CBD 2026: iPause Guided Practice - Tonglen (“Giving and taking”): A Buddhist Approach to Developing Empathy and Expanding the Scope of Care with James Gentry

Tonglen, or “giving and taking,” is one among many contemplative practices Tibetan Buddhist traditions offer to develop empathy for others and expand the scope of care. It combines the mindfulness of breathing with a simple visualization exercise to cultivate an attitude of radical generosity by imaginatively giving away all one’s own positive circumstances and happiness and taking on the misfortunes and suffering of others in gradually expanding circles of familiarity and care, starting with loved ones and ending with all beings. As an integral part of the “mind training” tradition of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Tonglen is designed to not only counteract isolation and develop empathy, but also to actively imagine and partake in a richly interconnected ontology of care inclusive of all forms of life.

This iPause Guided Practice is part one of a two-part series with James Gentry in the Contemplation By Design Summit.

This practice session will extend the knowledge and skills presented during the keynote lecture on titled Buddhist Ways of Being Human in the Age of AI Oct. 20 at 7pm. Please consider attending James's keynote as well if your schedule permits you to do so.

You are welcome to join one or both of James's Summit sessions.

James Gentry is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. He specializes in Tibetan Buddhism, with particular focus on the literature and history of its Tantric traditions. He is the author of The Bodhisattva’s Body in a Pill (University of Virginia Press, 2026), which traces the history of the maṇi pill, one of Tibet’s most popular and enduring Buddhist relic traditions, from its precedents in the 8th and 9th centuries to the present period as a lens into the broader history of Tantra in Tibet at the nexus of ritual and medicine; and Power Objects in Tibetan Buddhism: The Life, Writings, and Legacy of Sokdokpa Lodrö Gyeltsen (Brill, 2017), which examines the roles of Tantric material and sensory objects in the lives and institutions of Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhists.

This session is part of the FREE Contemplation by Design Summit, Oct. 14-25, 2026.

The full summit schedule for this year will be posted at: https://med.stanford.edu/contemplation/summit.html.