Tara Brach - 2014-12-30 Meditation - The Luminous Space of Awareness (retreat)

Episode Date: January 3, 2015

2014-12-30 Meditation - The Luminous Space of Awareness (given at the 2014 IMCW New Year's retreat in Reisterstown, MD) - This meditation shifts attention from form to the formless source of all Being. Discover and rest in continuous space, filled with the light of awareness.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist, and author. In much of our meditation practice, the attention focuses on objects or the waves of experience. And in this guided practice we'll be doing this evening, we're going to be shifting a little from the foreground to the background. And we're going to do it as we, through the form of a body, scan where we'll be sensing both the aliveness that's here but also the space that's both interior and around that aliveness. As a way of beginning together, just take a few full breaths and just the invitations to breathe in and extend the in-breaths. You really fill the chest and the lungs and then a slow out breath so that you can really feel the sensations as you release the breath

and feel yourself relaxing outward. And again, inhaling deeply, filling the chest and lungs. And a slow out breath, releasing and relaxing outward. And once again, inhaling deeply, releasing the breath slowly, aware of the sensations of letting go, letting go. And just allowing the breath to resume in its natural rhythm, relaxing with the breath and sensing the quality of presence it's right here.

So letting the attention come to the area of the eyes and sense if you can feel and imagine the space between your eyes. You might first sense the aliveness, the visual and kinesthetic experience between the eyes, and then sense the space that it's coming out of, the space around it, the space between the eyes. Feeling the nasal passages

and sensing the sensations in the nasal passages. Can you imagine and feel the space inside the nose? There of the tongue. Again, see if you can feel the sensations there, relaxing, softening down to the root of the tongue. Now, can you imagine the space inside the tongue? the tongue. Can you imagine the space that's interior to the sensations, that the sensations arise out of? The space that fills the tongue in imagining and sensing you might even

imagine an atom and how much space is inside the atom, space that the neutrons and protons move around in space inside the tongue. You might feel the gums, you might feel the gums and the teeth and the sensations there. Imagine the space inside the gums and the teeth. Care of the lips, the sensations, and the liveliness in the lips. Can you imagine the space inside the lips,

the space that fills the lips? And can you now imagine the space that fills the entire mouth, tongues, gums, teeth, lips? Can you imagine the distance between the ears? These are in the form of questions and just let whatever comes up come up, the distance between the ears.

Can you imagine the distance between the point between the brows, sometimes called the third eye and the back of the neck? Again, trying to sense and imagine that distance. Can you imagine the space that fills the entire head now, inside the scalp and the skull, sensing the throat filling the neck, the sensations of aliveness there. Can you imagine the space that fills your neck,

space that's interior to those sensations, that those sensations float in, feeling the shoulders from the inside, feeling the aliveness, vibration, sensation there. Can you imagine the space inside the shoulders? If there's particular areas of tightness, sense if you can explore and discover inside the tightness, the space that's there, interior to the sensations, the space

that sensations arise out of, dance in, allowing yourself to feel the sensations in the upper arm and the lower arm. Can you feel the space that fills the arms? Can you imagine that space? Feeling the aliveness now, the sensation in your thumbs, placing your whole away. awareness in your thumbs. Can you imagine the space that fills your thumbs, feeling the sensations in the forefingers. Can you imagine the space inside the forefingers? Interior to the sensations, the space that sensations float in. And can you imagine and feel the sensations of both the thumb and the forefinger and the space between, including the bones and the flesh, allowing yourself to feel the sensations in the middle finger from the inside out. Can you imagine the space

inside the middle finger? And then the ring finger, first the felt sense, the sensations there. And then the space, can you imagine the space interior to the sensations surrounding them in the ring finger, feeling the sensations and the small fingers, the pinkies? Can you imagine the space that fills the pinkies, feeling the aliveness between the palms and the backs of the hands, the sensations there. Can you imagine the space that fills this area, interior to the sensations, surrounding the sensations? Can you feel the space that fills the whole hand, the space that fills the hands and the arms? Can you imagine the space that fills the hands, the arms, and the shoulders. Bringing the awareness inside the heart area, can you feel the aliveness there, vibrating,

pulsing, movement of sensation? There may be sense of squeezing, tightness, openness, flow, whatever it is, can you feel that in the heart area? And can you imagine the space inside the heart, the space that's inside or interior to the sensations, that sensations arise out of, Can you imagine the distance between the breastbone, the middle of the chest, and the spine in the back, the distance? Can you imagine the distance between either side of the rib cage? Can you imagine the space that fills the whole chest area? Can you imagine the distance between the navel, the belly button area, and the back of the spine? Can you imagine the distance between either side of your waist?

Can you imagine and feel the sensations inside the belly? Can you imagine the space that fills the belly? Bringing the awareness inside the pelvic region, hips, buttocks, genitals, feeling the aliveness there? Can you imagine the space that fills the pelvic region, interior to the sensations, space that all the sensations dancing, moving. Can you imagine the volume of your upper legs? Can you imagine the volume of your lower legs?

Allowing yourself to feel the aliveness and sensations in your toes. Can you imagine the space that fills your toes, feeling the sensations and aliveness in the feet? Can you imagine the space that fills the feet? Can you imagine below you and around you this earth body filled with space? Can you imagine and feel that living space, that awake space filling your body? Can you imagine the space in your body extending outward in front of you, opening outward in front of you, beyond the furthest stars.

Can you imagine the space inside your body opening out behind you, extending out beyond the furthest stars? Can you imagine the space in your body extending out to either side, opening out beyond the furthest stars? Can you imagine the space in your body extending below you outward beyond the furthest stars?

And can you imagine the space in your body extending above you beyond the furthest stars? Can you imagine the space within you and this vast, edgeless space outside as being continuous space, sensing aliveness as arising out of and dissolving into this continuous space? And can you imagine this continuous space is filled with the light of awareness? Can you imagine just being that continuous space filled with the light of awareness? Can you imagine how the mind experiences continuous space filled with the light of awareness? Can you imagine how the heart experiences continuous space filled with the light of awareness? space filled with the light of awareness.