Tonglen - receiving and letting go
Tonglen is the Tibetan practice of sending and receiving. Tong means sending out or letting go, len means receiving or accepting.
This is an active practice of loving kindness, not a navel gazing exercise in self-absorption. With it we can calm the waters within and on the other side of the world. Western thought can embrace it through chaos theory's butterfly effect.
i have begun to practice tonglen in my daily life. by no means, think that i am an expert, because that just isn't so. but i have begun to consciously include compassion for others in my everyday to a degree i haven't done before.
i know that i feel as if i have just survived a tsunami and i am so filled with awe and gratitude that i am beginning to include this practice as part of my daily spiritual practices.
it seems to me that my daily spiritual life (which now includes my blogging) really sets the tone for my day. and if i am not participating in those spiritual practices, i already have a heads up that something is definitely not working in my life. this "heads up" can be a real life saver.
and if i practice letting go (both after giving and after receiving) then i make room for something better to move into my life. and i have just seen that happen for me this week. it is something so fantastic that i never could have manipulated or calculated something as quiet and as powerful and as fulfilling as i have received.
love, acceptance, and support.
and this was too delicious to not support- this week on lifelube
