Last time I shared with your how I made it through a very stressful time – going to court for over one and a half years while I divorced my ex husband acting as my own attorney.  During this time I depended on spiritual practice like never before to get me through the difficulties. Yet I did not have time for the hours of meditation, chanting and exercise I previously had time for.  How lucky I had been to put “spiritual credit” in the bank, however, and how fortunate to be able to draw on it now and invent more “spot check” practice for emergencies.

I used several “On the Spot” techniques to keep me going.  I want to share two of them with you today.

The first practice I used was a type of simple #Mindlefulness technique I invented which made use of an acronym:

P-A-U-S-E

I bought a cheap stopwatch that beeped on the hour.  When it beeped I did the following.  I simply stopped right in the middle of whatever it was I was doing (usually obsessing).  Here is how it goes:

P = Pause.  Just for a moment, right here and right now.

A = Awareness.  Bring awareness to whatever it is you are doing, right here, right now.  Have mercy on you.  Soften your belly.

U =Understanding.  Understand that whatever you are going through, you are not alone.  Millions are going through it right now and have gone through it before.

S = Surrender.  To things as they are in this very moment, right here, right now.

E = Experience.  Experience whatever is going on in your body at this very moment.  Life the corners of your mouth slightly and move on.

This little technique was one of the most amazing helpers in a difficult and stressful time, in and out of the courtroom.  I still use it.

Tonglen

#Tonglen is a described  in Part III of my book  # First Kill All the Lawyers, yet it is # Pema Chödrön’s excellent work in this arena I recommend as the most accessible and user friendly around.

Tonglen is a simple yet remarkable on the spot compassion meditation technique which can be easily learned with practice and need not take more than a few moments.  I know of nothing more powerful to bring us back in sync with others and calm us than this technique.  I am told the #Dalai Lama uses it constantly.

 In Tibetan the word tonglen literally means “sending and taking.” As in most forms of spiritual meditation, one does not have to believe in a God or Higher Power.  This is simply an ancient art of bringing compassion and forgiveness to the self, and ultimately to all beings, as we find ourselves in muddle after muddle, often feeling as if we are the only ones suffering as we do.  Yet with this practice, easy to do on the run, I found I could use it anywhere, in the courtroom, in the marketplace, and especially when I sat alone with my unhappy thoughts, feeling lost and sad and very scared.  It is an unbelievably powerful way to connect to others.

Here are some simple instructions to practice the first time:

• Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Then bring a picture of yourself to mind. Bring a thought about yourself, usually negative and perseverating, like “You’ll never get out of this one,” or “you’ll lose the house” or “the children will starve, die, etc.”

• Breathe this quality (yes, quality) into your own body, with the out-pictured image of yourself and this fear, this terror, back into yourself as thick, dark smoke. As you breathe it in, breathe it into every pore and fiber of your being. Take your time.   Keep it in mind as you sit with your eyes closed. Keep this picture of yourself and your negative thought in mind…you are still breathing it in as dark, thick smoke.

• Then exhale cool, white blessings on the situation, and offer everything up as a blessing to all who suffer in that moment, somewhere, exactly as you are suffering right now. This is the alchemy. You are alchemizing the thick, hot, gunk-y stuff into cool, white, blessing stuff and using it to transform your experience, then other’s experience.   You have begun with yourself and extrapolated to all beings who suffer in the same way as you do.
• You may do this once or twice for this particular situation. This is very important, the process of beginning with the self. It puts us startlingly up against the pure fact that at this very moment in time, there are others just like us who hurt like we do, and we often begin to “melt” with compassion for ourselves and others who hurt at the very moment we notice our own suffering.
• Therefore the next breathing sequence is done for all beings who suffer like we do, and the same inhale and exhale occurs. On the inhale, imagine we breathe in, as thick, hot, dark smoke the suffering of others who are in the same pickle we find ourselves in, and on the exhale, we breathe out cool white and pure healing light and blessings on these beings.

TO SUMMARIZE:

• Inhale a painful quality of ourselves as suffering into our beings as thick, hot smoke;
• Exhale cool, pure, healing light and blessings onto the image of ourselves
• Then repeat and use the same technique for another – inhale and exhale using another being/situation over which we suffer or feel powerless.

If the pain and shame and suffering is too much, then bring that as fact as to your practice – that many beings are feeling exactly as you are right now, humiliated, ashamed, guilty, rotten.  You are not alone.  This joining of singular mind to universal mind and heart is the very essence of any compassionate practice.  We drop all story lines and offer our sincere wishes that all beings be free of suffering.