FabSwingers.com forum: Tonglen Meditation Practice

By *ettaMan OP Man
over a year ago

Kerry and Dublin

Just thought I'd share this in case it might be of interest/benefit to anyone on here. It's a meditation practice for transforming our experience of suffering. It can be used for any form of suffering from depression to perhaps the feeling of frustration that you sometimes get on Fab....so I believe. I mean, that never happens to me

Anyway, when we are in a state of suffering we can often have a feeling of hopelessness or helplessness. Sometimes it might feel like our suffering will never end. All we want more is for it to go away.

It might seem counter-intuitive but in Tonglen practice we imagine all the other people in the world who might be enduring similar suffering and we picture it as a black smoke/liquid in each person. We then imagine breathing in all that suffering, the black smoke/liquid with our in breath. We imagine the suffering being sucked out of everyone else in the world and filling us up through our nostrils.

With the out-breath then we imagine breathing out our white light/liquid and sending it out to everyone in the world who was suffering from something similar to us. We imagine them, as vividly as we can, being relieved of their suffering and their situation changing.

We continue to do this for as many cycles of breath as feels comfortable.

You can try it with any negative emotion.

Steps:

1) Bring attention to your breath

2) Let the breath settle into a

natural rhythm

2) Become aware of the negative

emotion.

3) Imagine others who are suffering

from the same thing.

4) Imagine the suffering as a black

cloud or liquid.

5) On the in-breath breathe in that

suffering and imagine it filling

you up.

6) Imagine it being transformed

inside by a brilliant white light,

from a thick black cloud to a pure

white cloud.

7) On the out-breath, imagine

breathing out the pristine white

cloud to everyone in the word who

was suffering like you were.

8) Imagine them being filled with the

white cloud, their situation being

resolved and their suffering being

relieved.

Repeat steps 1-8 for as long as is comfortable.

white cloud

cloud to a brilliant white

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By *iquidRavenMan
over a year ago

Dublin

Nice one Metta ill defo try it out and I wasn't even aware that this was an actual practice as I sometimes do a similar thing imagining I'm sucking/pulling (no fab imagery) this blackness from my inner self and exhaling it out

Would do it when holding my breath during Wim Hof breathing

Currently doing meditation with the Waking Up app. Very good. Though I'd say I'm defo a meditation noob

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By *ettaMan OP Man
over a year ago

Kerry and Dublin

" I sometimes do a similar thing imagining I'm sucking/pulling (no fab imagery) this blackness from my inner self and exhaling it out"

Oh cool, that sounds very similar.

Would do it when holding my breath during Wim Hof breathing "

I must get into the Wim Hoff breathing. I've done the breath retention a few times but not consistently.

Currently doing meditation with the Waking Up app. Very good. Though I'd say I'm defo a meditation noob"

That's a pretty good app to start with.

Check out the Plum Village app as well. It's all free from what I remember.

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By *iquidRavenMan
over a year ago

Dublin

I'll check it out for sure. The Wim Hof method is brilliant. The breathing paired with the cold exposure. I only did it half assed on and off but I definitely felt noticeably calmer and centered in general

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By *ettaMan OP Man
over a year ago

Kerry and Dublin

"I'll check it out for sure. The Wim Hof method is brilliant. The breathing paired with the cold exposure. I only did it half assed on and off but I definitely felt noticeably calmer and centered in general"

Did you do the breathing during the cold exposure or separately?

You've reminded me to see if there are any workshops in Ireland.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

So many different meditation techniques.

I think (but I might be wrong) is to pick one and practice it daily.

Those last 3 words are the most difficult to do (in my experience).

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By *m_impact_playMan
over a year ago

Dublin

"So many different meditation techniques.

I think (but I might be wrong) is to pick one and practice it daily.

Those last 3 words are the most difficult to do (in my experience). "

"Practice it daily" absolutely the hardest thing to do!

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