Meditation · Compassion
Tonglen — Sending and Receiving
Breathe in suffering, breathe out relief — reverse the reflex
Pema Chödrön's Tibetan practice: breathe in suffering (your own or another's), breathe out relief. Reverses the usual self-protective instinct — and softens the boundary between you and the person suffering.
Four stages
- 1. Flash on openness — one breath of spaciousness
- 2. Work with the texture — hot/dark/heavy in; cool/light/spacious out
- 3. Bring in the specific person or situation
- 4. Extend to everyone in that same suffering
Who / what I practiced with
What happened in the body during the in-breath
The reverse of self-protection
Tonglen retrains the reflex that wants to shrink from pain. You breathe it in — knowing you can hold more than you thought.