The Lotus Still Blooms (11 page)

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.

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 spiritual 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:

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?”

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.

—SOGYAL RINPOCHE

RIGHT CONCENTRATION