Tonglen for Wildfires

Transcript

[0:21] Taking our seat just as we are, with everything included. Arranging our body geometry, our legs, our hands, our spine uplifted. Our head, with our chin slightly tucked. Our mouth could be slightly open. Jaw relaxed. Our tongue could be on the roof of the mouth behind our teeth. And our eyes could be closed or open with a soft gaze.

[2:04] Coming to sit and arrange our body from this ground of basic goodness, that there's nothing to fix about ourselves. Everything is included. Just as we are.

[2:38] Allowing our breath to be. Feeling the experience of the body breathing.

[3:43] Today we could do some Tonglen practice. Beginning by flashing our awareness, sort of a sudden flash outward to space. Extending and flashing this vast sense of spaciousness. And we could rest in that open space.

[5:31] And then we could bring to our awareness also suffering in the world. In particular, the suffering with the enormous fires going on at the moment in California, in Oregon, in Washington and in Colorado. Up and down the west coast. And we could feel into the suffering as this thick, smoky, black heat. In a very literal way, this is the experience of many people right now. That are suffering and experiencing this smoke and heat. And so we could begin breathing in to every pore of our body this suffering. And we could bring to mind if we've read anything in particular, particular situation. And holding that situation in mind. Breathing in the suffering, the pain, the heat, the inability to breathe, the damage of property. Deaths. Animals. Suffering. Insects in the forest. And as we breathe out, breathing out, coolness. Spacelessness. Healing. Help. With each in-breath, breathing in the heat and the suffering. Allowing it to fully come into your body. And with each out-breath, breathing out. That which is helpful. Light and space and cooling.

[9:28] Very good. Begin with some specific situation. Holding these people, these animals, these beings in our mind. And breathing in their suffering. Breathing out. Space and cooling. And then...

[10:58] We can expand from a specific situation to include more beings, opening our heart and our body, opening to more suffering. People in San Francisco. People displaced from their homes. People in Bend, Oregon. The families. We've lost all their belongings. The animals burned alive. Breathing in as much as we can open to the suffering. And then fully breathing out our strength. Our light. Our health. Spaciousness. The animals.

[13:22] Expanding to so many beings affected by smoke, those who have difficulty breathing. Many, many millions of people affected.

[14:27] Cultivating our generosity to breathe in this pain and death. And harm. And light and space.

[16:02] And as we feel the suffering of so many beings, and as we send our compassion and kindness and love, we can begin to drop, dropping the visualization, returning to being here, feeling the spaciousness, breathing normally. And allow this love and kindness of our expanded heart to wash over us. Feel it flooding our body and the space around us and our loved ones around us.

[18:11] And we might feel... And appreciation... For our situation, our health, our space, our well-being.

[18:51] Easy access to food and water. Shelter.