A piece of wisdom from
November 26, 2026 · Thursday
The quote
“I collapsed at my desk. I broke my cheekbone. I had been working ninety-hour weeks and called it dedication. The collapse was the most important thing that ever happened to me — because it was the start of treating my body as a thing that mattered.”
— Arianna Huffington · Burnout
The concept
Tonglen
The Tibetan practice of breathing in suffering, and breathing out relief, and the wider mind-training that grew around it.
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 mos…
A practice for today
Before bed tonight, name one thing where the lesson of Tonglen. The Tibetan practice of breathing in suffering, and breathing out relief, and the wider mind-training that grew around it.
From the Bhagavad Gita
Verse 2.22
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि। तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही॥
“As a person sheds worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so does the embodied self shed worn-out bodies and take on new ones.”
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