---

In the practice of tonglen, we are invited to enter into resonance with the enlightened mind—not as an abstract ideal, but as a living reality that flows through us. At first, we may find this difficult. The suffering of the world appears overwhelming; the weight of ignorance and craving seems insurmountable. And yet, the very act of attempting tonglen implies the possibility of its success.

To take upon oneself the suffering of all beings is not the burden of an individual self—it is the spontaneous activity of an awakened heart. If we ask what kind of mind could engage in such an effort, we see that it can only be a mind already free. Not a mind striving from a place of limitation, but one that knows—through direct glimpse, through intuitive certainty—that suffering is not ultimate.

This is why, in Mahamudra, it is said that one must “fake it till you make it.” Yet perhaps we should say: “Make it till you make it.” The only mind that can truly practice tonglen is the mind that has, in some measure, already accomplished the task. We do not wait for perfection to act with compassion. Rather, it is by acting as if we are already free from suffering—by allowing the reality of liberation to flow through us—that we draw closer to its realization.

Thus, the practice is not merely a technique, but a stance, a mode of being. We are not trying to alleviate suffering as a problem to be solved, nor do we take on suffering as a weight to be borne. Instead, we open ourselves to the inexorable radiance of reality, allowing it to shine into the lives of all beings. This is the mind of the Bodhisattva: one who does not despair at suffering because they stand in the certainty of its transcendence.

To practice, tonglen is to allow that certainty to move through us—to make it real, until, one day, we discover it has always been so.

Saddhu