Tara Brach - 2011-12-31 - Meditation - Awakening Compassion - Tonglen

Episode Date: September 13, 2014

2011-12-31 - Guided Meditation - Awakening Compassion - Tonglen - Our deepest wisdom and purest actions arise out of open-hearted presence. This meditation, "Awakening Compassion," is drawn from the Tibetan tradition and carries us home to the vastness of loving presence.

So we'll be exploring some together the awakening of compassion. And as with all guided practices, you might receive the words and then just sense what fits, what works, so that you adapt in a way that's alive and meaningful to you. The alchemy of compassion, it has two real components, and one of them is

this capacity to contact in our body, in our senses, the aliveness, the feelings that are here. And the other component is this capacity to sense a larger space of belonging, the space it's happening in. So it's this ability to be touched by the suffering, our own or others, but not. to hold on to it, but rather to feel it held in something larger, in a space that's tender and open. Our practice today will have two parts. We're going to begin with a more of an arriving in that embodied presence, because you can't really open the heart unless you're here inhabiting this body, sensing aliveness, sensing

space. And then we'll move on to a more traditional Tunglin practice. or a version of Tonglin, which uses the breath to help to contact the aliveness and contact the space. Take the first few moments, if you will, just to notice if there's any of those habitual kind of tightenings or holdings in the body

and see if there's a natural letting go. And you might have let go about three minutes ago and you can find that there's recontracting all the time. So just loosen her on the shoulders. and the hands. Perhaps take a few full breaths, inhaling deeply, and letting go,

releasing the breath, relaxing outward. And again, and letting go, letting go. One more time, filling the lungs completely. Hold for a moment.

Just feel the fullness to stretch across the chest. And letting go. Yeah, good. So as the breath resumes in a natural way, we will do this embodiment practice of scanning through the body using the image of a smile at the major energy centers. We begin by just sensing open sky. So we begin with space and imagining the curve of a smile filling that space, luminous,

open, extending outward and upward, and then sensing the space and the luminosity filling the mind. Your mind is filled with that sky-like space, smile spreading through the mind. And sense that the space in the mind, you can sense the space in the head between the ears. Can you imagine that? The space between the ears. Can you imagine the space between the brow and the best, back of the head. Can you imagine the space that fills the mind and the space that's outside extending in all directions is continuous? And sense the brightness of the mind like a sun

radiating outward, filling space. So it's aliveness and space from the center of the head outward. And it's smiling into the throat. So the throats fills the whole neck area. Sense the curve of a smile there, sense the space and aliveness inside the neck and throat area, tingling, vibrating space. And sensing the space inside the throat and the space around you is continuous. So that living, vibrating space at the throat is like a radiant sun, again, vibrating outward, extending outward. A vibrating radiant sun in the mind extending outward.

at the throat, just feeling the liveliness and space that fills the body and extends outward infinitely. And then at the heart, feeling the curve of the smile there, smiling into your heart, letting it spread through the chest area. And sense the volume and the space inside your heart. Imagine that the space inside your heart and the vast space that surrounds you in all directions is continuous. And sensing the light and light. aliveness of the heart radiating outward and outward. So there's light and space and the mind radiating outward, smile through the mind,

at the throat, aliveness and space radiating out and at the heart. We're going to continue down the body, opening up the energy through the body, to smiling into the naval area. It's called the Don Tian. And sensing the space inside your belly, wakeful space, luminous space. Sensing the space inside your belly and the space that extends outside of you is continuous. So the aliveness of the belly is again a radiant sun extending outward, luminous space. And we continue down to the genitalia.

you're actually smiling into your genitals, which is an instruction you may not have been given before. But let your awareness inhabit that part of your body. So you feel the aliveness and the space that's there. And sensing the space inside you and the space around you is continuous. So you can feel the radiance and aliveness, extending outward,

and then down to the very base of the spine, This is the chakra that connects us with the elements in the most basic way. Again, feeling the space at the base of the spine, the aliveness in space. It's the paranium is the physical spot. Feeling the space around you and inside you is continuous so that you can sense the aliveness radiating outward and then widening the attention to feel the inner space that fills your body, this awake luminous space. As you breathe in, feel it coming even more alive.

And as you breathe out, sense the expansiveness that you're connecting with space everywhere. Breathing in, contacting the aliveness that fills you, breathing out. Sensing that continuous open space, vast and endless. Breathing in, contacting this vibrating aliveness that's right here. Breathing out sends a dissolving outward so that you're inhabiting and becoming vast, endless space. You continue with the breathing in this way, that the in-breath you contact the aliveness, the out-breath, the space, the inner and outer space that's continuous and endless.

