by Joan Gattuso
Mindfulness allows us to look deeply into our conscious and subconscious minds. The Buddhist term for “subconscious mind” is “store consciousness.” We must look deeply into store consciousness, where all the seeds of our beliefs are stored.
It took much coaching to get Oskar to be willing to look into his “store consciousness.” The store consciousness of Sara, her husband and children is that of love, deep familial connections, genuine caring for one another. For the children these beautiful seeds in their store consciousness must serve them in ways yet to be realized as they and their seeds mature and blossom.
As you become a more mindful being, always remember the beautiful seeds you are planting in your store consciousness. If there remains within old decaying seeds that would never serve your growing awareness, be willing to incorporate all the techniques and exercises to cleanse yourself, so your mind can be purified in order for you to begin to live a future far more rewarding than the past. The Buddha’s glorious teachings only point the way. All the effort must be done by you.
TONGLEN MEDITATION
Tonglen, a remarkable meditation practice, literally means giving and receiving. Tonglen opens our hearts in a way unlike any other practice. It opens us to others in a way that allows us to be truly present to them and their suffering. We no longer fear another’s pain, but rather we reach out to them in their time of deepest need.
Tonglen is multifaceted, for as it teaches us to be compassionate and assist in alleviating another’s suffering, it is also unparalleled in working on our egos—at the root of all of our own suffering. The practice of Tonglen can transform us into masters of compassion. For those so dedicated, this takes many years and much practice.
For me the practice of Tonglen is a very deep mindfulness practice, for it engages our whole awareness and entire being. We practice Tonglen truly caring for others as we would desire to be cared for.
The practice of Tonglen should only be undertaken by those with some degree of spiritual maturity and some mastery of meditation. The reason for this is that it is such a selfless practice that for the uninitiated the ego could definitely rise during this highly focused meditation and cause all manner of soul mischievousness as we fully open ourselves to the suffering of others.
The practice of Tonglen is so powerful that from the eleventh century, when the Buddhist teacher Geshe Chekhawa began teaching it to a few lepers, they practiced it faithfully and were cured of their leprosy. Word spread of this remarkable practice that could cure an incurable disease nine hundred years before the medical discovery of sulfone drugs.
An interesting and amazing tale is told of the practice of Geshe Chekhawa that occurred near the end of his life. Apparently in his deep compassion, with his burning desire always to be of help in alleviating others’ suffering, he unceasingly prayed to be reborn in what the Buddhists call the “hell realms.” We can all probably conjure up an image of a hell realm and probably have all hung out there a number of times.
Geshe Chekhawa prayed such a prayer, not because he was a masochist, but because he was close to becoming a saint and wanted to be of assistance to all those living and suffering in the hell realms. He was disappointed when his dreams revealed to him that he was to be reborn into one of the realms of the Buddhas. This deeply saddened him, and he asked his student to pray that this would not occur! His incessant desire was to be of help to those who are suffering in hell realms.
When I first learned of this tale, I could hardly believe it. I was alternately crying and laughing, thinking surely in lifetimes past this must have also been my prayer, for it would so tidily explain the mystery of my own personal times of tremendous suffering. Perhaps in ages past I, too, had prayed to be of soul benefit for those who would suffer in the future. If that be the case, I now choose to change my prayer, plant new seeds and pray that we can all be transformed to be reborn in one of those beautiful Buddha realms.
The Tonglen Technique
You first evoke the greatest amount of love and compassion you possibly can within you. Recall the times in your life when you have felt the greatest love being given to you. Thankfully through grace we have all been loved deeply, if not long, at least once. We need to reclaim that memory from a parent, grandparent, lover, aunt, cousin, sibling, teacher, minister or neighbor. I am very fortunate to feel and know I have been loved by both my parents. It is the love of my father that continues to feed my soul and spirit, even though he is now physically gone. Find that great love of your soul and allow that feeling to fill every aspect of your being.
Breathe love in and out deeply. Allow your chest to rise and fall with your heartbeat of love. Allow that feeling of great love to wrap itself around and through your heart like a warm blanket. Sense a deep gratitude in knowing you have been so loved and are now capable yourself of loving.
Begin to visualize opening your heart, as your enormous love is directed outward to enfold other beings. You can do this for one person, or a family, or your sangha, or for all beings who are suffering with a particular illness or state of being. Now you bring them into this love within your heart. Tonglen is different from many meditative practices in that you are not sending your subjects this great love. Rather, you are bringing them into this great love.
My dear friend Suzanne practiced Tonglen as she went through radiation and chemotherapy for breast cancer. She engaged in it several times daily, bringing joy into her meditation to all women currently facing the same diagnosis and similar follow-up treatment after surgery. We know it helped other women, and it is definitely beneficial to Suzanne.
