Exploring how to keep an open heart in difficult times, RamDev shares a Tibetan Tonglen guided meditation for cultivating compassion for all suffering beings.
Frightened of Finishing Netflix…
Opening the podcast by sharing a list of short coronavirus memoirs written by people during the height of the pandemic, RamDev invites us to feel the poignancy of the suffering people are going through. Pointing to spiritual practice as a true anchor of wellbeing during difficult times, he speaks to the potency of global practices, like Tonglen and Loving Kindness, which compassionately encompass all sentient beings.
“You have to have a deep enough connection with self, with God, with practice, that you can realize that your heart is boundless and you can take in all that suffering.” – RamDev
Learn Tibetan Tonglen practice for dealing with personal and collective suffering, with RamDev, on Ep. 32 of Healing at the Edge
Drive All Blames Into Oneself (8:28)
Extrapolating the Carl G. Jung quote, “When an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside by fate,” RamDev discusses the relationship between our inner world and the outer environment. Sharing stories where the environment sparked difficulties in people’s lives, RamDev warns of placing blame outside oneself, urging us, as meditation practitioners, to come back to our body and open our hearts. Sharing poetry from Hafiz, RamDev beckons the question: can we see the difficult as another face of God?
“There is this slogan in Tibetan Buddhism: ‘Drive all blames into oneself.’ That, as long as you are blaming the environment for how you’re feeling, healing is not happening. Yes, the environment is triggering things, but it’s up to us as practitioners, as soon as we’re feeling off-centered or close-hearted, we deal with what we’re feeling. Can we come back to our bodies? Can we open our hearts?” – RamDev
For more RamDev elucidating the nuances of opening the heart amidst suffering of the ego, check out Ep. 59 of Healing at the Edge
Tonglen Guided Meditation (15:25)
RamDev leads a Tonglen guided meditation for embodied mindfulness, surrendering into spaciousness, opening the heart, and holding collective and personal suffering in compassion and loving kindness.
Just One Mind Moment Away (29:50)
Opening the virtual session to audience questions, RamDev explores how we can we remain open to receive God’s showering blessing at all moments. Can we recognize—even in moments of extreme fear, boredom, and anxiety—that God’s blessing is always just one mind moment away?
“Every moment we are being showered with God’s blessing. Maharajji said, ‘I am always in communion with you.’ In the Bible, Christ says virtually the same thing. It’s hard to remember, it’s hard to imagine, that when we are in a very boring, scary, or anxious moment, that even then, this profound blessing is available. It’s just one mind moment away.” – RamDev
Joseph Goldstein invites us to quiet the mind and cultivate loving thought through practice and perspective, on Ep. 105 of the Insight Hour
