Nonduality
See also Heart Meditation
by Joseph H. Rowe
Tonglen: in Tibetan, it means "give
and take". Basically, you take in unhappiness, and you give
out happiness.
This centuries-old meditatitive practice of compassion for self
and others has a universality which for me is the secret heart
and meeting-place of Buddhism and Christianity. I have been
practicing it for several years, and much more intensely during
the last year. In my life, it has had a profound effect on many
levels --- so much so that I am at a loss for words to describe
it, except to say that it seems to me to invoke the highest order
of magic that there is.
Preliminary background teaching which is the foundation
of the practice:
Your true, authentic being is absolutely pristine, flawless
wisdom-mind, known as "Boddhichitta" to Buddhists and
as the "Holy Spirit" to Christians. It is your eternal,
ever-present Source, beyond the grasp of the personal mind, yet
intimately informing it. Like the Sun, however hidden it may be
by dense clouds of thought and emotion and sensation in your
personal skies, it is always There, shining brilliantly and
effortlessly. In the following exercises, it is referred to as
your True Nature.
The Practice of Tonglen:
(1st phase: environmental Tonglen)
Sit or recline in a comfortable position. Let your awareness come
to your breath. Gently focus on your breathing for several
minutes, just observing the inbreath and outbreath like the tide.
Now, note the feeling-tone of your environment, both physical and
psychic. Note the negativity that is there. The pain, the fear,
or the anger --- the suffering. This suffering may be very
subtle, disguised by thoughts and habits, or it may be
flagrantly, painfully present. Don't judge this negativity, just
allow it to be felt and observed in all its aspects. Now, with
each inbreath, breathe in this negativity. Let it be breathed
like a polluted cloud into your deepest core: your True Nature.
Then let the outbreath, which emanates from this True Nature,
send out pure, luminous calm, happiness, wisdom, and well-being
back into this troubled environment. Breathe in suffering and
negativity; breathe out calm and luminous well-being. When you
breathe in the negativity, it passes through your personal being
on the way to the core, and its effect is to cleanse and purge
your sense of being a separate, isolated, ego-being identified
with a specific body. It cannot hurt this body (on the contrary,
it often has cleansing effects on it), it only attacks and
gently, subtly corrodes and starts to break up the stubborn sense
of selfish separateness which is so deeply-rooted in us. Continue
this until you feel a very distinct change in the environment.
[Commentary: this, like the subsequent phases, may at first
startle or even dismay you. Most breathing/visualization
exercises have you breathe in clean, fresh energy and breathe out
stale, negative energy. There's nothing wrong with those
exercises, and they have their place. But this one is exactly the
opposite in form, and works on a much deeper level. Have faith in
the praises of this beneficial exercise by scores of generations
of great practitioners. After some time in this practice, you
will begin to notice what many call the "ambrosia
effect" of the outbreath. Strangely, the outbreath seems
more nourishing than the inbreath at a deep and subtle level.
Some people experience it as suffused with a golden light, or a
white light. This outbreath is the key to healing through
Tonglen. In this phase, you are _allowing_ the outbreath from
your True Nature to pervade and heal the negativity in your inner
and outer environment. You don't have to "accomplish"
this. Just allow the luminous outbreath to do its gentle work.]
(2nd phase: self Tonglen)
Now, imagine yourself as dual: self A and self B. Self A is your
ordinary, familiar, worrying, fantasizing, suffering, confused
self, both body and mind. Self B is your true Self, which is at
one with your True Nature. Let Self B breathe in all of Self A's
personal negative emotions and confusion, and/or painful or
distressed regions of the body, physical sensations, etc.; and
then breathe out calm, well-being, happiness, and wordless
wisdom. Continue this until you feel a very distinct change in
your body/mind.
(3rd phase: Tonglen for others)
Now, think of someone you know who is in physical or mental
distress.
Feel their distress as a black, oily, noxious cloud of negativity
and pain.
Breathe this cloud of suffering deeply into your True Nature, and
breathe back out to them all of your happiness, calm, wordless
wisdom, and love. Again, this noxious cloud of suffering cannot
harm you, it can only attack your deep-rooted sense of
separateness, and the blockages and delusions which arise from
that sense of separateness. In my own case, I have even felt that
it was helping to clear up my clogged arteries, like a kind of
radical cleansing agent. Breathe in your friend's suffering, and
breathe out your profoundest happiness, which emanates from your
True Nature. Continue this until you have a vivid sense of your
friend receiving this love, and a vast calm and well-being in
your "local" bodymind system.
(Ultimate phase: limitless Tonglen)
(optional for advanced practice only)
Now, if you feel so inclined, allow your friend's suffering
(which is not separate from your own) to expand its borders, and
include other beings' suffering. It could start with those close
to them, but it doesn't have to stop there. The sky is the limit:
ultimately it could include a whole community, the whole planet
Earth, or even all beings everywhere.
Breathe in the suffering and pain, breathe out happiness and the
peace that passeth understanding.
[Overall commentary: phases 1 and 2 often come
together as one exercise for me, but sometimes they are very
distinct. I rarely if ever reach the ultimate phase! Often it's
all I can do just to reach some sense of completion with phases 1
and/or 2. As for the visualization aspect: some people are much
more visual than others, and see golden or white streams of
light-energy streaming out to specific places in their own or
another's body; but I am usually not this visual, and naturally
stay with feeling-tones of peace, healing, etc. Each person finds
their own way of doing this. Also, Tonglen is not really that
different from prayer. In fact, you may want to think of it as a
kind of prayer which uses breathing. The most important key
feeling to keep in mind is that of the outbreath. If your mind
wanders (as it surely will!), just gently bring it back to the
practice. Even if you completely forget the practice in a long
fantasy or train of thought, just gently come back to it, and
never indulge in self-aggressive criticisms for having
"blown it". ]