Six Weeks of Tonglen
Sign Up for Six Weeks of Tonglen
I’m inviting you into a practice designed to overcome our own fear and suffering. A method for awakening our own compassion even in the hardest of times.
We are calling it “Six Weeks of Tonglen.” We will each practice individually, for at least six minutes every day. And we will all come together as a group, once a week for six weeks.
I’ll show you how to do it! Sign up above.
(You can also learn more here)*
It is our way of turning towards what is in front of us. Even if it’s hard.
We don’t want to give in to despair. But we can’t live in denial either.
Tonglen is a practice to help us be with all of it. A way of focusing our breath, body, and heart to transmute difficult emotions and bring our own blessings to the world.
I am a very hopeful person. In fact, I think I am one of the most positive people I know! I like to look for the good, to be as generous as I can, and live life with an open heart.
And yet it is still true that we are living through the Sixth Great Extinction. We are living through it and we know it. Our animal body can sense it. And it can be terrifying.
Some of us (me included) can get really good at hiding from our own fear. But the truth is we are afraid.
We are afraid of climate change. Of the spectre of tyranny. Of death by racism.
And we are also afraid of rejection. We are afraid of getting “it” wrong. We are afraid of getting canceled, “found out,” getting lost.
It can be really hard to feel safe. To be at ease with yourself. To have the wherewithal to turn your face towards it. To look at it and truly face it.
It can be really hard to have courage and say “yes.” I am here to live. And I am ready to take radical responsibility for all of it.
But I don’t see any other option. We are the people born of this age. Of this time. And of this place.
So let’s do Six Weeks of Tonglen together. Tonglen is a practice to help us turn towards it all. Pema Chödrön says that:
Tonglen practice is a method for connecting with suffering, our own and that which is all around us, everywhere we go. It is a method for overcoming our fear of suffering and for dissolving the tightness of our hearts. Primarily it is a method for awakening the compassion that is inherent in all of us, no matter how cruel or cold we might seem to be.
Our commitment will be to practice for at least six minutes every day. And we’ll practice together every Saturday morning, once a week, for six weeks.
In the first two weeks, we will practice for ourselves.
In the second two weeks, we will practice for the people that we love.
And in the last two weeks, we will practice for the world.
Let’s train together. So we can show up for whatever is next.
Saludos,
Gibrán
*Tonglen is a practice that comes to us through the generous teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Note that I do not consider myself a Buddhist. And you don’t have to either. The practice of compassion is for everybody.