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Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing

How Can I Practice Tibetan Meditation?

Tibetan medicine emphasizes the connection between mind, behavior,
and body. You may be amazed at how unruly your mind is when you
try to sit quietly and observe your thoughts. Tibetan meditation is
designed to tame your monkey mind and help it become a tool that you
can use to create health and happiness. Meditation is like training your
mental muscle. Your mind improves with practice.

Become familiar with your mind

In the Tibetan language, meditation (ghom) means to become familiar
with your mind. As you develop awareness of your negative thinking,
you can let it go and replace it with compassion, lovingkindness, and
wisdom. You have many options for becoming familiar with your mind.
For example, you can meditate while sitting, walking, lying down,
dancing, or even listening to music. You may feel less distracted if you
do sitting meditation. Just start with a brief two-minute meditation every
hour or so to calm and focus your mind.

Tibetan meditations you can use

Related Pages
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Be Good to Yourself
How Do Thoughts &
Emotions Impact Health?
Yoga

These three Tibetan meditations will help you to let go of negativity and
develop lovingkindness and compassion toward yourself, others, and
the world around you. Lovingkindness and compassion enhance the immune system, open the heart,
and promote balance. Doing these meditations regularly will promote your health and happiness.
Meditation on Compassion
Make yourself comfortable sitting, standing, walking, or lying down.
Straighten your back, relax your body, and breathe deeply; shift your focus from external distractions
to your mind.
Engage in circular breathing throughout the meditation: Breathe slowly and deeply through your
nose, from your abdomen, with your in-breath the same length as out-breath, and no break inbetween.
Chant this Tibetan mantra repeatedly, evenly, and quietly with the intention of developing
compassion:
Om Mani Padme Hum

Here is how you pronounce this mantra: (h)ome, man ee, pad mee, hoom.
This mantra means the jewel (compassion) in the center of the lotus (your heart). Chanting this mantra
can help you to let go of negativity and fill your heart with compassion and lovingkindness. Regular,
systematic chanting of this mantra promotes physical, mental, and spiritual health. Some people believe
that chanting this mantra for a person who is dying helps the person to let go and die peacefully.
Tibetan Prostrations
Tibetan prostrations help to harmonize mind and body. They are a Tibetan version of Sun Salutations, a
series of popular yoga poses.
Stand tall like a mountain, with your hands in prayer pose in front of your chest at the level of your
heart. In yoga, this posture is called Mountain Pose.
Relax your body, lower your eyelids, and breathe deeply; shift your focus from external distractions to
your mind.
Engage in circular breathing throughout this meditation: Breathe slowly and deeply through your
nose, from your abdomen, with your in-breath the same length as out-breath, and no break inbetween.
Keeping your hands together in prayer pose, place your hands at the crown of your head, then at
your forehead, then at your throat, and then at the level of your heart.
Kneel on the floor, with your hands flat on floor, and touch your forehead to the floor. Or, for a fulllength prostration, kneel on the floor and then lie flat on the floor, forehead touching floor, arms
outstretched, and hands flat on floor.
Stand up, return to Mountain Pose, and bring your attention back to circular breathing.
Do at least three prostrations.
Stand up and return to Mountain Pose; bring your attention back to circular breathing.
Open your eyes; continue circular breathing, mindfulness, and centeredness throughout the day.
Tonglen Meditation
Breathe in suffering and breathe out compassion
Make yourself comfortable sitting, standing, walking, or lying down.
Straighten your back, relax your body, and breathe deeply; shift your focus from external distractions
to your mind.
Engage in circular breathing throughout this meditation: Breathe slowly and deeply through your
nostrils, from your abdomen, with the in-breath the same length as the out-breath, and without a
pause in between the in-breath and out-breath.
Do Tonglen for yourself: As you breathe in, let your greed, anger, jealousy, fear, attachment,
confusion, and other negative thinking come to the surface. On your out-breath, breathe out this
negative thinking, and fill the empty space with compassion.
Do Tonglen for someone you love: Breathe in the suffering of someone you love, and breathe out
compassion to the person. Realize that your loved one wants to be happy, but is suffering instead.
Open your heart to your loved one.
Do Tonglen for someone about whom you feel neutral: Breathe in the suffering of someone
about whom you feel neutral (for example, a clerk in a store), and breathe out compassion to this
person. Realize that the individual wants to be happy but is suffering instead. Open your heart to the
person.
Do Tonglen for someone you dislike: Breathe in the suffering of someone you think has hurt you,
and breathe out compassion to the person. Realize that the individual, like you and everyone else,

wants to be happy. Because of negative thinking, the person makes harmful choices that lead to
suffering. If you increase that suffering, the person may behave even worse. You are best off
developing compassion so you can think clearly about how to deal with the individual in a manner
that brings back good consequences, not bad ones (karma). Open your heart to the person.
Do Tonglen for the world: Breathe in the suffering of the world, and breathe out compassion to the
world. Realize that everyone in the world wants to be happy, but too often makes unhealthy choices
that lead to suffering instead. By developing universal compassion, you will take steps to help relieve
this suffering. Open your heart to the world.
Purification: At the end of your meditation, visualize the suffering you breathed in as black smoke.
You must let go of this black smoke, or it could increase your own suffering. Breathe out this black
smoke completely. Then fill your heart and your whole being with compassion toward yourself,
everyone else, and the world.
This meditation uses the breath to transform negativity into compassion for yourself and others. By doing
Tonglen Meditation on a regular basis, you will let go of negativity, open your heart, and develop clear
thinking that leads to healthy lifestyle choices.

+ References
Expert Contributor: Miriam Cameron, PhD, MS, MA, RN; Tenzin Namdul, DTMS, BA, PHCcc; Katharine
O. Swenson, MD, MS, RN
Reviewed by: Tashi Lhamo, DTMS, RN

HEALING PRACTICES a-z

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Acupuncture
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CONDITIONS a-z

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