On October 23, 2014 I wrote about the Tibetan Buddhist practice of tonglen in these pages.  Eleven years later, I return.

A silly thought just came … Will I write about tonglen as well as I did years ago?

Who cares?  “Good writing” just isn’t important.  May my heart be in the words then and now.

A week ago I felt tonglen re-emerge … in a meditation session.  I knew once more that the in-breath was for drawing forth the pain of us worldly beings.  The out-breath was for pouring love into us all.

I thought of a few friends who are suffering right now.  In came the sadness, the hurt, the despair.  They dissolved in my heart.  Out went love to the dear ones … and to everyone.

Love, peace, happiness – they’re all fine words.  And each of us is deserving of them.  I contribute to their unfurling.

Now it’s Izy Coffee.  Big windows.  Humans within and without.  I breathe in, not knowing the stories of their lives.  And I breathe out, something good pouring from above, filling their blood vessels, muscles and organs.

It’s so quiet.  So natural.  So perfectly now.

***

No one knows I’m doing it

People keep sitting and walking

People keep talking

I’m silently invisible

All is well