Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Sanghy Khandro presents Tonglen as a progressive practice for transforming the mind from self-centeredness toward genuine altruism and compassion. She emphasizes working gradually through increasing stages: begin by taking on your own suffering, then extend to people you naturally wish to help, gradually expanding to strangers, acquaintances, and eventually those you dislike or who have harmed you. This structured progression builds familiarity with each level before advancing to more challenging recipients. The practice purifies your own mind while helping relieve others’ suffering and bring them peace.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 5.04 Practicing Tonglen.mp3
Teacher: Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald
Collection: Heart advice (Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~329
So the Tonglen practice is a very, very powerful method for bringing about a transformation of our own mind, being less concerned about ourself, self centered, egotistical, and having other disturbing emotions like anger and attachment that arise from selfishness. And making our mind more altruistic, more loving and compassionate towards others. And it can also be helpful to others. It is possible that by doing the Thonline practice we can relieve the suffering of others and bring them greater peace and happiness. So it’s good to do the practice in a gradual way.
Starting with your own suffering, learning to take on your own problems and suffering as we did in the meditation in the last session. And then gradually learning to do the practice in relation to other people, starting with the people you would find it easy to wish to take on the suffering of and give happiness to. And with more familiarity, you can then go on to do the practice with people you’re less close to, people who are a little bit more distant from you. For example, neighbors, people you work with, people you hear about in the news and so on. And then again with more familiarity, you’ll be able to do the practice even with people you don’t like.
People who behave in ways that you find unacceptable, even people who have harmed you. So it’s it’s best to work on the practice gradually, starting with easier objects and gradually working to more and more difficult objects.