The Tonglen practice can be extended to all, even those who are most difficult and challenging for us. Begin to see that difficult person as one who is suffering just as you have suffered, and in doing so you feel compassion for him awakening in you. You shall then begin to see how similar you are. I do think it is helpful to do what one early teacher of mine taught. Begin with those you already love and who love you before you move on to other, more difficult ones.
As one advances in the practice of Tonglen, it takes on a powerful characteristic of no longer seeing the person as other, but now as same. In our minds we exchange our sense of self with whatever the other person is suffering. Her pain becomes your pain. And you can do something about it. You can actually learn to dissolve the pain or affliction within your own heart space. One way to do that is to see it as a ring of heavy, dark clouds encircling your mind, swirling around you. Know that beyond the denseness of the clouds, which represent suffering, lies love, compassion, freedom, transformation and light. Then visualize the great love within you as so enormously powerful that you can easily with the simple sweep of your hand brush those heavy clouds aside. As you do so, the light that lies beyond them begins to dissipate the clouds into vapor and then into nothingness. You now realize, through the Tonglen practice, that you can move completely through the illusion of suffering. It can produce outstanding results benefiting both the one suffering and you.
Exchanging yourself for others is extremely powerful and is not to be undertaken by spiritual lightweights. The energy is simply too powerful and too demanding.
Another way of evoking compassion to practice Tonglen is to call upon an illumined being, be it Jesus, the Buddha, the Divine Mother, Tara or a bodhisattva. Then feel the boundless love that being has for you. Sink deeply into that love and absolutely know that it is real. Now channel that great reservoir of love to the focus of your Tonglen practice. Hold him in the love and for as long as you can maintain the intensity of that profound love.
An essential component of all phases of Tonglen, as taught to me by Lama Chonam, is to take the other’s suffering into your heart space. In most Western healing practices the heart energy is sent out to the recipient. In this Buddhist practice the recipient is brought into your own heart. Herein lies the contrast between the Western and Eastern mind.
This one aspect is what makes Tonglen so powerful and not for the immature on the s
piritual path. One has to be quite clear to be engaged in such a high level of spiritual work and actually take pain and suffering, which we normally try to avoid, into our very hearts.
Practicing Tonglen and core mindfulness meditations is never enough. We must rise up from the meditations and live our lives mindfully with our family in our homes, with our friends, in our work environment with our coworkers, on our highways, in society, with our consumption of resources, with our own thoughts and minds. Then our entire lives can be transformed and we become mindful beings. We become the noble ones, the ones lost in the wonder of compassion and delight. Like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we start to giggle at the overwhelming delight of living an awakened life.
Mindfulness opens our eyes and ears to the beauty and wonder of life. Here we can love and be compassionate in the present moment . . . and it is a wonderful moment.
The following is a Tonglen practice that I was given after 9/11. I do not know where it came from or who assembled it. With that in mind, I respectfully share it with you:
TONGLEN—A TIBETAN PRAYER PRACTICE
Breathe light in and out of our hearts. Just breathe ever so deeply, as deeply as you can, and release.
We breathe in and focus the totality of our attention to our heart center.
We breathe out, seeing your heart now as a vast orb of intense love moving to your heart chakra, that has remained undisturbed,
And expanding consciously, mindfully, dynamically your heart energy with every breath.
Pushing the energy out a bit further and allowing it to contract only to expand with the next breath
Holding only love.
Being ever so still, perfectly still.
In the depths of your heart, love is awakening.
Levels of love, levels of being that perhaps have been resting for a very long time.
They have not been called into action, into response until now. Breathe into our hearts, love.
Until you can imagine your heart center not just being in the center and slightly to the left,
That your heart center begins to fill your whole chest area, extends out before you, in front of you.
Extends behind you, rising up to your throat, down to your navel. This whole area becomes a warm pulsating center of love and light.
And now we are called to bring into our hearts, images of the recent tragic events of Tuesday, September 11th.
Bring into our hearts these images and to allow this love to just infuse them,
Transform them from pain into peace, from a desperate lost energy into one faith.
Let us first bring into our hearts those whose lives were so swiftly ended on Tuesday.
Those on the planes, those in the World Trade Center. We bring those individuals into our hearts.
Perhaps some have lifted into the infinite and perhaps some are in the state of confusion.
We bring them, those especially, into our heart center. We breathe in the light, breathe peace.
And very mindfully we breathe out the trauma. We are willing to do this work for them.
This is how great our love is.
Breathe in that shock, that horror.
Breathe it out, breathe love into their souls that they be lifted in peace now, into the infinite. That we and they know together that life is eternal.
So we let them go and bring into our hearts their family members. We’ve seen them, heard their stories.
We’ve seen their anguish and incredible grief.
We are courageous enough, as spiritual beings, to bring their pain into our hearts.
And to allow this enormous love that we have to begin to burn away that pain, to dissolve that pain, to transform that pain, transform that suffering and sense of loss, bewilderment.
