“If you’re determined to think of yourself as limited, fearful, vulnerable, or scarred by past experience, know only that you have chosen to do so, and that the opportunity to experience yourself differently is always available.”
-Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, The Joy of Living
Last week, I talked about why imagination is so powerful for transformation (and included a 5 minute movement practice!). This week, I wanted to build on that conversation by sharing an embodied meditation that I really love— ton glen (“sending and taking”) practice. This is a Tibetan Buddhist meditation technique that relies heavily on imagination to create change in our minds.
Traditionally, ton glen is done for another being, or for multiple beings. In the variation I’m sharing here— taught to me by Tergar instructor Tim Olmsted— we practice ton glen for a past version of ourselves, and as a future version of ourselves extending the practice to our current situation.
As with all these practices, the idea is to loosen our habitual perception and begin to explore new ways of relating to ourselves and our experience. We’re also making a conscious choice to practice something different— recognizing that we have agency, and that we do not need to continue to do what we’ve always done.
As Mingyur Rinpoche says, the choice to experience ourselves differently is always available. Imagination helps us find it.
Let me know what you think in the comments— was this supportive for you? What was your experience?
