The Tonglen meditation
The Tonglen meditation is a meditation that allows us become more intimate with the raw energy of our 'negative emotions' and to transform the way we relate to them.
* Sit on a chair or cross-legged (as you wish) and focus on your true nature. It could take the form of the collective wisdom, compassion or your higher being.
* Think now of an emotion that is difficult and makes you uneasy. It could be fear, anger, hatred, worry, sadness, etc. Let yourself go to the deepest uncomfort and suffering. You might feel an automatic resistance reaction that wants to push away the emotion or you might want to do something in order not to feel it. Take note of what is happening and breath in the uncomfortable feeling, knowing that millions of other people feel the same way.
* While your are focusing on this emotion, become aware of the suffering it has brought in you. Take mentally note of the stress and the worry felt in you because of this fear (or other emotion). Maybe your sleep has been disturbed or you have been irritable. Now, try to feel some tenderness or kindness towards this part in you that is afraid.
* Breathe in the negative emotion as if it was a grey cloud or dark smoke. Breath it in through all the pores of your skin.
* Breathe out white, fresh and cooling light, a light that has the quality of inspiration, of vast spaces, of loving joy and of letting-go. Direct this light to the part of you that suffers. Exhale through all the pores of your skin.
* If throughts get in the way, take note of them without getting involved in them and transform them in dark smoke.
* Notice if your breathing is longer on the inhalation or on the exhalation. Is it easier for you to give or to receive?
* While you go on breathing, give and take as long as you feel comfortable. When this meditation becomes deeper, you will become more and more intimate with your emotions. And you will feel more at ease and trusting.
Thanks to Tonglen, we become friends with our negative emotions and are able not to escape when they surface. By getting closer to our fears, we open our heart to ourselves and compassion happens not only towards us but towards the others. also. Maybe such or such fear will disappear, or we will feel more at ease with them. Fear then will have less paralysing power on us. Tonglen helps us to relax and to prepare ourselves to life challenges.