Tara Brach - 2015-01-14 - Meditation: Relaxing Back and Letting Life Be As It Is

Episode Date: January 17, 2015

2015-01-14 - Meditation: Relaxing Back and Letting Life Be As It Is

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist, and author. The physical posture is one that can support the inner qualities of being alert, being awake, and also at ease. So see if you can sit upright without being stiff or tense. Take a moment to relax whatever areas of the body naturally. You can do it. some letting go in, bringing your attention gently to the heart area. You might notice the state of your heart right now, whatever mood is here. There's a certain emotional tenor. Maybe you'll sense a bit what you carried in with you tonight, whether there's an openness,

an excitement, a sadness, a fear, maybe disconnection. maybe rawness or tenderness. And as you listen, you might notice it's maybe the first time today or recently you intentionally listened into your own heart. As you listen, sense what it is that feels most important to you. What's your intention? And as you bring your presence to that,

sense where you feel most sincere. Like, what's the most sincere intention, the deepest longing, what really matters to you? One of the most powerful entries into presence is through the body, you're waking up and relaxing in the body. And one way to start that is to feel the area of the eyes and let the eyes soften. You might imagine and sense a smile spreading through the eyes. the corners of the eyes lifted up a bit. Let the brow be smooth.

Feeling the inside of the mouth, the jaw unhinged. You might have a smile at the lips, a very slight smile. Smile on the inside of the mouth. It sends a message to the nervous system to relax some of the fight, flight, freeze kind of activation. To be more at ease. A slight smile. And you might relax at the root of the tongue.

And just feel the sensations and aliveness in the mouth. The eyes are smiling. Soft. Mouth, a slight smile there. And you might sense the throat filling the neck area. You can even imagine the curve of a smile there. And sense the volume of the neck, the aliveness. inside the neck. And then again with that image of a smile, let it spread through the

heart and chest area. It's not to cover over anything but really to create space for what's here. And see if you can visualize and feel that smile spreading through the heart. And then notice from the inside out the aliveness, the sensation, felt sense in the heart area. And imagine and sense the space of a small that openness and receptivity widening out and widening out to include the shoulders. So you can let the shoulders fall away from the neck, then relax back and down a bit. Placing the awareness inside the shoulders, feeling the sensations and aliveness that's there.

Noticing if it's possible to let whatever tightness or tension might be there, let it float in awareness. Check to make sure that your hands are or resting in a very easy and effortless way. Place the awareness inside the hands and then soften the hands a bit. Can you notice the sensations, the vibrating or tingling, the aliveness inside the hands? You might explore softening even a little more in the hands

and receiving that aliveness with even more sensitivity. Again, sensing the smile in the eyes, softening the eyes, light smile at the mouth, imagining and feeling the smile spreading through the chest. Feeling the chest very open. And you might scan down the body and just feel that area of the belly, the navel area, sometimes the scarves the don't tan. And let this next breath be received in a softening belly.

This breath, and now this one, And again, feeling the sensations of aliveness deep in the torso, letting the awareness fill the pelvic region, aware of the sensations and aliveness, the hips, the buttocks, genitals, continue scanning down the body, feeling the legs, from the inside out, right down into the feet, perhaps feeling the places of pressure,

warmth contact, where the feet touch the floor, feeling the feet from the inside out, the tingling and vibrating there, and widening the lens of awareness now to include the whole body simultaneously. It's letting this be like a field of sensation. Notice everything moving, changing, unfolding, vibrating, tingling. Notice what happens when you fully let it be, not controlling anything. sensing the space that everything's happening in. You might even sense inside sensation the space, the interior space that it's arising out

of. You can rest as that continuous space, the interior space, the space around you. Continuous space. Build with the light of awareness, including sounds, noticing how sounds arise and disappear in this open, continuous space of awareness. With great receptivity, you can notice how the movement of the breath, the inflow and outflow of the breath, can be felt by awareness.

Resting as awareness, you can have the breath in the foreground, if that helps to steady the mind, or simply notice the changing, play of phenomena, sounds and sensations, relaxing and letting be moment after moment. And if something difficult arises that brings up a reaction, some unpleasant sensation or emotion, just let your intention be to be very gentle and kind, noticing the weather system, the inner weather system that's arising regarding it with a kind of tenderness just letting it come, letting it go.

And before too long you'll notice that the mind has left the openness and immediacy of presence and gone into a kind of virtual reality of thoughts. That's just the way the mind works. It contracts away from that openness. So the practice is simply to notice that. You can even note it thinking, thinking. Maybe it's worrying or planning, just to name it, if that's helpful. But mostly relax open again, again listening, the sounds that are right here.

You can re-relax if contractions have arisen in the body to soften the shoulders, softening the hands, loosening and softening the belly. So you can begin to feel from the inside out the aliveness and movement of sensation. listening to and feeling the whole moment, sensing the space that everything is arising and passing in, relaxing back, letting life come and go, letting everything be just as it is. I sense to yourself if it's possible to relax just a little bit more,

relaxing open the mind, softening and relaxing any tension in the body, relaxing back into the space of awareness, and letting life be just as it is. Closed in a similar way as opening to please soften your eyes again. I sense that curve of a smile and real receptivity as if you could allow pouring into the radiance

and light of the universe right through the brow, slight smile at the mouth, and allowing and inviting a smile to spread through the heart area, allowing a kind of pouring in or bathing of the radiance, of the universe right through your heart, and feeling that same radiance shining out from your heart. And taking a moment to offer

whatever blessing or wish you'd like to, to the life that's right here, to your own being, and offering your blessing or prayer for all beings.