It is impossible to connect with every constituency online or to regularly address every single issue that impacts our democracy. There are, however, spiritual ways to make these connections. Tonglen is a Buddhist practice to transform dark energy into light. Pema Chödrön describes it this way in Start Where You Are: "In its essence, this practice of tonglen is, when anything is painful or undesirable, to breathe it in. That's another way of saying you don't resist it. You surrender to yourself, you acknowledge who you are, you honor yourself. As unwanted feelings and emotions arise, you breathe them in and connect with what all humans feel. We all know what it is to feel pain in its many guises. This breathing in is done for yourself, in the sense that it's a personal and real experience, but simultaneously there's no doubt that you're at the same time developing your kinship with all beings. If you can know it in yourself, you can know it in everyone." Taking this dark energy in does not mean staying in that space. The next step in the practice involves breathing out relief — a feeling of delight, inspiration, relaxation, spaciousness. She continues, "Breathing out is like ventilating the whole thing, airing it out. Breathing out is like opening up your arms and just letting go. It's fresh air." You begin by seeking to relieve a specific situation of suffering, your own or another's. Then you extend that relief to all others in the same situation.
To practice this when you are online, notice specific instances of painful or undesirable events and difficult emotions. Breathe them in. Then breathe out qualities that change or relieve that suffering. Start with a specific instance: a child without health care because of decisions by legislators. Then universalize it: all children without health care. By breathing in the dark (the child's suffering) and breathing out the light (envisioning the child with access to healing), you can transform the negative into something positive. Then you can offer it back to the world, even to the world wide web, in a healing capacity.
— Kristin Ritzau, Pema Chodron in Practicing Democracy Online by Kristin Ritzau