forwardly without complication: old people or people
who are ill or little children, or people who have been
kind to you.
When he was eight years old, Trungpa Rinpoche
saw a whimpering puppy being stoned to death by a
laughing, jeering crowd. He said that after that, doing
tonglen practice was straightforward for him: all he
had to do was think of that dog and his heart would
start to open instantly. There was nothing compli-
cated about it. He would have done anything to
breathe in the suffering of that animal and to breathe
out relief. So the idea is to start with something like
that, something that activates your heart.
So you think of a puppy being stoned and dying in
pain, and you breathe that in. Then, it is no longer
just a puppy. It is your connection with the realization
that there are puppies and people suffering unjustly
like that all over the world. You immediately extend
the practice and breathe in the suffering of all the
people who are suffering like that animal.
It is also possible to start with the puppy or your
uncle or yourself and then gradually extend out fur-
ther and further. Having started with the wish to
relieve your sister’s depression, you could extend
further and breathe in the depression of people who
are somewhat “neutral”—the ones to whom you are
not that close but who also don’t cause you fear or
anger. You breathe in the depression and send out re-
lief to all those “neutral” people. Then, gradually, the
58 Start Where You Are