Tara Brach - 2015-02-11 - Meditation - Coming Back to the Breath

Episode Date: February 14, 2015

2015-02-11 - Meditation - Coming Back to the Breath

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist, and author. Letting this be a conscious pause, bring your presence and attention to what's right here, and invite you to bring a listening attention to the heart. And sometimes we haven't really visited or connected with our heart in hours or days or sometimes longer. So just check in and sense the... the mood or emotion, the felt sense in the heart area. With a deepening listening, you might sense what your purest intention is for being here tonight. So you're listening into what really matters to you, what your heart cares about.

One of the most direct portals into presence is to awaken a relaxed awareness of the body. So we'll just scan through the body and take some moments to relax any areas that feel obviously tight or tense. You might notice the area around the brow, the eyes. Just soften there. Let the brow be smooth. Relaxing the jaw.

Relaxing the tongue right down to the root of the tongue. Just sense what happens when you let the tongue just rest in the lower palate. slight smile at the mouth, bringing the awareness inside the shoulders, and sensing if there's any tangles or tightness that might want to naturally loosen, soften there, letting the hands rest in a very easy, effortless way, softening the hands, feeling the sensations and aliveness inside the hands, sensing an openness in the chest, feeling the chest. Feeling the chest, from the inside out, the heart area.

Spilling the life that's there, scanning down and loosening the belly, softening the belly. See if you can let this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath, and now this one, and again, relaxing deep into the torso, and right down the legs,

and if you can let go of any tightness or holding, feeling the feet from the inside out, tingling or vibrating that's there, and widening the lens to feel this whole body simultaneously. Sensing the body is a field of sensation, noticing within that field of sensation the particular stream of the breath, very receptive just sensing the movement of the breath as if you're listening to and feeling the breath, wherever it's most easy to detect. For some, it may be the sensations in the nostrils, feeling of flow there, a swirl, perhaps cooler when it comes in, warmer when it goes out. And for others it might be the movement at the chest, the rising and falling, perhaps expanding

and settling at the abdomen. Some might find that they're feeling the whole body breathing and opening with the in-breath and settling with the out-breath. Letting your attention rest with the breath wherever it's most prominent for you, most distinct, sensing how much you can actually relax with the experience of the breath,

feeling the breath of your whole awareness, moment to moment. So there's a sense of both relaxing, resting in the breath, and also an interest in what it actually feels like as a play of sensation. At some point you'll notice that the mind's drifted. Just to really appreciate the moments of noticing as moments of awakening, when you realize that you've been off in the future or the past, just to pause and take a moment to reopen the senses, listening to the sounds that are actually right here,

rather than the voice in your mind, reopening and re-relaxing in the body, so you can feel the aliveness that's right here, relaxing your heart, opening to whatever inner weather or whatever mood might be here, and without rushing, and gently relaxing back into the presence with the movement of the breath, letting the breath be a kind of home base to continue collecting your attention, letting the breath be the

place that allows you to know you're right here, moment to moment, sense if it's possible to relax just a little bit more, resting the attention in this life. breath, very intimate, close in attention, perhaps noticing the beginning of the breath, the ending of the breath. There's a pause between breaths. It's natural for the mind to leave presence again and again. And each time we notice it's an opportunity to plant a seed of kindness, acceptance, as we gently re-arrive again. So, right? Rather than judging, if you feel the mind is scattered, let every reawakening deepen that sense of friendliness, patience, kindness, and gently reconnect again, landing softly on this next

in-breath or out-breath, rising breath or falling breath, appreciating that you're here again for these last few moments bringing your whole heart and mind to rest in the life breath. Moment to moment.