Just finished a weekend retreat and the second part in Tergar's Joy of Living. The course was led by Tim Olmsted, the director of the Pema Chodron Foundation. Tim is a dynamic, powerful teacher who reminds me a little (from the nose down) of the actor William Devane.
Structurally I find a lot of similiarities between the Tergar meditation program, and my Zhan Zhuang program, in that the first part is about cultivating a center of calm energy, while the second part is about cultivating power, the ability to do something with that energy.
The second part hinges on four "immeasurables": love (or loving kindness at it is usually used in westernized forms of buddhism), compassion, joy and equanimity. It also introduces certain intermediate meditation practices like tonglen, the practice of breathing in the suffering and stress of others and breathing back out the energy, love and power that we've cultivated so far.
After the first weekend, I remember vividly (or as vividly as I could), how sleepy I was at the end of the weekend. How all that calm energy was sending me into unconsciousness during my meditation, and how hard it was.
At the end of this weekend, despite the fact that my downstairs neighbour had kept me up most of the night with a birthday party, I was energized. I was ready to go out and take on the world, start meditation groups, build a whole new movement. Tonglen especially was a revelation, although I agree with Tim that this is not something you would want to teach to a beginner. You need to have that base of calm energy before you know what it is you're sending out. But once you've built that base of energy, tonglen is like a shot of espresso. Rather than spend your day, as we usually do, ignoring stress and suffering, tonglen encourages you to suck it up, in a healthy, not repressive way. Suck it up and send it back out into the world as a peaceful vitality.
An excellent metaphor for tonglen, is the powerful process by which trees take all the pollution and dirt and muck of the world, and send it back out as fresh air. As Tim pointed out, it's also worth noting how the trees themselves are enriched by this process.
We think we are doing nothing in meditation, but if we are using it to open our hearts and transform misery into healthy energy then what we are doing is radical and essential. As radical and essential as anything on this earth.
