About Tonglen

Here at St. John's Center we are trained in the practice of tonglen during session 6 of the Foundations in Meditative Practice course. Tonglen is a Tibetan word that simply means "sending and taking". It is a compassion practice in that we visualize taking suffering off of someone and then sending that person health, healing and wholeness. Here is a passage on tonglen taken from Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das:

As we think, so we become. The tonglen meditation is done with the hope of healing one's attitude and restoring it to wholeness, as well as healing the troubles of the world. It helps train us to be genuinely present with difficult situations, and to bring more enlightened principles into daily life, without excessive reactivity. Through tonglen practice, we can change the entire atmosphere. We can loosen up and dissolve the dualism between light and dark, good and bad, positive and negative, wanted and unwanted circumstances. We take in the bad, and we give away all that is desirable. We do this as an exercise in generosity, transcendence, and nonattachment.

Tonglen helps me in every situation. When I'm feeling really great, it is marvelous to give that feeling away. When I'm feeling terrible, then I instantly feel stronger by being willing to breathe in someone else's difficulty and send that person happiness. No matter how I'm feeling, tonglen makes it better! Be sure to start with yourself first and then do the practice for whatever suffering being has come to your attention. This is a powerful, life changing, life enriching practice. I truly recommend it.