Tonglen

This week we’ll talk about and practice tonglen again. It is a practice that bears talking about more than once or twice and that requires a great deal of practice to develop some skill. In his book Buddha Is As Buddha Does, Lama Surya Das teaches the practice in the first chapter on the Paramita of Generosity. Certainly this is a practice of great generosity of spirit and develops fearlessness in all of us as we open ourselves in compassion first to ourselves and then eventually to all beings. Lama Surya Das teaches tonglen in this way (Pgs 49-51):

“Tonglen bids us to confront (or take in) all the suffering that exists in the world and then, to counteract that suffering, give away (or send out) our own joy and happiness. We do this with our whole heart, to the rhythm of our breath. Breathing in, we imagine siphoning up the world’s suffering into our own being, where it’s dissipated. Breathing out, we envision discharging our own positive energy as a replacement for that suffering.

“Tonglen is not a practice to be taken lightly, as if it were an empty litany. One of the most powerful practices I know, it demands a great deal of fearlessness, concentration, insight, and honesty. I admit that I was originally quite intimidated by it. What am I risking, I’d wonder, by volunteering to suck up every bit of trouble, illness, and negativity that’s out there? I was conscious of how little we really know about the interconnections of mind, body, spirit, and energy, and I’d think, What if I’m somehow asking to get a horrible disease? What if I’m polluting myself with all this negative energy coming in? Engaging in tonglen was definitely a leap of faith for me, but one that proved immensely rewarding. For each ounce of courage I put into it, I gained a pound of fearlessness as a result.

“Here’s how I recommend practicing tonglen:

1. Breathe and visualize in harmony. Relax and focus your mind, centering yourself in the present moment. Then, just for a few seconds, flash on absolute Bodhicitta as you understand it – the natural state of uncontrived awareness, empty yet lucid.

Then start following your breath…visualize that you are vacuuming up dark smog that represents pure suffering. Hold your breath for just a brief moment, letting the smog dissolve completely in the perfect groundless and boundless emptiness of your vast open mind. Then as you breathe out, visualize that you are sending forth sunlight and fresh spring breezes that represent all the pure joy, love and truth you have inside you.

2. Be generous to yourself. Imagine yourself as having two parts. One part consists of all your suffering . The other part consist of all your joy and love. As you breathe in, visualizing smog, silently resolve, pray and affirm, “May all the suffering in one part of me be absorbed into the empty and essential nature of my joyful, wise, and loving part.” As you exhale, visualizing sunlight and spring breezes, silently resolve, pray, and affirm, “May the suffering part of me have all the joy and love in the other part of me.”

3. In widening concentric circles, expand you generosity beyond yourself to all sentient beings. As you inhale, visualizing smog being sucked through your nostrils, silently resolve, pray, and affirm, “May all the suffering of my family members, friends, and all beings be absorbed into the empty nature of my innate Buddha-mind.” As you exhale, visualizing sunlight and spring breezes, silently resolve, pray, and affirm, “May my family members, friends, and all beings have all my joy, peace, wisdom, and love.”

4. Gradually relax all the guided imagery. Let it dissolve back into the empty luminously clear, skylike nature of innate Buddha-mind, where it all began and arose from. Rest in the uncontrived presence of pristine awareness itself, in the inseparable union of oneness and noneness, at home and at ease in that, savoring the sacred afterglow.”

“May your blessed acts of charity and self-giving make the world a better place for all of us!”