There's a Tibetan Buddhist practice called tonglen that I highly recommend.
It's the essence of simplicity. On the in breath you breathe in your suffering and pain, the world's pain, the suffering of others, suffering in general wherever it may be.
And on the out breath you reverse it, and now breathe out compassion for others, compassion for yourself, compassion for God, compassion for your mother and father, compassion for your worst enemy, compassion for your best friend and everybody inbetween. Like that.
And on the in breath you breathe in all the suffering that you ever went through or that you ever saw anybody else go through, and on the out breath you breathe out radiance and joy to all people and beings everywhere.
And on the in breath you take in all the incredible sadness you've ever felt in your life, and all the times you lost and were wounded, and on the out breath you breathe out love for all of existence just as it is, including all of the wounding.
And on the in breath you breathe in all the anger and irritation and rage and aversion you've ever felt in your life, and feel the incredible pain of that, and on the out breath you breathe out the love that heals that pain in ourselves and others, and send it out recklessly to the universe.
And on the in breath you take in all the fear and anxiety and uncertainty you've ever felt in your life, and that anyone else is feeling now, and on the out breath you breathe out clarity and peace and bliss to all of existence.
And on the in breath you breathe in any pain or suffering anywhere, in prisons, in hospitals, inside ourselves or others or wherever it may be, you breathe in all that pain and suffering and take it all in and feel it and cry over it, and on the out breath you breathe out this love inside you that cries with love and laughs with love at the vast mystery that is both sending out that love and receiving it at the same time.
—jim sloman, 01/30/01 for Jan 30
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