On day four of the Spring Tonglen Retreat at Taraloka Saddhanandi talks about tonglen for others. She describes how the breath helps us to breathe in and turn towards what we usually ignore, resist or block to defend ourselves from the suffering we see in others. When we’re breathing out we’re offering something we usually protect or isolate for our own use. So on the out-breath we’re sharing our resources in response to the suffering we encounter in our lives. ...
From Taraloka Retreat Centre on Tue, 25 Mar, 2014 - 06:54The sky is heavy and grey with cloud, which is interesting as we’re in the middle phase of the retreat and it can be a time when people can hit more resistance, so it’s as if the sky is reflecting that back to us after the bright clear skies of yesterday.
The thankha of four-armed Avalokitesvara, hanging above the shrine, is reflecting back a different perspective and Ratnavandana drew this out in the readings in last night’s puja.
On day 4 of the tonglen retreat Saddhanandi talks about tonglen for others. She describes how the breath helps us to breathe in and turn towards what we usually ignore, resist or block to defend ourselves from the suffering we see in others.
A led meditation from Day Three of the 2014 Spring Tonglen Retreat at Taraloka.
Self-tonglen: First turning towards your own experience, then towards the unsatisfactory aspects and later to the joyful aspects. You end by simply being in a space of open awareness.
Dharmashalin works at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre, his role there is to find ways of communicating Buddhist values and meditation in the wider community.
On day three of the tonglen retreat here at Taraloka, self-tonglen takes centre stage.
At the start of her talk Saddhanandi refers to one of the seven point mind training slogans: ‘begin the sequence of sending and taking with yourself’. We start by turning towards what’s going on in our experience right now.
Talk given at the LBCs Dharma Night March 17th 2014
