourself and scanning your body for any areas in which you might be holding the energy of suffering.
Take a moment simply to observe this area.
Observe the color and the quality of movement of this energy.
And then when you're ready we're going to engage in a four-part breath.
Inhaling this energy in through the nose,
Exhaling it through the nose down into your heart.
Imagining that the heart flame is consuming this energy and transmuting it into healing.
Inhaling this healing light up through your nose and blowing it out through your mouth onto the area that you originally received it from.
We'll do this three times and then pause.
Ready?
And inhale.
Exhale.
Hold the energy in your heart.
Allow your heart to transmute it.
Inhale it back up as healing and exhale it onto your body.
Two more times.
Once more.
And take a pause.
Take a moment and visualize a circle in front of you.
Make the circle any color you prefer.
And inside the circle welcome anyone in particular or you can make the call out to all those you are connected to through your heart for anyone who is experiencing suffering right now to walk into this circle to receive healing.
Stay with your breath as this process continues welcoming all those who need healing into the circle.
When the trickle has ended we will do this four-part breath again three times on behalf of all those in the circle.
So ask them to lift their suffering up.
Envision they're all holding their suffering in their hands,
Perhaps different colors,
Perhaps one unified color as suffering.
And we're going to again breathe that in through our nose down to the heart for transmutation back up through our nose and out through our mouths breathing relief and healing back onto them.
We'll do this three times beginning now.
And one last time staying focused and thank each individual who walked into that circle and allow them to go back out into their lives and into the part of your heart web in which they reside.
Allowing that circle to dissolve into the earth.
And now finally if you have more time and more energy you can bring your awareness to a place on the earth that is suffering.
The land,
The animals,
The people,
Plants,
Anywhere that your heart takes you.
Scan the earth and find where the earth is asking for your healing attention today.
And once you have found the place that you would like to heal,
Draw a circle in your mind around that space.
Bring your focus there and allow yourself to inhale that suffering as a color seeping it out of the land and the creatures transmuting it in your heart and breathing it back out as relief and healing.
Now as you do this practice your heart will get bigger.
That is one of the intentions of this practice.
Your heart flame as it consumes the suffering actually grows.
It does not diminish.
And your heart opens more and more as you turn towards the suffering.
Focusing your attention now onto that place of earth.
Holding your hands and your heart open around that circle that you have drawn.
And when you're ready you can begin.
Again.
One last time.
And release.
Holding your hands cupped in front of your mouth you're going to blow through your hands and release the service on the earth and on the people that you have done this breath on behalf of.
Blowing through your hands three times.
One more.
And allow that energy to go coming back to yourself.
Do this breath one more time for your own body.
Gathering up all the suffering in your body and doing this transmutation breath on your own behalf.
One more time.
Excellent.
Now you may stretch and release.
Open your eyes and come back to your body and to this moment in time.
