Tonglen (Tibetan: གཏོང་ལེན་, Wylie: gtong len, or tonglin) is Tibetan for 'giving and taking' (or sending and receiving), and refers to a meditation practice found in Tibetan Buddhism.

In the practice, one visualizes taking onto oneself the suffering of others on the in-breath, and on the out-breath giving happiness and success to all sentient beings. As such it is a training in altruism.

The function of the practice is to:

The practice of Tonglen involves all of the Six Perfections; giving, ethics, patience, joyous effort, concentration and wisdom. These are the practices of a Bodhisattva.

H.H. The Dalai Lama, who is said to practise Tonglen every day, has said of the technique:

His Holiness offers a translation of the Eight Verses in his book The Path To Tranquility: Daily Meditations.

This practice is summarized in seven points, which are attributed to the great Indian Buddhist teacher Atisha Dipankara Shrijnana, born in 982 CE. They were first written down by Kadampa master Langri Tangpa (1054–1123). The practice became more widely known when Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1101–1175) summarized the points in his Seven Points of Training the Mind. This list of mind training (lojong) proverbs or 'slogans' compiled by Chekawa is often referred to as the Atisha Slogans.

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo is a Tibetan Buddhist nun in the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school. She is an author, teacher and founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Himachal Pradesh, India. She is best known for being one of the very few Western yoginis trained in the East, having spent twelve years living in a remote cave in the Himalayas, three of those years in strict meditation retreat.

Vicki Mackenzie, who wrote Cave in the Snow about her, relates that what inspired the writing of the book was reading Tenzin Palmo's statement to a Buddhist magazine that "I have made a vow to attain Enlightenment in the female form - no matter how many lifetimes it takes".

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo was born Diane Perry in the East End of London in June 1943. Although spiritualist meetings were held in her childhood home, she realized at the age of 18 that she was a Buddhist when she read a library book on the subject. She moved to India at 20, where she taught English at the Young Lamas Home School for a few months before meeting her root lama, the 8th Khamtrul Rinpoche. In 1964 she became only the second Western woman to be ordained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, receiving the name Drubgyu Tenzin Palmo, or 'Glorious Lady who Upholds the Doctrine of the Practice Succession'. The ordination was as a shramanerika, or novice nun, the highest level of ordination currently available for women in the Tibetan tradition where the bhikshuni sangha has died out. However, with the support of her teacher, in 1973 Tenzin Palmo received the full bhikshuni ordination in Hong Kong, one of the first Western women to do so.

Khenpo Sherab Sangpo (Wylie: mkhan po shes rab bzang po)

Khenpo Sherab Sangpo was trained by Khenpo Petse Rinpoche and Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche, two of the greatest masters of the Nyingma tradition in recent history. Most recently, he was invited to teach at Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche's Ka-Nying Shedrup Ling monastery, where he gave lectures to both Tibetan monks and Western students at the Centre for Buddhist Studies.

Khenpo Sherab Sangpo teaching at the Minneapolis Shambhala Center

Khenpo (tib. literally "wise one" a title equivalent to a western Ph.D.)is the spiritual adviser of the Bodhicitta Sangha. He was first invited to Minnesota to teach under the auspicious of the Rimé Foundation

“Khenpo Sherab Sangpo studied under the lord of refuge Khenchen Padma Tsewang Rinpoche…and with numerous masters of all traditions. He has taught the profound Dharma of sutra and mantra to students of numerous nationalities. This teacher should be treated with reverence and respect. Doing so will bring goodness in this life and the next and establish a profound connection with the Buddha’s teachings.” - Katok Getsé Rinpoche