” There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”, Leonard Cohen
While I have read about and practiced (somewhat… and not diligently), mindfulness meditation, I have not often successfully been able to ‘let go’ of the pain messages from my brain, which seems to be from where anxiety and stress originates. Certianly there has been good success with mindfulness meditation for fibromyalgia (See the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn). Meditation is a life long undertaking and the practice itself is intended to be daily. Now I have been told of another way to facilitate bringing more peace into our lives and ‘letting go’. It is called Tonglin Practice. Although I am not a Buddhist, I do believe that there is much to be learned from Tonglin. It too appears to be another way to work with the breath and training the brain.
It is said that this practice is a simple one. I have not yet tried it but I am hoping there are readers out there who have and can encourage me! The steps seem simple enough: First, the person is to meditate for 10 minutes to clear the mind of rambling thoughts (gasp! not an easy task in and of itself). Next, breathe in anger, aggression, anxiety and stress (yikes! I do this often, at least the anxiety and stress thoughts are often present and can be easily breathed in) either from another person or from oneself . Finally, breathe out compassion and love to the world (specifically to the other person or to oneself if that is who we are intent upon healing). I am guessing here, but I think a fibromyalgia version would be to breathe in pain and breathe out healing? It seems like with Tonglin one brings into oneself the thing you would usually try to push away, like anxiety, and breathe/send out into the world compassion. So, if I do this I send out healing to all of us with pain and hopefully to myself as well? In short, I breathe in suffering and breathe out an opening up and letting go of it? Is this too airey-fairey for me or is it a good attempt to ‘change my brain’, a practice I have been exploring of late? I certainly have many questions to send out there to others more adept at this than I am.
Hmmmm! I am dating this blog to my birthday month and maybe that will be a good time to begin this practice! Nothing ventured, nothing gained! After all, breathing is good and re-training my brain is an added benefit:-)
Finally, my last comment on all this: I heard from a man named Steve who suggested that Winter Solstice on December 21st is a great time for meditation and finding a spot outside with the elements is the best of all times and places. Wouldn’t work well where I live. However, maybe those of you in warm climates can test this out! But, of course meditation can happen anywhere and anytime, so let us learn to ‘let go’ and look forward to 2009. PEACE..within ourselves and in the world.
Addendum: I have recently heard from a man named David who gave me some very good information about Buddhism and yoga. While his comments are too long to incorporate here I want to point out again that I am not a Buddhist, 
nor am I any kind of authority on which kinds of meditations can or cannot ‘work’ more effectively for someone. In fact, it is more likely that ‘one size does not fit all’! Some of the women in my book spoke of various kinds of practices that helped somewhat tame their nervous systems, such as prayer, yoga (various kinds), meditation (various approaches), muscle and other relaxation techniques and even just plain old slow walking to name a few of the strategies. The readers will notice that in all of the articles I usually have more questions than answers and I welcome comments that are as helpful as those of David which help broaden my perspective. This buddhist flag symbolizes many colours and my intent here is to point out that there are many approaches to achieving a more calm life.
Hi: Tonglin in its purest form is to breathe in all the pain and suffering of others and incorporate it into your own psyche so that you can understand that the stress, pain and anxiety you feel is felt by some degree by all human beings. The purpose of Tonglin is to gain awareness of and empathy for all human beings through our shared pain.
Having said all that, you could use mindfulness meditation for breathing in fibromyalgia pain and the releasing the pain with your exhale.
Don’t worry so much about completely letting go – just concentrate on your breath. In Out. In Out.
Good luck,
Marian
Thanks Marian: Presumably Tonglin can also be used to incorporate our own stress and pain and develop empathy for ourselves? Too often those of us with fibro become angry with our body/mind for not being able to let go of the pain. Empathy begins from within and those with fibro have too much empathy for others and often do not have it for ourselves.
You are right, mindfulness meditation has been shown to be very helpful for fibro! Thanks for your comments! Barbara
April 7/09
Do read the March 25/09 blog for more of my thoughts on all this! BK
I teach beginning meditation classes, and I use a variety of methods. this is so people can choose what may work best for them. I am just preparing an introduction to Tonglin, which strikes me as a Tibetan philosophy, that follows along the lines of the kindness/compassion meditations (Also Buddhist in background).
I suggest that you practice focusing on the breath, then breathing in all the goodness the Universe has to offer, and breathing out compassion to others, before working on the Tonglin Method.
Or you can breathe in goodness, prana, etc, and learn to breathe out your pain, tensions, thoughts…before trying Tonglin.
As I see it’s been months since your original post, I would be curious to see if you tried it, and how well you did with that type of meditation. I will go to the later blog dates… RM
Hi Robin:
You are right it has been many months since I wrote this blog. Now, I have come to a place where I have found answers: Mindfulness Meditation. It is where I belong in the meditation realm. Tied in to neuroplasticity, changing the brain, diaphragmatic breathing, motion, remapping the brain…I have learned so much these past few months thanks to all the wonderful neuroscience books. Thank you for your comments. I really appreciated them. Barbara
Hi Barbara,
He suggested we start out by “practicing” (i.e. Tonglin “practice”) by visualing someone we love very much and in meditation visualize ourselves taking in their pain, either psychic or physical. Then we visualize that pain flowing into our heart where we are holding the bright light of healing and compassion and wisdom (of the Buddha, or Jesus or a Universal being). Then as that pain is absorbed and the pain dissolves in the light we breath out that healing light to the other person we want to have happiness and healing . As we practice more and our compassion grows it becomes easier to step up our “practice” to those we feel more “neutral” about, and later to those who have caused pain to us or others by their actions or nature. The “practice” works. The compassion does grow, even for our selves. Another name for this practice is “Exchanging Self for Others.” Blessings to you as you grow. Roseann
I just “happened” across your blog–had to smile at this happenstance. I also have FMS and practice Tonglin. I hadn’t actually thought about FMS and Tonglin in a specific connected way, but only as a part of the whole of life. My teacher had a good suggestion, I think, when learning the practice of Tonglin, which is not so easy with all of human-kind sometimes
Thanks Roseann: This is good step-by-step advice for the beginner practitioner. A good way to let go of our anger towards others (for example, a parent) and experience compassion instead ! Your comments are appreciated! Barbara