Ep 38: Dr. Erika Rosenberg: Buddhist ‘Tonglen’ meditation—compassion in action

The Buddhist Tonglen meditation, a “warrior training” that reinforces altruistic resolve, allows us to take in the suffering of others, witness pain and stay without fleeing, building courage, opening us up to be of service. While it makes us kinder and more compassionate, it also makes us strong, says Dr. Erika Rosenberg, a US-based psychological scientist, who integrates traditional Buddhist practices with key concepts and techniques from Western Psychology. The Tonglen meditation practice (at 40:00) gives you something you can turn to in situations where you feel there’s nothing else you can do.

Dr. Erika Rosenberg is a Founding Faculty at the Compassion Institute, a non-profit devoted to promoting compassion education worldwide. She co-authored the Compassion Cultivation Training program with Thupten Jinpa and others in 2009 at Stanford University. She is part of the faculty at The Nyingma Institute in Berkeley. She is also a world-renowned expert in facial expression, who trains and consults on facial measurement using the Facial Action Coding System .

References:

• Online Compassion Cultivation Training with Erika Rosenberg October 2024
• How to Practise Tonglen Meditation by Pema Chödrön 
• Pema Chödrön’s essay “Transforming the heart of suffering”
• Roshi Joan Halifax - Strong Back, Soft Front

Timestamps:
01:23 Erika’s journey into meditation and Tonglen, discovering Buddhism
10:00 The Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT)
11:55 How Tonglen is transformational
15:23 The four stages of Tonglen; cultivating active compassion
19:00 The neuroscience of helping; a mental rehearsal
21:37 Does Tonglen make a difference to the other person or recipient?
26:44 Two lived personal examples of Tonglen
33:36 Pema Chodron and “Tonglen as you go”
40:00 A preliminary Tonglen meditation practice
45:23 Learning acceptance; acknowledging what is present
48:25 Tonglen intensive workshop by Erika
51:00 “Lojong” slogans
53:39 Skills to deal with mind wandering
54:50 Meta cognitive awareness; mindfulness of mind
57:17 Her expertise in facial expression and emotion (Facial Action Coding System – FACS)

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