Tonglen for Specific People
Begin the Tonglen by sitting quietly and bringing your mind home through the practice of shinay (silent) meditation. Meditate deeply on the suffering that all beings experience, and allow their suffering to open your heart and awaken your compassion.
Visualize that sitting in front of you is someone whom you know to be suffering. Open yourself to their suffering, allowing yourself to feel connected with him or her and aware of all of their difficulties. Feel rising in you a strong compassionate intention to release the person from their suffering and even its causes.
Breathe in the other person's suffering, in the form of a dark cloud, and visualize it coming into your heart center, where it dissolves any final traces of self-grasping, thus fully revealing the heart of your enlightened mind, your bodhicitta. As you breathe out, consider that you are sending to the other person, in the form of brilliant light, all your healing love, warmth, energy, confidence and joy.
Continue this "giving and receiving" with each breath for as long as you wish. If you like, you can even imagine your bodhicitta has transformed your heart or your whole body into a brilliant wish-fulfilling jewel that is able to fulfill any special needs or desires of the person for whom you are practicing. At the end of the practice, consider that your compassion has completely dissolved all the person's suffering and even its causes, filling him or her with well-being, peace, happiness and love.
Tonglen for Groups of People
As your Tonglen practice becomes stronger and more confident, you can gradually imagine others who are suffering in front of you--co-workers, patients, relatives or even strangers--and practice taking in and transforming their suffering, extending to them all of your happiness, clarity, understanding, forgiveness and love. While doing the Tonglen, as the light of your bodhicitta touches and fills those for whom you are practicing, feel a firm conviction that all of their suffering and traces of negativity have been purified. Knowing this practice can bring such benefit, you feel a sense of joy that you have been able to successfully free others from their suffering or pain.
Begin the Tonglen by sitting quietly and bringing your mind home through the practice of shinay (silent) meditation. Meditate deeply on the suffering that all beings experience, and allow their suffering to open your heart and awaken your compassion.
Visualize that sitting in front of you is a being or beings suffeing in the wake of hurricane Katrina whom you know to be suffering. Try and imagine every aspect of the person's pain and distress. Then, as you feel your heart opening in compassion toward the person, imagine that all of his or her sufferings manifest together and gather into a great mass of hot, black, grimy smoke.
Breathe in the other person's suffering, in the form of this dark cloud, and visualize it coming into your heart center. In the heart center the black smoke dissolves any final traces of your own self-centered grasping. It is very important that you fully dissolve the black smoke
thus fully revealing the heart of your enlightened mind, your compassion, your boddhicitta. As you breathe out, consider that you are sending to the other person, in the form of brilliant light, all your healing love, warmth, energy, confidence and joy.
Continue this "giving and receiving" with each breath for as long as you wish. If you like, you can even imagine your bodhicitta has transformed your heart or your whole body into a brilliant wish-fulfilling jewel that is able to fulfill any special needs or desires of the person for whom you are practicing.
As you conclude each session of Tonglen, dedicate its positive and healing power to those you had visualized and pray that the merit of your practice of compassion may benefit all other beings, who are as limitless as space.
As you conclude each session of Tonglen, dedicate its positive and healing power to those you had visualized and pray that the merit of your practice of compassion may benefit all other beings, who are as limitless as space.