Gentle Heart-Opening Tonglen Meditation

Welcome.

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So thank you.

So this morning we are going to be practicing a Tonglen meditation.

So I take my guidance on Tonglen from Pema Chodron and I've been practicing Tonglen for,

I don't know,

Maybe 10 years.

But just recently I've really noticed this shift,

This shift in me,

And I wonder,

I'm curious if you guys have noticed it too,

Where it feels like I don't need the instruction manual,

I just go with the feeling.

And it's a different kind of practice and I'm loving it so much.

So I really hope that you guys are too.

And I think the difference is by starting and going into my heart space more,

I'm more focused on that feeling than I am on the right.

Now in the process I have to give and I receive and I give and I receive.

So it's less about the technical side of it and more about the body experience of going into the heart and then very gently,

Not forcefully,

I've always done it quite forcefully,

But very gently just offering it up and then receiving it.

And then I'm just going to give it up.

So there's something in that that I hope to share with you.

And in fact,

I picked up Start Where You Are,

The book that's by Pema Chodron that really guides you through the practice.

And you know how always the perfect page opens.

I'd like to share with you what I read.

It's very important to recognize absolute bodhicitta.

So bodhicitta is an open heart.

In order to do tonglen,

We first establish the ground of absolute bodhicitta because it's important that when you breathe in and connect with the vividness and reality of pain,

There's also some space.

There's that vast,

Tender,

Empty heart of bodhicitta,

Your awakened heart.

Right in the pain,

There's a lot of room,

A lot of openness.

You begin to touch in on that space when you relate directly to the messy stuff.

Because by relating directly with the messy stuff,

You are completely undoing the way ego holds itself together.

We shield our heart with an armor woven out of very old habits by pushing away pain and grasping at pleasure.

When we begin to breathe in the pain instead of pushing it away,

We begin to open our hearts to what's unwanted.

When we relate directly in this way to the unwanted areas of our lives,

The airless room of ego begins to be ventilated.

In the same way,

When we open up our clenched hearts and let the good things in,

Radiate them out and share them with others,

That's also completely reversing the logic of ego,

Which is to say,

Reversing the logic of suffering.

Lojong logic is the logic that transcends the messy and unmessy,

Transcends pain and pleasure.

Lojong logic begins to open up the space and it begins to ventilate this whole cocoon that we find ourselves in.

Whether you're breathing in or breathing out,

You are opening the heart,

Which is awakening bodhichitta.

So perfectly,

I found the perfect page for explaining the difference that I'm feeling.

I really wanted to share that with you and invite you to explore that or to acknowledge it if it's something you're already feeling.

Let's begin our practice by coming to sitting comfortably or lying down.

And acknowledging the weight of the pelvis,

How it sits in relationship with whatever foundation it is you are sitting on or lying on.

And let's begin our practice by coming to sitting comfortably or lying down.

Let's begin our practice by coming to sitting comfortably or lying down.

And we're breathing through the nose,

If that's available.

You might naturally find a jay breath creeps in,

If that's something that you work within some of your practices.

With or without your jay breath,

You might start to notice the sound of your breathing.

So you might notice the sound in the space around you the sounds of the building itself,

Perhaps neighbours or the street outside,

Perhaps birds.

And then bringing your sense of listening closer and focusing in on the sounds of your body.

Your eyelids may naturally drop or perhaps you keep your eyes open and just gaze downwards.

Allow a sensation of softness to drop down through your body,

Shoulders melting away from ears.

Perhaps taking little slow circles with the head and changing directions.

Maybe circling the shoulders very slowly so that you're able to really feel the movement and how your body feels at each step of that circle.

Maybe the elbow is circling.

And if you have space perhaps for arm extensions.

And resting your hands on your knees if you are sitting up and circling your heart.

Big slow present circles.

Changing direction.

And coming to centre and dropping down into the pelvis with your awareness.

Noticing for yourself where your sitting bones are,

How your weight is distributed.

Perhaps you can start to feel a relationship between you,

Your pelvis and the earth beneath us.

Maybe layers of soil or sand on top of layers of rock.

Heating up as you come towards the centre of the earth where there's fire.

And letting the spine come tall from the pelvis.

Connecting to the midline of you,

The primal streak,

The spinal column.

Tucking the chin gently towards the chest so the back of the neck can open.

And coming to the occiput ridge at the back of your head bringing your awareness there.

And drawing,

Gently drawing your inhale to the very centre of your heart.

Very gently letting the exhale dissolve from the centre of your heart out in all directions.

Allowing spaciousness within the heart space.

Inviting bodhicitta,

An open awakened heart.

And from bodhicitta we can start to play with the polarities.

Let's start with breathing in hot and breathing out cold.

Just exploring a felt sense of sensation.

Keeping it playful,

Exploratory,

Curious.

Trying not to get tangled up in am I doing this right.

We can do it with light so breathing in a bright light.

Oh no the other way around sorry breathing in darkness.

And breathing out a bright light.

And we can play with texture so perhaps breathing in rough.

And breathing out smooth.

And some of these polarities will be easier for you to access than others so we're just playing.

And our theme this month is surrender so the polarity around that that we're going to use is control.

For me control feels quite steely and cold and hard where surrender feels soft and billowy and warm and open.

Maybe take a moment to explore for yourself what does breathing in a sense of controlled mean to you.

And what does breathing out a sense of surrender feel like to you.

Keeping the airiness the spaciousness of the heart as you practice.

So so so Then extending the practice to someone to whom you adore someone who is effortless to love.

Find that person and as you breathe in take their sense of control their feeling their experience of control and breathe it into that wide open expanse of your bodhichitta heart.

And as you exhale offer as a gift to them your sense of surrender how it feels to surrender.

This beautiful exchange breathing in their control breathing out your surrender.

So so Then taking the practice to someone whom you feel quite neutral towards.

Perhaps someone who you pass on the street each day or someone you wave at on the school run or in the news agents who you say hello to just anyone that isn't really a close part of your life but you feel kindly towards neutral.

And explore breathing in their experience of control.

Taking it into that open heart of yours and offering up a gift of your sense of surrender.

So so so so And then an opportunity to explore bringing the practice to someone who you find a challenge.

The most deeply activating irritating person.

And out of curiosity can we play with Tonglen.

Breathing in their sense and experience of control.

Taking it into your open heart and exhaling your experience of surrender as a gift.

So so It can take quite some courage to practice Tonglen.

Let's explore extending and expanding the practice out to all beings.

So whilst all beings on the planet have very different circumstance.

The feeling scape the palette of experience is the same.

The breathing in a global sense of control.

And breathing out a gift of surrender.

So so so And then releasing the practice.

Taking your breath into your heart.

As you allow a moment to notice how that feels.

So bringing hands to heart.

Dropping forehead to fingertips.

Offering the fruits of our practice to all beings always.

Namaste.