Heart Meditations: Loving Kindness & Tonglen

One to One Instruction These two meditations are for those who can sit, who's mind is able to be stilled in meditation & most importantly who wish to become more compassionate humans beings.

Loving kindness

Meta

What is Loving Kindness? Loving kindness is a Buddhist meditation. A meditation, which focuses on the heart. It helps with the release of old emotional baggage, helps cultivate love, forgiveness & understanding of the self & of every living being.

Loving Kindness is a series of meditations that produce four qualities of love: Friendliness (metta), Compassion (karuna), Appreciative Joy (mudita) & Equanimity (upekkha). The quality of 'friendliness' is expressed as warmth that reaches out & whole heartedly embraces others. When Loving Kindness practice matures it naturally overflows into compassion, as one empathizes with other people's difficulties.

Both these meditations will help not only understanding of the self, but also the important valuing & acceptance of all living beings.

Each lesson is one to one & half hours long. It is usual for 20 minutes of instruction & questions, 20 minutes of practice with a further 20 minutes for questions & can be broken down for individual needs for those who need to recap their Loving Kindness practice.

Areas Covered

Loving Kindness - Self & Acquaintances
Loving Kindness - Hostile Person & Loved Ones.

Loving Kindness - Putting it all together & Beyond!

Tonglen

'give & take'

What is Tonglen? Tonglen is a meditation which comes under the banner of Loving Kindness. Tonglen mean to give & to take, a meditation of compassion for the self as well as for others.

Tonglen is the meditative practice of taking in the suffering of the self or that of others & sending back healing & peace. Each day we see suffering in our daily lives. We can help on some occasions, we can lend a listening ear or a hug. We can put some pennies in a charity pot & we can be a good samaritan if needs permit, at times we can do nothing but watch as another feels sad, alone or upset. Very few of us can personally stop bullies at school, cure illnesses, or offer employment or a roof over someones head. Tonglen aids focus on pain in a selfless non judgmental manner. 

You take in your own or anothers pain in order to develop compassion, insight & understanding. This expands your own heart & capasity for love. In return love, relaxation or what ever you decide to send is given back to the sourse it was taken from. This practice can help us come face to face with our own fears, preducies & anger, we can see what causes us personal resistance.

Each lesson is one to one & half hours long. It is usual for 20 minutes of instruction & questions, 20 minutes of practice with a further 20 minutes for questions & can be broken down for individual needs for those who need to recap their existing Tonglen practice.

Areas Covered

Tonglen - Self/Others

Tonglen - Beyond