Tonglen

Tonglen (T. gtong len གཏོང་ལེན་). Literally "giving and taking". A type of "mind training" (lojong) practice within Tibetan Buddhism that is considered a special technique for developing bodhicitta.

Thupten Jinpa states:

One of mind training’s most memorable contributions to world spirituality is the practice of tonglen, or “giving and taking.” Tonglen is a seemingly simple meditation practice of giving away one’s own happiness and good fortune to others and taking upon oneself their suffering and misfortune. Traditionally, the meditation is designed to enhance the cultivation of loving-kindness and compassion, two central ideals in Mahayana Buddhism. According to mind training, this practice is combined with our respiration, whereby when we breathe in, we imagine taking from all other beings their pain and misfortune, all their negative traits and behaviors. These are visualized in the form of streams of dark clouds, smoke, or even brackish water, which enter our body. Then, when we exhale, we imagine giving to others all our happiness and good fortune, as well as our virtuous traits and behaviors. These are visualized in the form of white clouds, bright lights, and streams of nectar, which enter the bodies of other beings. The Seven-Point Mind Training presents this practice most succinctly:

Train alternately in giving and taking;

Place the two astride your breath.

Background

The Library of Wisdom and Compassion (Vol 5) states:

The taking-and-giving meditation has its source in the Precious Garland, where Nāgārjuna says (RA 484cd):

May their ill deeds ripen on me

and all my virtues ripen on them.

This meditation is also championed by Śāntideva. Because it is so powerful, in the past it was practiced privately and taught only to advanced disciples who were spiritually prepared. Even the thought of experiencing our own suffering, let alone taking on others’ suffering, is anathema to most people. Similarly, to consider offering our body, hard-earned wealth, and merit to others is antithetical to our ingrained self-centeredness.

It wasn’t until the twelfth century that the spiritual mentor Kadampa Geshe Chekawa (1102–76) dared to publicly teach this meditation. He taught the practice to a group of lepers, who cured themselves of leprosy by doing it. Wanting these teachings to be available to others, he composed the now-classic text The Seven-Point Mind Training. In our time the practice is taught more openly and people find it very helpful.

The taking-and-giving practice helps to further increase our love and compassion and our capacity to exchange self and others. Taking entails generating the compassionate wish “I will take all problems, sufferings, and confusion of other sentient beings on myself so that others may be free from them.” Giving is motivated by love: “I will give my body, possessions, and virtuous qualities and their causes to others so that they may be peaceful and happy.” Through this we generate a very courageous and resolute mind that will make our bodhicitta effective.

Practice instructions

Instructions from The Library of Wisdom and Compassion

The following practice instructions are presented in the The Library of Wisdom and Compassion (Vol 5).

Taking

To practice taking, imagine a specific person or group of people in front of you and contemplate the duḥkha they experience. As compassion arises, think, “I will take on their duḥkha so that they will be free of it.” Imagine their duḥkha leaving them in the form of dark clouds, smoke, or pollution and entering you as you inhale. Think how wonderful these beings feel now that their duḥkha has left them.

Now use what sentient beings don’t want — their suffering and afflictions — and use it to destroy what you don’t want — your self-centered attitude and self-grasping ignorance. At your heart is a dark lump, the embodiment of your own self-centered attitude and self-grasping ignorance. As the clouds, smoke, or pollution enters you, it transforms into lightning that strikes this lump, shattering it so that it no longer exists. Feel the freedom and great spaciousness at your heart now that these two have been forever destroyed.

If it is initially difficult to think of taking on others’ suffering, begin by taking on the suffering you will experience later on in this life as you age, fall ill, or have interpersonal problems. Take on this suffering of your future self voluntarily, and imagine that doing so eliminates your present self-centeredness. Then imagine transforming your present body, possessions, and merit into everything you will need in the future, and give it to your future self, who receives it happily. After you become familiar with this practice, contemplate taking on others’ suffering and its causes and giving them your happiness in the form of whatever will bring them temporal and ultimate bliss.

When you are ready to develop this meditation further, imagine taking the duḥkha of the sentient beings of the three realms. Then take the obstacles to the long life and successful deeds of the spiritual masters, buddhas, and bodhisattvas, as well as the hindrances to the existence and flourishing of the Buddha’s teachings in the world.

After taking these, think that all beings are liberated from their suffering and its causes because you have taken them and think that your self-centeredness and grasping an inherently existent I are destroyed. In other words, you have taken what others don’t want — their duḥkha — and used it to destroy what you don’t want — your self-centered attitude. Meditate on emptiness for a while, feel the spaciousness, the absence of self-grasping and self-centeredness. Then, thinking that everything is dependently arising and is like an illusion, train in generosity.

