Tonglen, originating from Tibetan Buddhism, is a meditation practice that means "giving and taking" or "sending and receiving". It is designed to cultivate the virtues of compassion and altruism within the practitioner.
Here's a basic outline of how the practice goes:
- Develop Sympathy: Start the meditation by visualizing someone you know who is suffering. It could be a loved one, a friend, or even a stranger you've come across. The aim is to develop sympathy for their suffering.
- Inhale Suffering: As you inhale, visualize yourself taking in the pain and suffering of the person you're focusing on. Absorb it, as though removing it from them.
- Transform Suffering: The tricky part of Tonglen is the need to imagine that the suffering you've absorbed transforms within you. Many choose to see it as a dark, heavy cloud that lightens and brightens within them.
- Exhale Relief: As you exhale, imagine you're releasing this now-transformed suffering back as positive energy, success, comfort, happiness, and virtue. It's a feeling of release and positive transformation that you're spreading back into the world.
- Expand Your Focus: As your practice grows, you gradually expand your object of meditation to include not only those who are close to you but all beings who are suffering.
While the concept might seem strange, particularly the idea of inhaling or absorbing suffering, Tonglen is intended to foster a deep sense of interconnectedness with others and engender deep compassion and empathy. It is about opening our hearts to the suffering around us instead of avoiding, and nurturing the desire to alleviate it.