Tara Brach - 2014-10-08 - Meditation - Loving Kindness

Episode Date: October 10, 2014

2014-10-08 - Meditation - Loving Kindness - embracing ourselves and all beings with a full and tender loving presence.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist, and author. This practice is a loving-kindness meditation. We begin by awakening the receptivity of the body to loving-kindness, bringing to mind the image of a smile, imagining a vast sky filled with the curve, the receptivity, the receptivity of a smile. Just let that smile fill the sky. And sense that your mind could merge with that sky so that your mind is filled with the openness

and receptivity of a smile. Letting a smile spread through the eyes, you might even sense the corners of the eyes lifted a bit. The brow smooth, the eyes soft. Invite a slight but real smile to the mouth. sense that the inside of the mouth can smile. And as you sense that smile, you might feel the aliveness, the sensations, through the mouth, the tongue, gums, teeth, just the aliveness.

So the eyes are smiling, the mouth. As you feel the breath at the throat, you might sense a smile spreading through the throat area. And with that, a sense of the openness and receptivity that comes with a smile. and smiling into the heart, visualizing and sensing the curve of a smile spreading through the heart and the chest area, not to cover over but to make room for what's here, sense that that smile could open up a space that includes the shoulders, allowing the shoulders to relax down a bit, back and down, just to soften through the shoulders, feeling the hands and softening the hands.

So you can feel the aliveness, the sensations, vibrating, tingling in the hands. Again, sensing the smile of the eyes, softening there, the mouth, the throat, and the heart, smiling into the heart. And then loosening some and softening the belly and visualizing and sensing a smile spreading through the belly, letting this next breath be received in a softening belly. this breath and then this one and again, sensing the curve of a smile and the openness and receptivity, relaxing deep into the torso, deep into the pelvic region. So you can feel the aliveness and space that opens up with the curve of a smile, awakening sensations inside

the legs, feeling the legs from the inside out, right down into the feet. And sensing this whole body simultaneously is a field of sensation, soft and open by the curve of a smile. It's that whole atmosphere and receptivity of a smile vibrating through you. And gently bringing the attention to rest in a simple way at the heart, awake, open, soft, and bringing to mind someone in your life, with whom you have a very loving relationship, a relationship that isn't complicated, ideally. A person, being that's just very easy to feel a sense of your mutual caring, easy for you to love. Imagine you could bring that being close in, so you can really sense what it is that brings up the sense of love.

just see the look in that person's eyes when he or she's loving you when he or she's happy or amused interested as you feel a sense of your appreciation and your love let yourself feel in a very visceral way

at the heart that smiling open heart you might mentally whisper thank you just feeling your appreciation for the loving that flows between you and offer your blessing whatever prayer most resonates, it may be simply, may you be happy. May you feel my love now.

May you be peaceful. May you be free. I'm dealing that space and energy and field of loving. Just bring your attention to your own being right now. This body, heart, mind sitting here. Just sense your appreciation for this life. for the goodness that lives through you. You might reflect on some particular expression of goodness,

your love for truth, for honesty, your love of loving, your intention to be awake, the creativity that lives through you. And as you sense the goodness, whatever form it expresses, just offer to yourself the prayer, a blessing of loving presence. May I be filled with loving presence, held in loving presence. May I accept myself just as I am? And as you offer the blessings, just imagine and sense

how that's possible. May I accept myself just as I am. May I know the natural joy of being alive. May I touch great and natural peace. I awaken and be free. Again, offering to your own being the blessings or prayers, may I be filled with loving presence, held in loving presence. See if you can imagine and feel that. Filled with loving presence, held in loving presence. May I accept myself just as I am.

I know the natural joy of being alive. May I touch natural and great deep peace. May I awaken and be free. Bringing to mine now someone who's dear to you that you'd like to offer your blessings to and let that being be close in right here. So you can sense what you love about him or her, how that person's goodness shines through their humor

their way of showing love, serving, creating, being in the world. Just letting your heart be touched. And you might whisper the person's name, may you be filled with loving presence, held in loving presence. You feel my love now. May you accept yourself just as you are, imagining and sensing how that might be for that person. May you know the natural joy of being alive.

may you touch a natural and deep peace and may you awaken and be free in these next few moments of silence letting others come into this field of loving presence just sensing whoever emerges sensing the goodness

of this being and offering whatever blessing resonates I'd like to invite you to bring to mind someone who's a bit difficult for you not in a traumatic way difficult but just difficult. It causes some reactivity. And let that person be close in right now.

See if you can see past the mask, the reactivity, the behaviors to that person's basic goodness that this person like yourself wants to love and be loved. This person wants to be free from suffering, be happy, be free. It helps you can see the person as a very young child. You might even imagine for some if there's a lot of reactivity that you feel that the person's already died and you're just sensing their being through all the conditioning, the goodness that really was there. Letting your heart be touched by that.

May you too be filled. filled with loving presence, held in loving presence. May you accept yourself just as you are. May you know the natural joy of being alive. And may you touch deep and natural peace. May your heart awaken and be free. A sensing that this heart space extends in all directions infinitely. There's edgeless, vast, inclusive.

Sensing beings that you don't know as part of this heart. Those that are in situations of war, those that have been oppressed due to race or sexual orientation or religion, those that are starving, those that are struggling with disease, sensing the species that are struggling for their existence, animals that are treated with such cruelty, sensing beings that are dying and those that are being born, sensing all creatures everywhere, and sensing this earth, our mother, is in your lap,

that all beings are in your heart. May all beings everywhere be filled with loving presence, be held in loving presence. May all being such a great and natural peace, may there be peace on earth, May there be peace on earth. May there be peace everywhere. May all beings awaken and be free.

Namaste.