Tara Brach - 2014-08-20 Guided Meditation - Emptiness Dancing

Episode Date: August 23, 2014

2014-08-20 Guided Meditation - Emptiness Dancing

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist, and author. Whether you're new or you've practiced meditation for years and years, there's such a value to sensing a freshness, just to start fresh in this moment and with some curiosity, sense the sitting posture. And how can this posture best support a quality of, being alert, open, relaxed, and you might make some subtle adjustments so that you're sitting in a way that's tall and upright, but not stiff. You might take a moment to sweep the attention through the body and if there's some obvious

area of tightness, holding, just to let go a little. Taking a nice, very conscious, full, deep breath now, inhaling and filling the lungs, and then a really slow out breath so that as you, let go of the breath, you can feel the sensations of letting go. Feel the sensations of the out breath. And then again, inhaling deeply, filling the chest, filling the lungs, hold for a moment and a slow out breath, letting go, letting go. One more time, let's inhale together, holding the breath for a moment, feeling a stretch across the chest and a slow out breath. letting go, letting go, letting the breath resume in its natural rhythm.

Just being aware of the quality of presence right now. So you're listening, aware of the sounds that are here. You can feel the sensations in the body, this play of aliveness. Listen to the heart. Take a moment to check in with your heart and sense that state of your heart right now. Without any judgment. Perhaps there's a numbness or disconnect, perhaps excitement, anxiety, ease, tenderness. Just to notice and allow how it is is a movement towards intimacy, listening inwardly and sensing your intention right now for being here tonight. And listen for your

deepest intention, where you feel most sincere. What is it that matters to you? What do you most want to touch your experience, realize, discover, trust? Just feeling your own sincerity, you might gently bring the palms together so that we can chant from the heart. Just a simple mantra, oom, the sound current of connectedness. And we'll chant three times. Please inhale deeply. We enter presence through this alive body, taking some moments to relax where there's tightness or tension.

It helps to soften the eyes to let the brow be smooth. You might even sense that you can smile into the eyes, sense the corners of the eyes up a bit, receptive and soft. Let the root of the tongue be relaxed, slight smile at the mouth, sends a message to the whole nervous system to release the fight-flight response to come into more ease, soft eyes, slight smile at the mouth. You might imagine, visualize and sense of smile spreading through the chest and the heart area, making room for whatever's there, allowing the shoulders to relax back and down, sense you can place your awareness inside the shoulders

and imagine and sense the kind of melting or dissolving there ice to water, water to gas. See if you can feel from the inside out the space inside the shoulders the space and the aliveness, the flow, doing the whole region of the arms from the inside out, the energy that moves inside the arms. Make sure the hands are resting in a very easy, easy and effortless way. Then softening the hands, softening, softening, and then feel from the inside

out the aliveness that's there. Inside the fingers, between the palm and the back of the hand, just the feeling of tingling and vibrating. Notice if you soften even a little more, how much more life you can receive an awareness. You might re-soften the eyes, root of the tongue relaxed, slight smile at the mouth, and let there be an openness to the chest, feeling from the inside out, the aliveness and space inside the whole chest area.

Scanning down, you might feel the navel area and just soften a bit. See if you can let this next breath be received in a softening belly. Okay, this breath, and again, dysbreath, and again. Feeling awakefulness deep into the torso, relaxing down into the whole pelvic region. Again, feeling the aliveness that's there,

letting it fully express, so you can feel the space and the movement of energy from the inside out. Where of the whole region of the legs, feeling the legs from the inside out, right down into the feet, feeling perhaps the sense of pressure or warmth of the feet contact the floor. And from the interior of the feet, energy, movement, tingling, vibrating. Now widening the lens of attention.

See if you can feel this whole body energetically, simultaneously. Just let everything happen. This whole field of sensation. sometimes described as emptiness dancing. The space inside you, the space surround you is continuous space. This play of sensation arising out of emptiness, dissolving into emptiness, aware of the sounds that are appearing and disappearing. So you're listening not just with your ears, but your whole awareness.

Sense the space that includes even the most distant sound you can detect. I'm just resting in that openness. This whole world playing through. through it, sounds, sensations, feelings, appearing and disappearing, emptiness dancing. Quite naturally the mind will go into thought forms and the world gets very solid again, the past, the future. When you notice that just to pause, relax open the senses, so you're aware of the real sounds of the moment rather than the sounds of your thoughts.

If you're aware of the sensations, the aliveness in the body, you're aware of the space that everything's happening in, relaxing back over and over again into this presence, this beingness that's right here. And for those that find the breath helpful to have in the foreground, to steady the attention, that's quite fine. Know that you're here, right in the center of now and rest. what is past and let go of what may come.

Let go of what is happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make anything happen. Relax right now and rest. Mind drifts into virtual reality, into thinking. The way back home is through the senses. Just sense what sounds you're hearing right now. to open to the sensations in the body.

Relax open your heart. Feeling this whole dance, sound and sensation. Emptiness dancing. Again, I'll read you the words of the Tibetan teacher Tulopa. Let go of what is past. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don't try to figure anything out.

Don't try to make anything happen. Relax right now and rest.