In this episode of Meditation Happy Hour, guest Rosa Schnyer explains what a Bodhisattva is and how Tonglen is a potent practice of choice for the resiliency needed during these difficult times. She goes into how one's aspiration is a key element in avoiding empathetic distress.
About the Bodhisattva Path, Rosa says, "It's to put a focus of our attention on our shared human suffering. It's been rough around the world for a while, really rough you know, and if you orient your heart towards alleviating suffering for and devoting your life to the benefit of all beings, how in the world do you hold space enough to have resilience to move not only through your own challenges and difficulties day in, day out, but to hold space and to hold the intention that what you're doing in the world is for the benefit of all beings? How in the world do you do you not lose hope and heart and energy? And how do you do that? That's our challenge.
That's the path that we are walking. That I am walking, that you are walking, that we committed practitioners are walking, you know. So it's about taking the spotlight from just our own suffering and shining it in all of us and then finding an effective way to transform that in our hearts so that we can continue to show up and adapt, and you know, work through wholeness without breaking down and falling into empathic distress. I have found that the practice of Tonglen has really helped me do that."
Rosa brings her Resilience: The Awakened Heart of the Bodhisattva workshop to Mind Oasis on 6 June 2021.
