Thanks to Brendan for filling in last minute and leading DPX on Sunday. We meditated to Tara Brock’s version of a traditional Tibetan Tonglen meditation. The meditation started with an embodied smile which can shift your brain’s fundamental energy and we ended with embodying someone else’s pain on the inbreath and then letting their pain out into open space on the outbreath. In the discussion that followed, Mike spoke of staying with discomfort rather than bouncing back and forth between aversion and clinging. We also talked about the suffering of the world and our impact on it and how it can cause anxiety and stress. Alex said that for him “It’s a huge challenge just to be compassionate to the people around you. And that’s enough… rather than an epic world saving guilt trip.” We try to start by doing the internal work of love and compassion through Tonglen Meditation.