Tonglen meditation

On my way to Tokyo for my last business trip, I try Tonglen meditation for the first time (as described in Pema Chodron's book When Things Fall Apart, P. 93-97, a highly recommended reading by the way) and have a smashing experience, another deluge of clarity and bliss (buckets of joy and rivers of insights).

Here is how Tonglen goes: with each breath in, you mentally take in one of the sufferings of the world that you know about (a pain you or a loved one has, or one of the world’s sufferings), and, with each breath out, you breathe out joy, comfort, light, etc (whatever can alleviate the suffering). You go on and on like this, "vacuuming" the world of all sufferings!

I got entranced, in a state of deep concentration, "vacuuming" like this for almost an hour (there is so much suffering to breathe in!). My heart was getting bigger and bigger, I was feeling totally purified. It also brought me a river of insights on how I can indeed be of service to the world and alleviate its sufferings. I filled pages and pages of notes in my journal, it was incredible. I’ll do it again…