This is a meditation on compassion using our breath and our heart. The foundation of this practice is to breathe in pain and suffering and to breathe out compassion. For this we begin to imagine ourselves as a “flow through”: the breath comes in, we breathe in the suffering into our heart, and then our heart becomes a transformer of sorrows. As we breathe out compassion, we imagine the suffering moving out into a larger space that can hold it all.
As we practice, we start to develop what the Tibetans call the “Lion’s roar”, which is a sense of confidence that we can handle the suffering of this life. It’s the sense that whatever happens, there is room in our heart for it. We don’t need to tense for what’s to come, we can relax and enjoy our moments, because there is room for them. We cultivate a heart that is ready for anything