Tonglen and the Illumined Imagination - Danadasa 2026-01-11

What if the imagination itself could become a doorway to compassion, ease, and awakening?

Danadasa begins by grounding listeners in the Tibetan practice of tonglen—breathing in the suffering of oneself and others as dark smoke, and breathing out cool, healing moonlight. Rather than treating this as a grim or burdensome task, he reframes it through the imaginal realm: a space where metaphor, poetry, and visualization bypass the thinking mind and speak directly to the heart. Danadasa highlights how imaginal practices help counter our culture’s tendency to live “up in the head,” inviting a more embodied, heartfelt presence.

From there, he expands the teaching into a guided journey that blends traditional tonglen with Vajrayana-style visualization:

• Imagining the Buddha dissolving into light and taking residence in the “palace of the heart.”
• Breathing the world’s suffering into the Buddha within, allowing him—not the practitioner—to purify it.
• Exhaling moonlight that dissolves fear, anxiety, and emotional obscurations.
• Exploring tathāgatagarbha, the teaching that all beings carry the seed or “womb” of Buddhahood.

Danadasa also reflects on the role of the guru in Vajrayana practice, describing how a teacher’s presence can nonverbally transmit confidence, joy, and a felt sense of one’s own potential. He cites Mark Twain’s line—“the most painful arguments I’ve ever had are the ones that never happened”—to illustrate how imagination shapes experience, and how an illumined imagination can reshape it toward freedom. The talk ultimately becomes an invitation: to trust the creative mind, to soften into shared humanity, and to let the heart become a place where suffering is transformed rather than feared.
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Danadasa (he/him) began meditating and practicing Buddhism in 1993 and was ordained in the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2011 at the San Francisco Buddhist Center. At his ordination, he received his Buddhist name Danadasa which, in Sanskrit, means “servant of generosity”. In 1995, he developed a heart connection with the archetypal Buddha Amitabha, rooted in the Japanese Pure Land tradition Jodo Shinshu (known in the Western world as Shin Buddhism), and has been practicing an Amitabha sadhana (devotional practice) since 2011.

Danadasa is deeply passionate about teaching meditation, mindfulness and Buddhism in a somatic and embodied way, bringing the Buddha’s teachings to life in our imaginations through images and storytelling. Embodied practice is the path of getting out of our heads and into our bodies, for it is in our bodies that liberation reveals itself.

Over the past 20 years, Danadasa has held various administrative and leadership roles within the San Francisco Buddhist Center (SFBC). And in 2023, he resigned from all of his formal SFBC roles, as well as taking a break from teaching for a period of wandering in the wilderness, free from the external responsibilities, expectations and social norms of the monastery, following in the footsteps of the great “crazy wisdom” Mahasiddhas of the past. Since then, many lineage Masters and archetypal Buddhas have provided Danadasa with guidance and inspiration, including Tilopa, Naropa, Padmasambhava, Vajrakilaya, and Machig Labdron.

In 2024, Danadasa received Vajrayogini initiation and empowerment. Through Vajrayogini, the Mother of All the Buddhas, the meaning of the Buddha’s words is beginning to reveal itself.
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CREDITS
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter