The inner life
Tonglen
Direct answer
Tonglen: Tonglen, Tibetan for giving and taking, is a compassion practice in which the meditator breathes in the suffering of others and breathes out relief.
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At a glance
- Also called
- giving and taking meditation, sending and receiving
- Found in
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Related
- Loving-Kindness, Mindfulness, Visualisation, Breath Awareness
Tonglen, Tibetan for giving and taking, is a compassion practice in which the meditator breathes in the suffering of others and breathes out relief.
A plain educational schematic; it does not diagnose a condition or replace professional care.
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What does tonglen mean?
Tonglen means giving and taking, or sending and receiving. The meditator pictures the pain of another person as dark, heavy smoke and breathes it in; on the out-breath they send ease, pictured as cool light. It can begin with one's own distress and widen to people one knows, strangers and enemies.
The practice turns an ordinary reflex around. Instead of pulling towards comfort and away from pain, it rehearses the opposite. In Tibetan Buddhism it belongs to lojong, mind training, and is meant to weaken self-concern and build the wish to help that the tradition calls bodhicitta.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Meditation.
What sets Tonglen apart
Tonglen reverses the direction of almost every other breathing exercise, which has the sitter breathe in something good and breathe out something unwanted. Here the unwanted comes in and the good goes out. The root text gives it one line: train in giving and taking alternately, and mount them on the breath. Its test is practical, whether the meditator flinches a little less from pain that is not their own.
- Language: Tibetan gtong len: gtong, to give or send; len, to take or receive
- Family: lojong, mind training
- Root text: Seven Points of Mind Training, Geshe Chekawa, twelfth century
- Attributed source: Atisha, in Tibet from 1042
- Images used: dark, hot smoke breathed in; cool, bright light breathed out
Often mistaken for something else: Loving-kindness sends good wishes outward; tonglen first takes the other person's suffering in, and only then sends relief.
The story behind Tonglen
Tibetan tradition credits the Indian master Atisha, who arrived in Tibet in 1042, with bringing the mind training teachings. Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1101 to 1175) set them out in the Seven Points of Mind Training, where giving and taking are to be practised alternately and mounted on the breath. Tibetan teachers in exile taught it widely in the West from the 1970s.
Why Tonglen matters
Tonglen is the clearest example of a meditation aimed at character, at how one meets other people's pain, and not at calm or insight.
How to read Tonglen
Practitioners turn to it at a sickbed, after bad news, or when their own pain makes them think of everyone who feels the same.
Tonglen in practice: an example
Sitting beside a sick friend, someone silently breathes in the friend's fear and breathes out steadiness, three slow rounds.
Where readings of Tonglen go wrong
Tonglen is an exercise of imagination and intention; the tradition does not teach that illness is literally taken on, and people in acute distress may find it too heavy.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Aliases
- tonglen meditation, giving and taking meditation, sending and receiving, tonglen meaning, tonglen practice
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What does tonglen mean?
It is Tibetan for giving and taking, also translated as sending and receiving. Tong means to give or send, and len means to take or receive.
How is tonglen practised?
The meditator breathes in while imagining the suffering of a person or group, and breathes out while imagining relief flowing to them. Sessions usually start with a moment of stillness and widen step by step.
Is tonglen the same as loving-kindness meditation?
They are related but different. Loving-kindness wishes others well with silent phrases. Tonglen adds the deliberate taking in of their pain, and is paced on the breath.