You might sense with the in-breath that you're opening without resistance to this essence of liveliness of life. And with the out-breath, you're letting go without resistance, you're surrendering into the vast, empty openness of space, dissolving. Sometimes with the breath, the natural image arises. For some, it's breathing in and feeling the wave, the form, the particularness of the moment and breathing out and sensing the ocean, the vastness and openness. It's from this place of presence with aliveness and space that we can begin to bring a healing attention to the

places that need it. So you might sense as you breathe in if there's any part of your body or emotional body, your mind, that you might sense as you breathe in if there's any part of your body, that needs compassionate presence right now. It may be that you breathe in and sense a place of tenderness or vulnerability. It may be that some part of your life comes to mind, some situation that your psyche knows needs a healing attention. Take your time a sense where you want to explore something that's difficult in your own life. life, your body, your heart, life circumstances, something that brings up perhaps sadness, or grief, or anger, or fear, shame, and allow your attention to go to what's most difficult

about this situation or experience. So it's with courage that you go right to where you're most afraid of what's going to happen, or most feeling like you don't want to touch something. And with the in-breath, it's to touch the experience directly. It's a willingness with the in-breath to contact right where you're feeling, confusion, fear, sorrow. If it helps to place your hand on your heart as a way of offering presence to what's going on, that can deepen the experience for some people, breathing into where there's difficulty, contacting the expression of aliveness that's there, the tightness, the tension, the ache, the churning. And with the out breath, sense a letting go into space, sense a reconnecting with something

larger. So you're staying in touch with the vulnerability. you're staying in touch with the wave but you're remembering the ocean with the out-breath. You might even imagine it like that, that you're breathing in and feeling the wave, the shape of the pain. And with the out-breath it's still there, but it's part of something vast and tender. You can deepen that sense of the tenderness by offering a message to the place that's hurting with the out breath.

Something, some wish for healing, for well-being. One that I often like to share is the words, I'm sorry and I love you. I'm sorry and I love you. So you breathe in and feel what's there. And then let it go into that ocean of tenderness. I'm sorry and I love you. You might sense what message is most needed.

and offer whatever you intuit will be something that soothes and comforts and heals. You might find it's difficult to get in touch with anything specific, and that's fine. Just let the in-breath contact the life that's most predominant and an out-breath surrendering that wave into ocean-ness. Just let go. See if you notice as you breathe in and contact what's there and you breathe out and let go,

that there's more and more of a sense of resting in a space of tender presence. These are the words of Rumi. He says, be ground, be crumbled, so wild flowers will come up where you are. You've been stony for too many years. Try something different. Surrender.

We continue this practice of Tunglin by bringing to mind other people who are struggling with just what we're struggling with, with the same disappointment or feeling of rejection, self-judgment, fear, anger, longing, passion. So maybe that you bring to mind a few people you know or one person, or if there's nobody in particular that comes to mind, just those that you know probably are just the unknown number that are like you, human, and experience this particular challenging energy. So breathe in for all of us now.

Breathe in as if you could, without resistance, let in the suffering, let your being contact this human suffering for all of us. And breathe out in the same way, surrender completely. into the spaciousness that's within and around us, this tender, vast, edgeless heart of compassion. And Zen nun says, I meet my life with my whole body. Can you meet the suffering, with human suffering, your own and others like you,

with the whole body's presence, receiving, letting it in, and letting it move through you, and beyond into vast presence. Let it be held by something larger. And you might begin to notice whether you're breathing in or out, there is a timeless, awake, tender presence, receiving and letting go.

So we continue the practice and at this time in the retreat, bring to mind someone who's, you know can use your healing energy right now. Someone in your life who's struggling, someone you care about. And as you bring that person to mind, just imagine that he or she's right here with you. So you can see what his or her eyes look like and sense her presence or his presence. And sense the life circumstances that you know are difficult. So there's a little bit of the story there, the disappointment, the feeling of rejection, of doubt, of fear, of loss. Thoreau says the great miracles to look through another's eyes for even a second. See if you can

really go inside that being's perspective and imagine what is it really like for him or her right now. What does the world look like? What does it feel like to be? in this body, having this happen. What does this being's heart feel like? And as you get a sense of the loneliness or fear, hurt, again, begin that breathing in, letting yourself purposefully opening without any resistance to feel the force of that, the pain. And breathing out, let it go into something larger.

It's like a sacrament, you're receiving your hands cupped, letting yourself really touch what's here, but then offering your hands upheld like a bow and an offering into sacred presence, into the vastness that's here. Let it go. Sense what prayer, what wish resonates right now to offer to this being so that with the out-breath, you can add that, that tender quality of heart with your prayer. hear it as a mental whisper. I'm sorry and I love you. Or as Ticknuthan says,

Darling, I care about this suffering. Widening the practice of Tonglin now to include all those that might be suffering like this person. So you're breathing in for all of us now who might be struggling with the same fear or hurt, shame or discouragement. Breathing in and letting me.

yourself, contact and receive, and be touched by suffering. Breathing out, and as much and vast as that suffering is, so that much vaster is the space that can hold it. Then gently let go of any ideas or images of others, and let your entire experience be just what you're feeling right here in this body, this heart, become aware of heart space, as we did earlier, sensing the aliveness and space that's right here inside you in the heart area. Now can you imagine that this inner space and the vastness of outer space are continuous, that this heart space is boundless, radiant and boundless. Can you imagine that every person in this room, the heart of every being here, is this same heart space, open, tender, boundless, that what we are is a field,

a field of heart space, luminous, edgeless, awake, that these lives appear and dissolve in this vastness. You imagine realizing this vast field of heart space as your deepest nature, wakeful luminosity. Imagine moving through the rest of the day and the future. And that whoever you encounter, including your own experiences, belong in this heart space, are held in this heart space, or healed in this heart space.