When we practice tonglen, we take away all the sufferings of each of the realms—the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings. There is so much described about all these sufferings.

Dear Dechen,Thank you for your kind offerings and letter. I am just an ordinary person experiencing the suffering of self-cherishing; nothing special.

We need an open heart. There are different views, so apply the views that are more beneficial.

My very dear Jean,I’m very happy to have met you, especially knowing that you are helping other people by taking their pain and sickness upon yourself. In Buddhism this is called exchanging yourself for others.

This is the practice of reciting and meditating on the four immeasurable thoughts:The Four Immeasurable ThoughtsHow wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were to abide in equanimity,free from hatred and attachment, not holding some close and o

Tonglen is the practice of taking and giving, the most brave practice of bodhicitta. One way of doing this practice is by reciting verse 95 in the Lama Chöpa:

A student practicing tonglen wrote to Rinpoche saying she didn’t really understand what it meant to take on others' suffering.

Rinpoche made the following comments on tonglen practice.

Although we have different definitions for love and compassion, and during tonglen practice love and compassion are practiced at different times, actually, they are not separate.Just as smoke is a sign of fire, and with fire there is smoke, so, too,

Rinpoche: Tell the people if we all rejoice in it, then if their level of mind [of the people offering the gold] is lower than ours, we collect double merits than theirs.Student: Then Rinpoche has multi-zillion merits.