Tonglen Meditation: Taking Away Sorrow and Giving Out Joy

Bring to mind all the different living things there are. Open yourself to all of them, touched by a sense of caring and kindness, as lovingly as a mother would feel for her only child. When we are aware of the great pain and anguish of all living things and we long for their sorrows to end, this is called compassion. We can understand what this feeling is when we touch our own pain; that pain that we feel is the same as the pain of others. This is where we begin this meditation.

Now see all the Awakened Ones as here with you: the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Shravakas. Multitudes of Enlightened Beings surrounded by their retinues fill the space before you. Welcome them to this place.

Remember the joy that you have felt, the joy that you feel, the joy that you will feel. Know that there are causes for happiness, and those causes are what bring the good feelings we know so well. Let that positive energy take the form of light, white light. As you exhale, this light leaves you through your right nostril and joins the Light of Awakening that streams out of the Buddhas and Enlightened Ones. This then reaches out to touch the whole of existence, every being. When they are filled by the light, all living beings experience immense bliss. The grace of the Awakened Ones, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, blesses their being.

Now reflect on all the sorrow that living beings have. Let this pain take on the form of light, black light. As you inhale, feel that this light enters you through your left nostril. The black light travels to your heart chakra, where sits a tiny sphere of black light. This sphere, or bindu, represents our self fixation, the very root of ego's clutching to it's own existence.

When the black light of all beings' sorrow penetrates the bindu of black light that is our ego attachment, the two destroy each other, they are utterly eradicated. Every trace of self obsession is annihilated. We find ourselves meeting the truth of emptiness, shunyata, whose essence is like a rainbow shining in the sky. Rest in meditation in this place. Repeat this process over and over.

Once you have done this a number of times and are coming to a close, with your thoughts, gather together all the good you have ever done, all the good that you have now done, and all the good you may ever do. Join this with all the positivity of all beings throughout time. Feel that you are dedicating all these actions together as a powerful cause for the awakening of every single being.

The changes that come from meditating altruistically like this are beyond what we could ever imagine. The meditation of Tonglen is capable of healing all our sickness and physical ailments, of ending our vices and clearing away whatever interferes with our life. Our life grows longer; Our positive potential and store of positive energy increases, as well as our inner reserve of knowing wisdom. We see the fulfillment of our intentions and aspirations. In a day to day way, the results are dramatic. And in the ultimate sense, we have future deepening of realization and spiritual experience, leading us to states of awakening. Out of these states we become truly capable of achieving the good of others.