Giving

In that clear, open space at your heart (the heart cakra at the center of your chest) appears a beautiful light, the embodiment of your love. With that sentiment, give to others all they need to find temporal happiness while they are in saṃsāra and, more important, all the conditions to attain the ultimate bliss of buddhahood. Here, visualize giving first your body, which transforms into a wish-fulfilling body that gives others everything they desire, principally a precious human life so they can practice the Dharma. Your wish-fulfilling body purifies sentient beings’ environments so they have the necessities of life, including a good education, understanding friends, and community members who think of benefiting one another. Imagine they have all the necessary circumstances for practice, especially interest from their own side as well as spiritual mentors, teachings, and Dharma friends nearby. Think that they practice and then realize the entire path to awakening. Second, visualize giving your possessions, which transform into what others need. These give others perfect conditions so they have temporal happiness and conducive circumstances to learn and practice the Dharma. Third, visualize giving your merit, which gives others the good karma you have accumulated so they can progress on the path.

When you give to āryas and arhats, think that their last remaining obstacles to liberation and omniscience are purified and that they become buddhas. When giving to buddhas, imagine that your body, possessions, and merit transform into magnificent offering objects that please them, giving rise to great bliss in them.

Do the visualization of giving as you exhale; imagine offering to sentient beings whatever they need on light rays radiating from your heart. Feel great contentment and joy that you are able to benefit sentient beings in this way.

How to progress in this practice

At the beginning, it may be helpful to imagine taking on your own future suffering of tonight, tomorrow, and the rest of this life and giving happiness to your future self. Then expand to take the suffering of dear ones and to give them happiness. Expand it further to take and give to strangers, then enemies, then all beings.

Having taken on sentient beings’ duḥkha, don’t neglect to transform it into lightning (or whatever cleansing agent appeals to you) and destroy your self-centered attitude and self-grasping ignorance. Stop and feel the effect of that within yourself. Imagine what it would be like to be free from the constant attachment, fear, and worry about the self. Imagine feeling the openness of genuine love and compassion that can welcome anyone into its space.

Take your time doing these visualizations and allow yourself to feel love and compassion as well as relief and delight at being instrumental in dispelling others’ burden of duḥkha and bringing them both ordinary and long-term satisfaction and bliss. Taking and giving can be done elaborately, taking on each suffering, cause, and obstacle of each realm individually and giving each object to beings in each realm separately. The practice can also be done in a condensed way, according to the time available.

Instructions from Pema Chodron

The following instructions are from Pema Chödrön:

On the in-breath, you breathe in whatever particular area, group of people, country, or even one particular person... maybe it’s not this more global situation, maybe it’s breathing in the physical discomfort and mental anguish of chemotherapy; of all the people who are undergoing chemotherapy. And if you’ve undergone chemotherapy and come out the other side, it’s very real to you. Or maybe it’s the pain of those who have lost loved ones; suddenly, or recently, unexpectedly or over a long period of time, some dying. But the in-breath is... you find some place on the planet in your personal life or something you know about, and you breathe in with the wish that those human beings or those mistreated animals or whoever it is, that they could be free of that suffering, and you breathe in with the longing to remove their suffering.

And then you send out – just relax out... send enough space so that peoples’ hearts and minds feel big enough to live with their discomfort, their fear, their anger or their despair, or their physical or mental anguish. But you can also breathe out for those who have no food and drink, you can breathe out food and drink. For those who are homeless, you can breathe out/send them shelter. For those who are suffering in any way, you can send out safety, comfort.

So in the in-breath you breathe in with the wish to take away the suffering, and breathe out with the wish to send comfort and happiness to the same people, animals, nations, or whatever it is you decide.

Do this for an individual, or do this for large areas, and if you do this with more than one subject in mind, that’s fine… breathing in as fully as you can, radiating out as widely as you can."

See also

• Lojong
• Mettā
• Buddhist meditation

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Dalai Lama; Thubten Chodron (2020), In Praise of Great Compassion, The Library of Wisdom and Compassion, Volume 5, Wisdom Publications 
• Thupten Jinpa (2014), Mind Training: The Great Collection, Wisdom 

Further reading

• Kamalashila (1996). Meditation: The Buddhist Art of Tranquility and Insight. Birmingham: Windhorse Publications.
• Trungpa, Chogyam. Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness. Shambhala Classics.
• H.H. The Dalai Lama. The Path To Tranquility: Daily Meditations. Viking Adult, 1999.
• Chödrön, Pema. Tonglen: The Path of Transformation. Vajradhatu Publications, 2000.
• Chödrön, Pema. Comfortable With Uncertainty. Shambhala Publications, 2003.
• Wallace, B. Alan (2022), The Art of Transforming the Mind: A Meditator's Guide to the Tibetan Practice of Lojong, Shambhala 

Audio

• Chödrön, Pema. Good Medicine: How to Turn Pain into Compassion With Tonglen Meditation. Sounds True, Inc, 2001.
• Meditation: Tonglen – Discovering the Boundless Space of Compassion, tarabrach.com

External links

• Pema teaches Tonglen in these videos.
• Tonglen, Wikipedia