Tara Brach - 2015-01-07 - Meditation: Living Open Presence

Episode Date: January 9, 2015

2015-01-07 - Meditation: Living Open Presence

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist, and author. So we'll begin the evening with a meditation, and if this is your first time or you're newish, the first place to pay attention is to your sitting posture. So as you settle yourself, you might close your eyes and then adjust your posture so that you come sitting upright. So there's a quality of sitting tall and sitting in a way that feels centered and balanced. And the way you might sense if you're centered and balanced by leaning maybe to the left a little and to the right, forward, backwards, and then kind of come center now and feel that quality of gravity, feeling the kind of rootedness in the earth.

and that like a tree you're rising up from the earth into the sky. You might feel the top of the head as if there's a string that's pulling upward a bit so that the chin comes parallel to the ground. Let the eyes be closed softly. And begin by taking a nice full, conscious in-breath, nice deep, full in-breath, filling the lungs even a bit more than you might be used to. And then a slow out breath.

Let the breath go out slowly enough so you can feel the sensations of letting go. That's it. And then again a nice deep, full in-breath and a slow out-breath, letting go. Letting go. And one more time, inhale deeply. And with the out-breath, feel the sensations of releasing, letting go. the in-breath to occur naturally, letting the whole cycle of the breath resume in a rhythmic way, in a natural way. And just notice the quality of presence that's here. Even since the contrast

of kind of maybe where you were, and right now, a little more fully inhabiting the present moment. You might bring a gentle attention to the heart area and notice the state of your heart right now. Maybe in a physical way, whether there's tightness or a sense of openness, solidity or porous, flowing or stuck. And even if there's a mood there, without any judgment, just to detect it, just to notice, what's the mood? And if you deepen that inner listening, you can begin to inquire as to what your intention is. for coming here tonight, your intention for the evening. Listen for what feels most sincere,

what you sense your heart really longs for. The more we're remembering what matters to us, what's most important, the more we're really living from our depth. So sensing your prayer, your intention, will bring our voices together, opening as Sangha community, with the simple chant of om, this mantra of connectedness, onness. And you might bring the palms together at the heart as a way of really connecting with that

heart energy as you chant. Maybe three rounds. We begin by inhaling deeply, resting the hands again in your lap or your legs. Return your attention in a simple, way to this body posture, to this sitting here. So you're aware of the sensations of sitting. You might scan through the body and just notice if there's areas of particular tightness or tension, letting your awareness go wherever you notice tension and see if it can float or untangle a little, soften some in that awareness. There's some particular areas that you can consciously

soften. It can really help open up energy and flow in the body. One area is the region of the eyes. To soften the eyes, to let the brow be smooth. Perhaps imagine a smile spreading through the eyes, the corners of the eyes a bit up. So there's a sense of receptivity. And you You might notice a flicker of light and dark. More sensations open up in that region of the eyes. Relaxing the mouth, you might again sense a slight smile at the mouth, even in the inside of the mouth. Relaxing the tongue, and in particular the root of the tongue, letting the tongue rest in the lower palate, the jaw.

Jaw unhinged. Begin to sense the aliveness, the sensation. in the mouth. You might imagine and sense the throat filling the neck. And again, just let your awareness inhabit that area, aware of the play of sensation, knowing the shoulders to fall away from the neck some, relaxing back and down. See if you can feel the shoulders from the inside out, again, softening and opening to the play of sensation. Can you feel some movement, some flow, some tingling, some vibrating. Feeling your awareness, fill your hands.

Making sure the hands are resting in a very easy, effortless way, softening the hands, and then feeling from the inside out, if you bring a very intimate attention to the hands, perhaps you can notice again this dance of sensation, tingling and vibrating, places of pressure, pulsing, warmth, cool. Just as a cup can be filled with water, this body can be filled with awareness, waking us up to the aliveness that's here. Notice what happens when you let awareness fill the chest, when you become aware of that,

feeling the chest from the inside out, the heart, relax, attention, just noticing the experience of sensation and energy there. The awareness into the belly, the navel area. Letting this next breath be received in a softening belly, this breath. And now this one, softening, receiving, and again, softening and receiving. Letting the awareness fill the belly and noticing from the inside out, What's it like? Can you feel the movement of sensation, of energy?

You need the attention deep into the torso, letting the awareness fill the pelvic region. Again, a relaxed attention, receptive, close in, noticing the movement of energy, the aliveness that's here. Letting your awareness scan down through the legs, feeling sensations in the legs, right into the feet. placing the awareness in the feet and feeling the aliveness there. You might sense the feet rooted deep, deep into the earth. And this earth as a field of aliveness itself. Your body being fully embedded in this field of aliveness, an expression of this field of aliveness.

Feeling the earth energy pouring through you so you can feel simultaneously this whole body, is a dance of energy, widening the attention to include sound. So you're listening not just with your ears but your whole awareness. Letting this whole dance of sound and sensation, this dance of energy live through you. Can you allow this whole dance of energy to be just as it is? And sense the whole vastness of space it's happening in. Just be that wakeful openness, letting this dance of aliveness of energy move through you.

The habit of mind is to drift into thought forms. So no need to judge that, just simply when you wake up to it, when you notice, ah, drifted. Gently reconnect with what's happening right here. This dance of aliveness, of sound, of sensation. It helps steady your attention to feel the breath, the sensations of the inflow and outflow. Know that you're here, right here. Interest with friendliness just to notice where your attention is right now. Notice if there's some veils of concepts of ideas, of mental narrative that's between

you and what's right here. And if there are, then to gently relax open again, opening the attention to include sound, reopening the attention in the body by relaxing again. Maybe softening the shoulders, softening and relaxing the hands, loosening the belly a bit, perhaps taking a nice full breath again, opening to this whole place. play of sensation and sound. Also aware of the space it's happening in, this wakeful openness, resting in that, alert and relaxed. As a way of closing to bring your attention to the heart area. And again, just to feel this aliveness. If you could bring your whole awareness inside the heart, feel the sensations, the moon, the energy that's

there and sense whatever wish you'd like to offer to your heart in this moment. Whatever prayer or blessing you'd like to offer inward. And then widening the attention to include all beings, we'll offer our shared prayer to all beings as we enter this new year. all beings everywhere might realize their very essence as loving presence, that all beings might trust their essential goodness and live from that light, from that love, that all beings everywhere might be happy, might know the natural joy of being alive, that all beings might touch great and natural peace. All beings everywhere touch the

great and natural peace. And may all beings everywhere awaken and be free. Namaste.