Tong Len

This practice is easy to understand and tough to execute...should sound familiar.

Practice #11 Cultivating the Exchange of Oneself for Others

All Suffering, without exception, springs from the desire for one's own happiness;

Perfect enlightenment is born from a mind intent on benefiting others.

Therefore, it is the practice of bodhisattvas

To authentically exchange one's own happiness for the suffering of others.

Regard others as more dear than oneself. By means of taking upon oneself all the suffering and evil that may be in the mindstreams of other sentient beings, one exchanges happiness and suffering. Santideva says it best, "However much happiness exists in this world, all of it springs from wishing for the happiness of others; However much suffering exists in this world, all of it springs from desiring one's own happiness. What need is there for lengthy explanations! The childish work for their own benefit, the sages act for the welfare of others. Consider the difference between these two!"

When it comes to a life maxim I usually default to Matt 22:39ff, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self." That's pretty tough stuff, but then I reflect on the 11th practice and I think, "Jesus let us off easy. At least we don't have to love our neighbor more than ourselves." Not so fast my friends (I can't believe I just quoted Corso). I make a rather common mistake by thinking that Jesus summed up the law with one commandment, but that's not true. Going back to verse 37 I find it necessary to give the Christ's full quote, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self. On these two commandments hang all the law of the prophets." I dare say that to love the Lord with all my heart, soul and mind entails me loving like Christ. And Christ authentically exchanged his happiness for the suffering of others (something about a cross). This is the great commandment folks, we should strive to love our neighbors more than ourselves. If we fall short and love them only as much as ourselves, well, at least we kept the second commandment.

There is a great meditation called Tong Len that helps us cultivate this Christ-like/bodhisattva-like spirit. You begin by picturing a dear friend or family member. Then you imagine that you are inhaling all this cherished person's pain in the form of black smoke. On the exhale, you imagine returning all of your happiness, strength, virtue and good qualities to this cherished person in the form of white light. Do this for a while holding nothing back. Next attempt to picture someone you feel neutral about, and again exchange their black-smoke-pain for your white-light-goodness. After doing this for a while, picture an enemy in front of you and repeat the process (at first I didn't think I had any real enemies, but the leaders of N Korea and Iran soon filled that void). As you feel able, increase your audience. Think of all the pain throughout the world from Somalia to Iraq, battered women's shelters to nursing homes, orphanages to animal pounds, and inhale that suffering while returning white light. This can get rather emotionally intense, so take on as much as you can, but don't overdo things. The idea is to soften one's heart and engender compassion, not to send one into an emotional meltdown. I have struggled mightily through this meditation every time, and each time, when it ended, I felt better for having done it. I hope you too find it helpful.