Growing a Big Heart: Tonglen meditation
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Tonglen meditation is a powerful tool for developing bodhicitta, the altruistic wish to benefit others.
Tonglen literally means send and take, and in this meditation we breathe out and send all our very best -- our happiness, well-being, wealth, health, everything beneficial -- to others, then breathe in and take all their suffering.
We can do this on a simple scale (just ourselves or our nearest, dearest friends), or on a grand scale: all sentient beings!
The crucial piece of this practice is using it to destroy our self-cherishing mind.
Geshe Gelek has been teaching this practice and leading us in it at Wednesday night classes; here we will devote an hour to the same practice.
Led by Erin Sloan