Photo: A birdseye view overlooking the bay at sunset - Seattle, Washington (2018). Copyright SJPhotography.Expanding Circles of Compassion: A HeartBalm Tonglen Meditation
To read or listen to the full podcast that precedes this meditation click on the link (from HBH: Episode No. 41 – One Love, One Heart, One Destiny)
Thank you for joining me. Today on HeartBalm Meditations with Sunny, I invite you to join me for a Tonglen meditation, unfurl your beautiful butterfly wings, and sink into this expression of oneness, creative compassion, and heart-healing meditation to bring love to our world, and to yourself.
This is an adaptation of a simple Buddhist meditation practice called Tonglen.
“Tong” meaning “giving” and “len” meaning “receiving.”
This meditation is practiced to reorient the habitual patterns of mind from the feelings of separateness and self-focused behaviors. It is a way of empowering ourselves to hold loving space for others who may be experiencing hardships, pain, and suffering. It is the gentle hand outstretched in peace, compassion, and kinship. It brings our hearts together in unity and reframes how we see, hold, and think about one another; as connected, and as one instead of separate, and distant. As Albert Einstein reflected:
A human being is a part of the whole called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. She experiences herself, her thoughts, and her feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of her consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
This guided meditation is adapted from an earlier original HeartBalm Healing podcast titled, “One Love, One Heart, One Destiny.” To listen to this podcast in its entirety and enjoy the original content that inspired this meditation please visit the HeartBalm Healing website or click on the link below.
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This will be a part of the HeartBalm Meditation toolbox. The link to all meditations is in the archives as well as the toolbox on the home page at HeartBalm and is now available on the HeartBalm YouTube Channel.
Join me here or on YouTube for a meditative moment of tenderness and communion - and build a peaceful home within yourself to come back to time and time again.
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