This Week on Integral Spiritual Center....
A Goldmine of Suffering - Diane Hamilton/Ken Wilber
The Trinity: Love Loving Love - Fr. Thomas Keating
A Goldmine of Suffering (audio)
Perhaps
one of the most powerful meditative practices of all is the Buddhist
practice of Tonglen. In fact, when, near the end of his life, the
noted Tibetan Buddhist and “crazy wisdom” teacher Chogyam Trungpa
Rinpoche was asked what sort of meditation he practiced, he is said to
have answered, “Tonglen, baby!” In an exquisite interchange in this
week’s featured audio, ISC Teachers Ken Wilber and Diane Hamilton share
the practice with I-I Member Richard Munn.
It is said that the
whole of the spiritual life is breathing in and breathing out. In
Tonglen practice, one breathes in the suffering of sentient beings, and
breathes out compassion. Self and other are exchanged, thus bridging
the subject-object dualism that many other techniques implicitly
reinforce. In Tonglen, those boundaries drop, resulting in
extraordinary depth. The nearly limitless suffering of all sentient
beings can be taken into the infinite Heart, and from its deep wells,
compassion is abundantly given in return.
While from a rational
point of view, such practices might be frowned upon as being
ineffective—or even counterproductive—there is much evidence to
indicate that something very real, if inexplicable, is in fact going
on. Indeed, Alfred North Whitehead warned against “simple location,”
the notion that phenomena can be easily located in space and time.
Practices such as Tonglen and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (in
which one visualizes Jesus’ Heart pouring out compassion on oneself and
the world) have long maintained that reality in the subtle realm can
manifest in the gross realm. What seems miraculous in the latter is a
simple, natural movement of the former. To put it integral terms: one
person's practice can help to create Kosmic habits that benefits
countless others in that person's footsteps.
The experience of one’s
own suffering can provide an exquisite opportunity to practice
Tonglen. Perhaps no one better understands suffering than those in its
midst. In this sort of meditation, one accepts both one’s own
suffering and that of those who likewise suffer, eventually including
the suffering of all beings. “Life is suffering,” holds the First
Noble Truth. But nonetheless, the intention of the Bodhisattva is held
as deeply: “may all beings be free from suffering….”
The Trinity: Love Loving Love
Fr.
Thomas Keating unpacks one of the most profound doctrines of
Christianity, in this excerpt from the autumn 2024 Integral
Contemplative Christianity seminar.