"Tonglen"

Tonglen practice is an ancient monastic form of intercession…not just a way of standing in the gap, but, in the Spirit, a way of filling the gap with the Presence of God.

Quite simply, Tonglen is drawing into oneself the difficulties of another (or a group of people, which can include oneself) and exchanging it with the loving-kindness of God.  It is a way of prayer that can be practiced for anyone you know or meet.

Here’s an example of such a practice in action…

I have two friends, whom I will call S and L, who have a daughter, whom I will call H.  H is in her early 20s and struggles greatly with anorexia.  My late wife, Brenda, battled anorexia for most of her life, and, quite honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a monster quite so powerful or as devious.  For those of you who have struggled with the disease yourselves, either directly or indirectly, you know exactly what I mean.  (And, for those of you who have, I am so very sorry.  May you experience God's peace in this moment.)

H…

When I pray for H, this is how I approach it…

I focus the eyes of my spirit on her and try to picture her in my mind's eye as vividly as I can.

I then ask, “What are you feeling in this moment?”

Almost immediately something will enter my spirit.  It could be just a word, or a feeling, or an impression.  Right now, as I am writing this and thinking of H, the word “ugly” just entered my mind.  I am feeling in this moment that H is feeling very ugly.  Perhaps she ate well for dinner, last night, and now all she can "see" in the mirror is how fat and ugly eating last night is making her "look" right now.

In my spirit, I am now concentrating on her and the ugliness she is feeling in this very moment.  It’s as though “ugliness” has become something very tangible, almost like a veil or substance that is covering her entire being.

In my spirit, I am, with everything that's within me, wanting to yank the veil completely off her.  And this will, of course, be one of the things I hope to see accomplished as I pray for her.  To begin, I concentrate on H and upon my own breathing, and I picture that, with each inhalation, some of the veil covering H is being pulled off and away from her.  But it's NOT me that's doing it.  No!  (I live 250 miles from H.)  It's the Holy Spirit, Who lives inside me (and inside her), Who's doing it.  I am, quite simply, just a portal through which God is doing His work of bringing relief to my friends' daughter.  So…I continue to breathe, and with each inhalation, I “see” God pulling more and more of the veil of ugliness from H’s very soul.  In my own spirit, I can picture Him pulling it toward Himself and absorbing it into the very Essence of His Being.  I continue to breathe in and out and to visualize all of this until I can sense in my spirit that God has removed the veil completely.

Once I feel a release, through picturing that the veil has been eliminated, I ask God, “What is it that You wish to give H in this moment, Lord?”  And then I listen.  Right now, I am hearing “The feeling that she is My Beloved…My Lovely One, in whom I find such delight.  The One that I love so dearly and so completely.”  That's pretty cool God!

In my spirit, I picture myself becoming an avenue, through which, this knowledge and these feelings can be imparted to and experienced by H.  Through God’s powerful, life-giving Spirit, I become a conduit of His loving-kindness toward her.  And it, once again, happens through my breathing.  But now, though, it's being funneled through each exhalation.  And, as I breath out, I picture these feelings being imparted to H, God’s Beloved.  Again, all of this is God’s doing; I am nothing but an instrument through which He is doing His work…His work of bringing relief to one of His children.  As I exhale, I picture H just being bathed in the light and warmth of these very personal feelings that God has for her.  In my spirit, it's as if I can picture H taking these feelings unto herself, wrapping herself up in them, and experiencing the intense pleasure that comes from being loved so completely by her Father.  Much like the pleasure she might feel wrapping herself up in a warm blanket she just pulled from the dryer.  The loving-kindness of God is THAT tangible, my friends, and it is always right there for us to receive…and to give to others--that we all might be healed.

This is Tonglen practice.  There are many different variations of it, which I will share with you in future posts.  For now, though, I urge you “to practice” these things by breathing in the sufferings of those around you and by dying with each out-breath as God’s loving-kindness is imparted to them.

God bless you and all those whom your heart holds dear.

In Him, by Him, and for Him,

Bling