A Tibetan Buddhist breathing practice in which you take in suffering on the in-breath and give out relief on the out-breath. The Tibetan word gtong len literally means giving and taking. It is the central exercise of the Lojong mind-training tradition.

Where does tonglen come from?

From the Lojong tradition transmitted by Atisha Dipankara from India to Tibet in the eleventh century, then crystallised by Chekawa Yeshe Dorje in his twelfth-century Seven Points of Mind Training. It is rooted in the broader Mahayana Buddhist bodhisattva ideal.

How do you practice tonglen?

The basic structure: on the in-breath, take in suffering (your own or another's). On the out-breath, send out relief or well-being. Pema Chödrön recommends starting with one to three minutes and with suffering that is actually present in your life rather than abstract or distant suffering.

Is tonglen dangerous?

No. A persistent misunderstanding is that you are literally absorbing another person's suffering. The Tibetan teachers are clear that tonglen is a training of the heart, not a transfer of substances. What is trained is the capacity to stay present to suffering without turning away.

Who popularised tonglen in the West?

Pema Chödrön through her 1996 When Things Fall Apart and 2001 The Places That Scare You, drawing on her training under Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Earlier translations by Geshe Rabten, the Dalai Lama, and Trungpa himself brought the Lojong texts into English.

What does it mean?

What does Tonglen mean?

By Kamlesh Sharma Last updated 10 July 2026 Contact

Tonglen is the Tibetan Buddhist breathing practice of taking in suffering on the in-breath and giving out relief on the out-breath. The Tibetan word combines tong (giving) and len (taking, receiving). It is the central exercise of the Lojong mind-training tradition transmitted by Chekawa Yeshe Dorje in twelfth-century Tibet, and it was made widely known in English by Pema Chödrön's 1996 When Things Fall Apart. The practice deliberately inverts the ordinary self-protective reflex, as a structured training in compassion and equanimity.

Where it comes from

Atisha · Chekawa · Pema Chodron · Tibet · ~1000 CE onward. The word belongs to the broader lineage of practice practice, but the shape of it is distinctly Tibet. That shape is part of the answer.

What the practice actually is

When somebody is suffering, most cultures answer: distance yourself. Tibetan Buddhism answers: breathe them in. Tonglen, the practice of giving and taking through breath, is the most counterintuitive meditation in any tradition, and the most powerful. This page is its working bench, plus the wider Tibetan mind-training…

Where the word comes from

From Tibetan gtong len. gtong means to give, to send out, to relinquish. len means to take, to receive, to accept. The compound names the practice precisely: giving and taking in one breath cycle. The practice is rooted in the Mahayana bodhisattva ideal, with Sanskrit antecedents in dāna (giving) and karuṇā (compassion). The English transliteration tonglen has been standardised in Western Buddhist literature since the 1970s, primarily through the work of Tibetan teachers in exile, including Chögyam Trungpa and the early Western translators of the Lojong texts.

The traditional context

Tonglen is the central exercise of the Lojong (blo sbyong, "mind training") tradition, a body of teachings transmitted by Atisha Dipankara from India to Tibet in the eleventh century. Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1101 to 1175) crystallised the teachings into the Seven Points of Mind Training, a short text that has been studied across all major Tibetan schools for nearly nine hundred years. In the traditional Buddhist context, tonglen is paired with bodhicitta (the aspiration to liberate all beings) and is one of the practical methods by which a bodhisattva trains in not turning away from suffering. The practice is also taught in the broader Mahayana traditions of China, Japan, and Korea, though under different names and frameworks.

How it travelled to the modern world

Pema Chödrön's 1996 When Things Fall Apart and 2001 The Places That Scare You brought tonglen into the contemporary English-language wisdom literature in a way that no other Tibetan practice has matched. Her teaching emphasises tonglen as a response to fear, grief, and the difficult feelings of ordinary life rather than as a rarefied monastic technique. Modern adaptations have shown up in palliative care, hospice training, and trauma-informed therapy. Joan Halifax's 2008 Being with Dying integrates tonglen into the contemplative training of clinicians. Frank Ostaseski's Zen Hospice Project applied related compassion practices to end-of-life care. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy-adjacent programmes have experimented with tonglen-style exercises in clinical contexts.

Common misunderstandings

The biggest misunderstanding is the literal one: that you are absorbing another person's suffering and somehow making yourself sick. Pema Chödrön addresses this directly in her teaching. Tonglen is a training of the heart, not an exchange of substances. The second misunderstanding is that you must feel something specific or generate a particular emotional state. The traditional instruction is to keep practising even when the heart feels closed. The capacity to stay present to suffering, your own and others', is what is trained, not a particular feeling. The third is treating tonglen as a quick mood-fix. The Lojong literature is explicit that it is a long-term training that becomes a way of meeting the world, not a technique for feeling better in five minutes.

Related traditions on this site

Hoʻoponopono Another contemplative tradition (Hawaiian) built around taking responsibility for what arises in the field of one's experience. Different cosmology, similar structural move.
Ubuntu The African ethical commitment to not turning away from another's experience. Different vocabulary, same direction of practice.
Sufism The dervish tradition's emphasis on dissolving the self-protective boundary. Tonglen and Sufi practices share the recognition that the boundary itself is what suffering exploits.

A small practice for today

For one minute today, try the basic structure. On the in-breath, take in something difficult that is actually present in your life right now (your own fatigue, a friend's worry, the suffering of a specific person you know). On the out-breath, send out something that would meet that difficulty (space, rest, kindness, ease). One minute is enough. Pema Chödrön's instruction is to start with what is real in your own life before extending the practice outward. Notice that the in-breath does not require you to feel anything specific. The willingness to face the difficulty without turning away is the entire practice.

Questions people ask about Tonglen

What is tonglen?: A Tibetan Buddhist breathing practice in which you take in suffering on the in-breath and give out relief on the out-breath. The Tibetan word gtong len literally means giving and taking. It is the central exercise of the Lojong mind-training tradition.
Where does tonglen come from?: From the Lojong tradition transmitted by Atisha Dipankara from India to Tibet in the eleventh century, then crystallised by Chekawa Yeshe Dorje in his twelfth-century Seven Points of Mind Training. It is rooted in the broader Mahayana Buddhist bodhisattva ideal.
How do you practice tonglen?: The basic structure: on the in-breath, take in suffering (your own or another's). On the out-breath, send out relief or well-being. Pema Chödrön recommends starting with one to three minutes and with suffering that is actually present in your life rather than abstract or distant suffering.
Is tonglen dangerous?: No. A persistent misunderstanding is that you are literally absorbing another person's suffering. The Tibetan teachers are clear that tonglen is a training of the heart, not a transfer of substances. What is trained is the capacity to stay present to suffering without turning away.
Who popularised tonglen in the West?: Pema Chödrön through her 1996 When Things Fall Apart and 2001 The Places That Scare You, drawing on her training under Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Earlier translations by Geshe Rabten, the Dalai Lama, and Trungpa himself brought the Lojong texts into English.

Sources

Chödrön, P. (1996). When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times. Shambhala.
Chödrön, P. (2001). The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times. Shambhala.
Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (12th c.). Seven Points of Mind Training. Multiple translations, including Geshe Rabten.
Trungpa, C. (1993). Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness. Shambhala.
Halifax, J. (2008). Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death. Shambhala.

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