If your heart gets very heavy, very intense, just really emphasize the exhalation.
Breathe that energy out.
Just pour out immeasurable love into the lives of these beings. If we think that this is an impossible task, we need to remember the words of A Course in Miracles: “How long is an instant?”
We continue on.
We release these loved ones, and welcome into our heart centers now the firefighters, policemen, the heroes that don’t want to be called heroes.
We bring them into our heart and we send them boundless love, immeasurable gratitude.
We let the shock that they have been through, the devastation that they have witnessed, be dissolved into our heart centers now.
Energy is moving in this room, grace is being sent forth.
Bring into our hearts, those that were in or near the building that escaped,
How they must be wrestling with gratitude and regret and confusion.
We bring all those emotions that they must be experiencing into the powerful space of our committed hearts.
We bring that energy in, that they may be consoled, that we may be the ones to console them, that they may know peace, that they may know that there is an order at work that one day they may understand.
Bring all of their conflicted emotions, courageously, bravely, into our own hearts and let that energy be burned off by the all-consuming energy of our heart centers.
Breathe in ever so deeply.
Bring into our hearts those that lost part of their world, which would really be every one of us.
Our hearts are large enough to contain this. We are one, one in the heart of God.
We let the all-consuming love of our hearts transform this energy as well.
Now our hearts are so enormous, our love is so limitless, that we now bring in those that have been the perpetrators, those that have hated us, those that have judged us so harshly. Very gently, easily we bring this energy into our hearts.
We allow it to be dissolved, to become nothing, for it is not the reality of their beings.
Let that energy be dissolved in our hearts now.
We are like the spiritual surrogates, so committed to the path of healing, of transformation, that in this very room, this very moment, miracles are being created.
We breathe this energy in and breathe it out, being ever so sure to breathe all that energy out.
And then we are simply together in the silence for a moment. We know there is nothing our Holiness cannot do.
Say it to yourself, “There is nothing my Holiness cannot do.”
We are a blessing unto the world.
Doing these various Tonglen practices will be an enormous blessing to others, many of whom you will never meet, and in its practice you, like Geshe Chekhawa, will be growing in compassion.
When you do reenter everyday life, let the wisdom, insight, compassion, humor, fluidity, spaciousness and detachment that meditation brought you pervade your day-to-day experience.
—SOGYAL RINPOCHE
RIGHT CONCENTRATION
IN 1973 I WAS first exposed to Buddhist meditation practices. My young mind (or “beginner’s mind,” as Buddhist teaching would call it) took to meditation, as the saying goes, “like a duck to water.”
Soon after that I became the “subject” in biofeedback meditation presentations. A number of electrodes were hooked up to my head, and in a few minutes I would slip from outer awareness (beta) into inner stillness (alpha). Then I would go much deeper (theta). I always remained conscious but totally detached from any outside stimulation such as sounds or noises or temperature changes. At such times part of my mindfulness meditation training was to silently repeat, Sounds, sounds, I am hearing sounds. Then I would consciously breathe in and breathe out, returning full focus to my breath. I was a real “whiz kid” of meditation. As I look back on those days, it seems I brought that energy and knowing with me from previous lives, because I so easily and quickly went into such deep meditation.
Practicing Right Concentration is to cultivate a mind that is “single-pointed.”The initial form of meditation I was engaged in is called “active concentration.” There one observes in a very detached manner whatever presents itself an
d then lets it go and refocuses on the breath—always returning to the present moment, the now.
The second aspect of Right Concentration is “selective concentration.” You choose one object and direct your full focus on it. The object could be a flame, a flower or a deity.
The more skilled we become in our meditation practices in Right Concentration, the more enriched our lives become, the happier we become. For nearly 2,600 years hundreds of thousands of monks and nuns have spent their lives solely dedicated to their spiritual practices. What evolved were certain formulas, such as meditations, that we can take and superimpose on our present spiritual understanding and practices and receive consistent results.
The first time I attended a teaching of the Dalai Lama was 1991 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. During a question-and-answer time, he was asked the question: “How long should we laypeople meditate daily— not the monks and nuns—but the average American practitioner?”
His Holiness reflected on the question for several very long moments and then responded, “Four hours, four hours would be good.”
There was an audible gasp that rose from the nearly four thousand attendees. At that time I made an inner commitment to meditate two hours a day. On only a few occasions have I spent four full hours in meditation within a twenty-four-hour day. Four hours is a very long time. Two hours is a very long time. If you are a newcomer to meditation, don’t even attempt two hours, because in all likelihood you will grow weary and quit, probably after only a few days. And that is not the goal.
Since that time in New York I have endeavored to meditate two hours daily. People ask me how that is possible since I have such a full life. At least one to one and a half hours is dedicated to Right Concentrationduring the night. Not sleeping through the night does not mean counting sheep. Counting breaths and mantras can be far more beneficial.
